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Indonesia: Communal tensions in Papua
International Crisis Group - June 16, 2008
Jakarta/Brussels – Conflict between Muslim and Christian communities in Papua could erupt unless rising tensions are effectively managed. Indonesia: Communal Tensions in Papua the latest report from the International Crisis Group, explores the factors that have led to increasing strains in Papua: continuing Muslim migration from elsewhere in Indonesia; the emergence of new, exclusivist groups in both Christian and Muslim religious communities; the lasting impact of the Maluku conflict; and the impact of developments outside Papua.
"The potential for communal conflict is high in Papua because both sides consider themselves aggrieved", says Sidney Jones, Crisis Group's Senior Adviser. "Indigenous Christians feel threatened by ongoing Muslim migration and a sense that the government is endorsing Islamic orthodoxy at the expense of non-Muslim minorities; Muslim migrants feel democracy may be leading to a tyranny of the majority, where in the long term they will face discrimination or even expulsion."
Tensions are most acute along Papua's west coast – violence was narrowly averted in Manokwari and Kaimana districts in 2007. The Manokwari drama started in 2005, when Christians mobilised to prevent an Islamic centre and mosque from being built on a site they considered holy, and intensified in 2007 when a draft of a local government ordinance on "spiritual guidance" appeared that would have discriminated against non-Christians. A new draft, much milder but still likely to face opposition from the Muslim community, appeared in May 2008.
Changes in demographics are part of the problem, but even if migration from outside Papua were to stop tomorrow, communal polarisation would probably continue because of other developments. Papua's Christians are only too well aware of attacks on churches elsewhere in Indonesia and fear what they see as "Islamisation". Muslims from outside Papua are easily mobilised to defend what they see as slights to a beleaguered community. Indigenous Papuan Muslims are divided, too, as more study Islam abroad and come home with ideas that are at odds with traditional practices. Christian pentecostals and charistmatics are gaining ground at the same time as hardline Islamic groups like Hizb ut-Tahrir, exacerbating the problem.
Government officials at all levels – central, provincial and district – should avoid support for exclusivist religious groups, and ensure that funding for all religious activities is fully transparent.
"Government officials should work with donors to identify areas of high tension, where conflict might be defused by non-religious projects that would involve cooperation across communities,", says John Virgoe, Crisis Group's South East Asia Project Director.
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The International Crisis Group (Crisis Group) is an independent, non-profit, non-governmental organisation covering some 60 crisis-affected countries and territories across four continents, working through field-based analysis and high-level advocacy to prevent and resolve deadly conflict.
Indonesia: Communal Tensions in Papua
Asia Report N0154 - 16 June 2008
Executive summary and recommendations
Indonesian Papua has seen periodic clashes between pro-independence supporters and goverment forces, but conflict between Muslim and Christian communities could also erupt unless rising tensions are effectively managed. Violence was narrowly averted in Mano-kwari and Kaimana in West Papua province in 2007, but bitterness remains on both sides. The key fac-tors are continuing Muslim migration from elsewhere in Indonesia; the emergence of new, exclusivist groups in both religious communities that have hardened the perception of the other as enemy; the lasting impact of the Maluku conflict; and the impact of developments outside Papua. National and local officials need to ensure that no discriminatory local regulations are enacted, and no activities by exclusivist religious organisations are supported by government funds.
The Manokwari drama, played out over more than two years, illustrates some of the changes. It started in 2005, when Christians mobilised to prevent an Islamic centre and mosque from being built on the place where German missionaries brought Christianity to Papua in the mid-nineteenth century. Muslim anger went beyond Papua; many Indonesian Muslims, newly conscious of the history of Muslim traders in the area, saw Islam as Papua's original religion and found the rejection of the mosque intolerable. Local church leaders, seeing the reaction, believed they needed to strengthen Manokwari's Christian identity and in 2007 drafted a regulation for the local parliament that would have infused the local goverment with Christian values and symbols and discriminated against Muslims in the process. It was never enacted but generated a furore in Muslim communities across Indonesia and increased the sense of siege on both sides. It remains to be seen how a new draft that began to be circulated in late May 2008 will be greeted.
It is not just in Manokwari, however, that the communities feel themselves under threat. Many indigenous Christians feel they are being slowly but surely swamped by Muslim migrants at a time when the central government seems to be supportive of more conservative Islamic orthodoxy, while some migrants believe they face discrimination if not expulsion in a democratic system where Christians can exercise "tyranny of the majority". The communal divide is overlain by a political one: many Christian Papuans believe autonomy has not gone nearly far enough, while many Muslim migrants see it as a disaster and are fervent supporters of centralised rule from Jakarta.
In some areas latent tensions have been kept under control by pairing a Papuan Christian district head with a non-Papuan Muslim deputy, with political and economic spoils divided accordingly. That may work in areas like Merauke, where the migrant population has already exceeded 50 per cent, but is not a solution where the majority feels itself under threat.
Where the risk of conflict is high, indigenous Papuan Muslims, largely concentrated in the Bird's Head region of north western Papua, can play a bridging role, particularly through a new organisation, Majelis Muslim Papua. This organisation is both firmly committed to universal Islamic values and deeply rooted in Papuan culture and traditions. They have a demonstrated capacity to cool communal tensions, working with their Christian counterparts. But the indigenous Muslim community is being divided, too, as more and more have opportunties to study Islam outside Papua and come home with ideas that are at odds with traditional practices. It would be in the interests of all concerned to support a network of state Islamic institutes in Papua that could produce a corps of indigenous religious scholars and reinforce the moderation long characteristic of Papuan Muslims.
Several mechanisms are available for dialogue among religious leaders in Papua, including the working group on religion of the Papuan People's Council (Maje-lis Rakyat Papua, MRP), a body set up to preserve Papuan rights and traditions, but they do not necessarily have any impact at the grassroots. More effective might be programs designed to identify com-munal hotspots and work out non-religious programs that could benefit both communities.
Recommendations:
To the Central Government:
1. Avoid supporting faith-based activities with an overtly political agenda, so as not to exacerbate existing problems, and instruct the armed forces and police to ensure that Papua-based personnel are not seen as taking communal sides.
2. Identify new approches to addressing communal tensions at the grassroots level, going beyond the often ineffectual promotion of interfaith dialogue among elites.
3. Work with the provincial governments to support the State Islamic Institute (STAIN) in Jayapura and facilitate close links with the State Islamic University (UIN) in Jakarta to ensure that Papua develops its own indigenous scholars and teachers able to interpret universal Islamic values in ways that are in harmony rather than conflict with customary traditions.
To Local Governments:
4. Ensure that government funding of or contributions to religious activities are transparent and independently audited, with amounts and recipients easily available on websites or in public documents.
5. Avoid funding any groups that preach exclusivity or enmity toward other faiths.
6. Ensure public debate on the percentage of jobs for Papuans and the impact on further in-migration of non-Papuans before agreeing to any further administrative division.
7. Reject discriminatory local regulations.
8. Work with donors to identify areas of high tension where conflict might be defused by non-religious projects involving cooperation for mutual benefit across communities.
To Donors:
9. Support conflict-resolution training for Papua-based organisations, including the Majelis Muslim Papua and the religious working group of the Papua People's Council (Majelis Rakyat Papua, MRP).
Jakarta/Brussels, 16 June 2008
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West Papua Links Indonesia News Digest Statements/press releases on West Papua