Jakarta/Brussels, 18 July 2003: In January 2001 Indonesia launched a radical decentralisation program, devolving a wide array of powers to districts and cities. A new report published today by the International Crisis Group examines the impact of this policy on conflict prevention and management through a case study of Luwu in South Sulawesi.
“The results in Luwu have been positive so far”, said Sidney Jones, ICG’s Indonesia Project Director, “but it remains an open question whether they are sustainable and whether the success is transferable to other parts of the country”.
Indonesia: Managing Decentralisation and Conflict in South Sulawesi*, says Luwu makes a useful case study because it was a conflict-prone area that underwent not just decentralisation but also administrative division. Between 1999 and 2003, what had been one district became four, and these four districts now aspire to form a new province.
The report concludes that the division appears to have led to better conflict management, largely because it allowed one particularly effective district head to emerge. But the solutions he identified, including more police, better land management, and greater autonomy for village-level government may be relevant for other parts of Indonesia.
Luwu also, however, has some specific characteristics that may have helped conflict prevention. Ethnic identity in Luwu is too fragmented to be a significant basis for mobilisation by unscrupulous local politicians. Potential competition over resources, which might have led to tensions among the newly created districts, was largely forestalled by a common desire among the Luwu elite to break away from the province of South Sulawesi.
ICG found that effective management of land disputes is critical to conflict prevention, and urges the government to keep authority to manage and administer land affairs at the district level. Strengthening the criminal justice system is also key to establishing and maintaining peace between parties to a conflict. “Peacemaking through traditional ceremonies is not enough”, said Ms Jones. “Unless people are confident of the criminal justice system they will continue to be tempted to take the law into their own hands”.
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*Read the ICG report in full on our website: http://www.crisisweb.org/
The International Crisis Group (ICG) is an independent,
non-profit, multinational organisation, with over 90 staff members on five
continents, working through field-based analysis and high-level advocacy to
prevent and resolve deadly conflict.
