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Essay about Nationalism and Ethnic conflict

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After Suharto ended his long dictatorial reign in 1998 there was a substantial increase in religious and ethnic conflict in Indonesia. Author Jacques Bertrand claims religious and ethnic conflict defined Indonesia’s national model. This resulted in three critical junctures during Suharto’s retirement of his sovereign rule. The three critical junctures defined Indonesia’s “terms of citizenship, and give meaning to the structure and procedures of an institution” (Bertrand, 20). When Suharto left as dictator, major political and social changes consumed Indonesia, which threatened the Indonesian realm. The people of Indonesia struggled to define their sense of nationalism. The national model of Indonesia was a set of standards on the nature …show more content…

Ethnic violence in the late 1990s broke out due to the sudden emergence of a political space to contest this national model. Bertrand argues that complete legitimacy was not achieved because of the emergence of a narrow ethnic conception of the nation. Two factors of this were the strife in Kalimantan, and another in the role of Islam in Indonesia's political institutions. This began to threaten Christian minorities in Indonesia. These conflicts between Muslims and Christians situate the violence in Maluku in relation to the evolving role of Islam in Indonesia’s national model. Indonesia complained of their lack of autonomy In regions such as Maluku or other areas of Eastern Indonesia, “a low capacity for generating local revenue restricted the ability to adapt projects and development to local conditions” (Bertrand, 198).). The scanty amounts of funds were unable to support the poor and other problems. Bertrand states, “Faced with the New Order regime introduced mild reforms that were designed to address some technical issues while avoiding political decentralization” (Bertrand, 198). In 1995 the Minister of Home Affairs selected 26 districts were used to evaluate the measures designed to increase autonomy. They noticed an increase in Indonesia budget, but they still failed to support the poor, which resulted in

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