Perception and violence in Poso
Jakarta Post, Opinion and Editorial - June 02, 2006
Hana Panggabean, Jakarta

Individual perception plays a significant role in viewing social phenomenon. An awareness of this factor is particularly crucial since it leads to an individual understanding of reality. In the case of the Poso riot in May 2000, such awareness, alongside a factual understanding of the conflict itself, brings about a deeper understanding of the phenomenon.
This article delivers a psychological perspective on how human perception has been constructed in the Poso conflict whereby particular acts or situations are presented in such a way that they generate meaningful relationships and a novel reality. This will help develop our awareness with regard to the process of our own mind while observing the Poso riot.
Data for this article is gathered from a chronology of events as recorded by Fabianus Tibo's lawyers. Such systematic data on the case is hard to find, and I find that the data used is sufficient to illustrate how reality is constructed.
To start with, I recall the involvement of Fabianus Tibo, Marinus Riwu, and Dominggus da Silva at the critical point of the riot in Maengko Baru. The three men are now on the death row after the Supreme Court rejected their second request for a case review. Judges of the Palu District Court handed down the death sentence without considering statements from witnesses, who were present during that particular incident but have never put on the stand.
The article reviews circumstances leading to the alleged involvement of the three convicts in the scene. Accordingly, links and associations created among these antecedents, some of which may have been intentionally created, will illustrate the dynamics of reality construction which eventually becomes the basis for the presumed involvement of Tibo, Riwu and da Silva. At this point the article brings the readers to reflect on and observe their own thinking process while looking at the facts in the conflict.
As the Poso case has become a national issue, the term "readers" refer to a broader scope of viewers, ranging from eyewitnesses with first-hand experiences to a distant audience. A bias in judgment and belief in fallacies will have different implications for each of the groups, starting from rumors to public opinion and legal rulings. By undergoing self-reflection, readers are encouraged to realize the nature and implications of their underlying beliefs and understanding, as well as conclusions instead of accepting them as given.
Furthermore, the article describes the process of meaningful subjective reality development of a given social environment. This reality is attained by organizing information and arranging it into meaningful categories (Christian-Muslim, actor-victim, etc.). The categories are needed to manage the complex overload of information coming from social surroundings.
People apply certain rules in organizing information. One of the most common rules is to fill in the informational gap to obtain complete and rational categories. The completeness creates a sense of security and relief, therefore a search for satisfying and adequate information is conducted until inclusive and meaningful categories are attained.
A colleague comes to the office with stitches would be perceived to be a victim of an accident or other misfortune by co-workers as this would be the most logical explanation for his or her absence the day before. An analogy to the above case is the arrival of members of the Christian gang, the Red, at St. Theresia's School at the same time when Tibo was at the location.
These two separate pieces of independent information form a complete and logical meaningful reality when they are properly combined. One of the most seemingly logical explanations would be to associate Tibo and the Red group, fitting the informational gap nicely, thus providing a novel reality of the particular situation.
Another organizational rule to be discussed is the tendency to establish causal association between two situations that occur side by side. As the riot in Maengko Baru occurred after Tibo arrived, then it seems reasonable to think that the riot was caused by Tibo's arrival.
However, the aforementioned organizational rule might contain personal biases and erroneous thinking. The perspective of human social cognition asserts that personal aspects are involved in building perception and meaning, such as previous experiences, personal needs and interests. These three ingredients very often become the primary reasons for misperception. In the case of Poso, their roles are noticed in the process of simplified meaning construction.
Only certain parts of the information are focused on and accentuated to construct a selected social reality, therefore ignoring other information. For example, according to Tibo's explanation, which was supported by other groups of witnesses, his arrival at the scene of the conflict was in response to earlier news of a plan to attack the church and school. His initial goal was to rescue and evacuate the children in the dormitory and orphanage who were from his village. This information was neglected and never considered as an alternative explanation of Tibo's part in the Maengko Baru incident.
The two organizational rules and their potential biases will become the primary line of reasoning as the article goes further to analyze conflict episodes in which Tibo and his two comrades took part. Furthermore, the article points out the importance of selective social perception, meaning that people choose to pay attention to particular facts and thereby neglect others.
Selective perception might still be experienced by a well-informed audience due to their personal interests. A chain smoker with high exposure to antismoking messages might decide to cut himself off from those messages rather than to stop smoking. The article displays the critical process beyond meaning and social reality, which hopefully brings the readers to reflect on their own perceptions of the Poso conflict.

The writer is a lecturer at the School of Psychology, Atma Jaya Catholic University, Jakarta.