Managing Ethnic Relations in post-crisis Malaysia and Indonesia: Lessons from New Economic Policy

This paper addresses some of the problems of managing ethnic relations. in Southeast Asia subsequent to the financial crisis of July 1997 by comparing the experiences of Indonesia and Malaysia. In Indonesia, as well known, the financial crisis led to economic collapse which, in turn, catalyzed the Popular'' Reform'' Movement, Reformasi, which ended President Raden Suharto's three decade ''New Order'' regime. Indonesia's economic and political implosion brought in its wake several eruptions of ethnic violence-against the Chinese population, between Christina and Muslim communities in Maluku, and between Daysks and Madurese in Kalimantan. Instances of ethnic animosity were not unknown during the New order period, and a few of the more recent outbreaks had occurred just before the crisis in Suharto's regime. Yet the major post-crisis outbreaks of ethnic violence surpassed previous ones in various ways. The scale of violence was much larger and covered many different geographical locations. They have been extremely complex in their causes, fashions and antagonists. And, in some cases, their security ramifications have been so severe that, together with the secessionist battles in Aceh and Irian Jaya, these outbreaks have sometimes been seen as signs that the Indonesian state may disintegrate. In contrast, and barring low-level controversies over certain issues, political contention in post crisis Malaysia has been generally free of ethnic tension, and particularly Malay-Chinese tension, which had so overshadowed past politics. Instead, a novel politics of dissent, also popularly called reformasi (after the Indonesian experience), has emerged around an oppostion coalition of parties and groupings that are remarkable for their diverse ethnic partnership, religious affiliations and ideological commitments. It is not yet certain how successful this movement will be, but it has already tried some bold experiments in alternative forms of interethnic cooperation.