Communal Conflicts in West Kalimantan: The Urgency of Multicultural Education - Vol. 21 No. 1 - Study focus

Oct 15, 2026

Communal conflicts between ethnic groups in West Kalimantan continue to leave post-conflict residues, including stigma and persistent negative stereotyping. In areas such as Sambas, Sanggau Ledo, and Pontianak, reconciliation dialogue forums often resolve tensions only on the surface, while stereotyping remains a core problem. The study argues that education plays a strategic role in building multicultural awareness and correcting stereotypes, making multicultural education a relevant school development focus. Qualitative data were collected through observations, interviews, and documentation from post-conflict communities, analyzed interactively using reduction, presentation, and verification.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages16

Reading Time40 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Communal conflicts in West Kalimantan and post-conflict residues

Dialogue forums and unresolved stereotyping

Factors shaping negative stereotypes

Role of education and multicultural education focus

DINAMIKA ILMU Vol. 21 No. 1, 2021 P-ISSN: 1411-3031; E-ISSN: 2442-9651 doi: [http://doi.org/10.21093/di.v21i1.2934](http://doi.org/10.21093/di.v21i1.2934) Communal Conflicts in West Kalimantan: The Urgency of Multicultural Education Syamsul Kurniawan State Islamic Institute of Pontianak, Indonesia [e-mail: syamsulkurniawan001@gmail.com](e-mail: syamsulkurniawan001@gmail.com) Muhammad Miftah State Islamic Institute of Kudus, Indonesia [e-mail: muhammadmiftah@stainkudus.ac.id](e-mail: muhammadmiftah@stainkudus.ac.id) Abstract Communal conflicts between ethnic groups in West Kalimantan still leave a postconflict residue which is problematic to this day. For example, in Sambas, although at present it can be said that the relationship between ethnic Sambas Melayu and Madurese outside Sambas seems to be subsiding, the research findings showed that it is not the real fact in Sambas. Even in the community, there is still a stigma about Sambas as an unsafe area for the Madurese ethnicity. This social fact shows that the efforts of a dialogue forum to reconcile the two ethnicities only succeeded in resolving conflicts on the surface, but it failed to resolve the core of the conflict, namely stereotyping. Although it is not as complicated as in Sambas, inter-ethnic stereotypes are also a problem for two other post-conflict areas, namely Sanggau Ledo and Pontianak. Because education is considered to have a strategic role in building multicultural awareness and correcting stereotypes, in this context, multicultural education is considered relevant to be developed in schools in West Kalimantan. It is the focus of this study. This study is the result of qualitative research, whose data is obtained by the authors from observations, interviews, and documentation. The informants in this study were people in post-conflict areas in West Kalimantan, namely in Sanggau Ledo, Sambas, and Pontianak with ethnic backgrounds of Malay, Dayak, and Madura. In this study, the authors used an interactive data analysis method which included data reduction, data presentation, and conclusion/verification proposed by Miles, Huberman, and Saldaña. Keywords: communal conflicts, multicultural education, stereotyping Dinamika Ilmu, Volume 21(1), 2021 55 Syamsul Kurniawan and Muhammad Miftah A. Introduction West Kalimantan Province often conflicts not only because of its multicultural conditions from an ethnic perspective but also because this area has experienced ‘bloody’ethnic conflicts. As happened in the late 1990s and early 2001 (De Jonge & Nooteboom, 2006; Kivimäki, 2012; Tanasaldy, 2009) . In inter-ethnic conflicts that occurred in West Kalimantan, for example, in Sanggau Ledo (1996-1997), Sambas (1999), and Pontianak (2001), besides causing thousands of casualties, it also damaged hundreds of houses and public facilities and many refugees (Cahyono et al., 2008; De Jonge & Nooteboom, 2006; Klinken, 2007, 2008; Nordholt & Klinken, 2014) . The inter-ethnic conflicts that occurred in West Kalimantan in the late 1990s to early 2001 have left scars on some of the people of West Kalimantan who are still living in the shadows of past conflicts. For example, the Sambas community, although the relationship between tribes that fought in Sambas in 1999 was more eased, the aftermath of the conflict was still felt, and the development of negative stereotypes among the Sambas Malay people towards one ethnic group, namely Madura. It can be said that this is the “sandstone” for the Madurese ethnic group to return from their refuge and live side by side in the Sambas Malay community. Even today, there is a perception about the stigma of Sambas as an unsafe area for one of these ethnic groups (Cahyono et al., 2008) . The facts that the authors found showed that these various dialogue forums to facilitate inter-ethnic peace are not effective. The dialogue forums that have been done have only succeeded in resolving conflicts on the surface,

FAQs

What is the study’s main focus regarding multicultural education?

Developing multicultural education in West Kalimantan schools to build multicultural awareness and correct stereotypes.

Oct 15, 2026

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