State of Disorder: Privatised Violence and the State in Indonesia.

• Date: 01 August 2022
• Author: Jahroni, Jajang

State of Disorder: Privatised Violence and the State in Indonesia. By Abdil Mughus Mudhoffir. Singapore: Springer/Palgrave Macmillan, 2022. Hardcover: 276pp.

There have been numerous studies examining Indonesia in the aftermath of the fall of President Suharto's New Order. The conventional wisdom was that the country would quickly transition to a full and peaceful democracy following the collapse of Suharto's three-decade authoritarian regime. Unfortunately, this has not been the case. In the years that followed, the violence that was commonplace during the Suharto era has endured. For example, ethnic violence between the Dayaks and the Madurese broke out in West Kalimantan and religious conflict between Christian and Muslim groups erupted in Moluccas Islands.

One of the explanations that scholars have utilized to account for violence in states undergoing democratic transition is the fragmentation of authority. For example, in Latin American states such as Mexico and Colombia, the military, police and politicians work hand in hand with crime syndicates and landowners to control and distribute resources. Contestations over the control of resources between rival...