According to an organisation called the “Fund for Peace” Indonesia ranks 32nd worst in the list of failed states in the world.

Their list fundforpeace is comprised of 148 countries and is headed by basket-case of the year, Sudan. The table for last year fundforpeace put Indonesia at 47th worst out of only 75 countries ranked so this year’s result constitutes a precipitous decline it would seem. What has happened?

The Fund ranks countries using

an internationally recognized methodology, the Conflict Assessment System Tool (CAST). It assesses violent internal conflicts and measures the impact of mitigating strategies.

One supposes “mitigating strategies” is pompous think-tank talk for attempts to deal with the conflicts.

The main areas where Indonesia has failed miserably, in that it scored ‘8’ or higher out of 10, according to the Fund, are:

• Massive Movement of Refugees
• Chronic and Sustained Human Flight
• Uneven Economic Development along Group Lines

As Sarapan Ekonomi has pointed out, the rankings put Indonesia on the same level as Sri Lanka, and only slightly better than Iraq, in terms of “Massive Movement of Refugees” (18th worst), which is:

Forced uprooting of large communities as a result of random or targeted violence and/or repression, causing food shortages, disease, lack of clean water, land competition, and turmoil that can spiral into larger humanitarian and security problems, both within and between countries.

In terms of “Chronic and Sustained Human Flight”, by which they mean “brain drain”, Indonesia ranks an abysmal 11th, keeping company with Nigeria and Rwanda in the table of countries that smart people are desperate to get out of.

These are rankings for 2006 remember so, in respect of the refugee problem, they must be based on perceived events in Papua since other problem areas, like Maluku, Aceh, and central Sulawesi, have largely calmed down. Information on Papua is naturally hard to come by but is there massive forced uprooting?

June 20th 2007. The 2007 list has Indonesia 55th worst, but there are now 177 countries listed. The overall score was 84.4 out of 100, last year was 89.2 and 2005 was 87, so there is some small improvement. fundforpeace This time Indonesia scored an ‘8’ only in the “Uneven Economic Development along Group Lines” category, with the other scores all being in the 6-7 range.

Continued at Weak and Failed States.