A Matter of Religion? Really?

ISS-students blogging from the field

Tags: Indonesia , Civil Society Building

ISS-student Rima Irmayani is currently blogging from Indonesia about her fieldwork that she’s undertaking for her MA research on understanding community participation in post-conflict reconstruction programmes. (see profile here). As farming is one of the main livelihood strategies in Poso-Central Sulawesi local government and NGOs put considerable effort into helping farmers to rebuild their agricultural practices after the violence ended in 2001. By interviewing the farmers in Sintuwulemba village, Rima found that their religious identity plays an important role in participatory development processes. But how, why and for whome exactly does religious identity play a role?

By Rima Irmayani

 

Before violence broke out in 1998 farmers organized themselves based on the geographical proximity of their land, because they could help each other in land clearing, use each others tools, and share information on what practices work best for their land. Today, after the violent outbreak, external assistance came to the villages. When they asked the farmers to form groups, community leaders divided their farmers over religious identity, as Moslems and Christians. As it was something that automatically came to mind in deciding who can participate and become a member of a farmer group. How did this happen?

 

In Sulawesi the causes of the killings and attacks are multi-dimensional, and relate to economics, politics and social conditions in the area. But in popular and academic literature the violence is often explained and described as ‘communal’ or ‘religious’ violence, as the violence involved two religious communities (Moslem and Christian). This somewhat dominant discourse influences the design of post-conflict programming by local governments, international NGOS and donors that collaborate with local organizations in the district to bring divided communities together.

 

In villages like Sintuwulemba, where there is a Moslem and Christian community, having a mixed farmer group with both Moslems and Christians is one of the criteria for getting development assistance from NGOs and the local government. The activities are designed in a way that people from both religious communities can join in and work together. Thus the community leaders, who usually choose the community members that can participate in the farmer groups, selected the members on the basis of their religious identity.

 

I wondered if it would also be the choice of the people, to compose groups of mixed religious identity for their farmer practices? Would it not be very unpractical for them, to not work with your next door neighbour? Or even uncomfortable, to be forced to work with people you might have previously fought with?

 

When I asked the community members which characteristics should make them to be chosen to participate and receive assistance, they rarely answered: my religious identity. One of the respondents in Sintuwulemba said that the religious identity has become an important indicator (too important?) for the people to receive assistance in farmers groups. But they mentioned these would not be their own criteria: “Other criteria are forgotten. What about the poor widow with many kids?”.

 

The above insights do not only give me an answer as a researcher, to one of my sub-research questions on the participation of local communities in post-conflict programming. It also makes me think as a practitioner who worked for post-conflict programmes, about giving meaning to being Moslem or Christian for participation in development activities. I mean, for whome is it important, who does it serve? For meeting the quotas on the indicator ‘religious identity’ in logical frameworks, or for the people who were affected by ‘religious’ violence?