Conflict Management in Indonesia – An Analysis of the Conflicts in ...

Box 2: Ten points of the Malino I
Declaration
1. To cease all forms of conflict and dispute.
2. To obey efforts to enforce the law and support legal
sanctions against lawbreakers.
3. To ask the state apparatus to act firmly and justly to
maintain security.
4. In order to create a condition of peace, to reject the
imposition of a state of emergency and any foreign
party involvement.
5. To dismiss slander and dishonesty against all parties
and enforce an attitude of mutual respect, and to
forgive for the sake of peaceful coexistence.
6. Poso is an integral part of Indonesia. Therefore every
citizen has the right to live, come and stay peacefully
and respect local customs.
7. All rights and belongings have to be returned to their
lawful owners as they were before the conflict began.
8. To return all displaced people to their respective homes.
9. Together with the Government, to carry out complete
rehabilitation of the economic infrastructure.
10. To carry out respective religious laws according to a
principle of mutual respect and to abide by all the
agreed upon rules, in the form of laws, government
regulations, or other regulations.
Following the Malino I Declaration, the leaders
who signed it created Malino working groups (Pokja
Malino) at the province, district, and sub-district
levels. At a central government level, the Coordinating
Ministry for People’s Welfare (Menko Kesra)
and the Coordinating Ministry for Political and
Security Affairs (Menko Polkam) established a committee
to implement Malino I (Komisi Pemantauan
Pelaksanaan Deklarasi Malino). The mandate of
Pokja Malino was decided upon by the provincial
government without consultation with district
heads or community representatives. It had the
limited task of disseminating the terms of Malino I
through spreading leaflets and outreach at places of
worship. Ideally the Pokja Malino should have been
given a broader mandate that could have included
reconciliation initiatives such as facilitating the
return of internally displaced persons (IDPs).
The public lacked clear information about the
mandate and budget allocated to Pokja Malino and
thought it had more autonomy than it did, when in
fact its budget was controlled by the provincial
government. Funds for Malino I were reportedly
allocated by the provincial government to the
security forces and various government agencies.
One academic who was a signatory to the Malino
declaration recalled that:
“The people of Poso had a bad image of Pokja
Malino because people thought that it had a
lot of money but there was no visible implementation
. . . people thought that the money
disappeared as a result of corruption. However,
the fact was that most of the budget was not
allocated to Pokja Malino. It was used for
security forces and several departments. Pokja
Malino did not have enough money. Actually,
Pokja Malino should have been an independent
organisation. We wanted it to be separate from
the government.” 179
Other central government initiatives on conflict
management in Poso included Presidential Instruction
(Inpres) No.14/2005 which emphasised a coordinated
and comprehensive approach to resolving
the conflict in Poso by implementing the Malino
declaration. 180 Inpres No.7/2008 resolved to accelerate
development activities in Central Sulawesi. 181
However the Inpres did not create a separate budget
and instead attempted to redirect pre-existing
funds. Nor was the district government assigned
any specific responsibilities related to its implementation
although district officials claim they were
best placed to know what the needs were:
“We do not know the exact total of the Inpres 14
budget. All the budgets should have come to the
Poso district for implementation of reconstruction
activities. However, the central government
channelled aid through the provincial government.
Not all of it arrived in Poso district. Money
went to each department from the province
and we in Poso district could not control
anything. . . We know the problems because
we are Poso people however we could not
decide how to use the money.” 182
179 Interview by Johari Efendi & Akiko Horiba with a lecturer from the
Tentena Christian University who was a representative of the
Christian community in the Malino talks, Poso, 12 March 2010.
180 Langkah-Langkah Komprehensif Penanganan Peramasalahan Poso,
Presidential Instruction, published on 12 October 2005.
181 Presidential Instruction No. 7/2008, 23 August 2008.
182 Interview by Johari Efendi & Akiko Horiba with the vice bupati of
Poso, Poso, 10 March 2010.
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Conflict Management in Indonesia