Reverend Jacklevyn “Jacky” Frits Manuputty | Indonesia

Reverend Jacklevyn “Jacky” Frits Manuputty, Indonesia

To nourish peace in the Maluku Islands of Indonesia, Rev. Jacklevyn “Jacky” Frits Manuputty promotes an interdependent society, strengthens communal bonds and facilitates public initiative and participation.

In 1999-2003, violent clashes between Muslims and Christians in Maluku killed 10,000 people and displaced over 500,000. Rev. Jacky responded with peace campaigns and advocacy nationally and internationally. Because he engaged all parties, he was at times labeled “enemy” by Christians and Muslims alike, as well as the Indonesian military and police. He persisted despite death threats and the destruction of his home by arson. Rev. Jacky personally signed the Malino II Peace Agreement, which ended the violence.

Concerned by the lack of local reconciliation efforts, he co-founded the Maluku Interfaith Institution for Humanitarian Action (LAIM). LAIM creates institutional capacity-building programs, develops positive public discourse, and builds a network of pluralistic conflict prevention observers. Using a multi-level/stakeholder approach, LAIM builds interfaith peace groups of journalists, women, religious leaders and students. In its “live-in” program, clergy men and women spend overnights in each other’s homes in order to build trust and work together to solve social problems in the country. Rev. Jacky and his colleagues have developed a peace curriculum, an interfaith peace sermon program and a trauma healing program. Additionally, LAIM seeks to build community development and the local government’s peacebuilding capacity.

When violence flared again in 2011, Jacky formed groups of youth “Peace Provocateurs,” whose social media and “texting for peace” campaigns were widely recognized for their success in limiting the scope of the conflicts and preventing them from spreading. Many of his models have been adapted for use in other parts of Indonesia.

Jacky earned a Master’s Degree in Christian-Muslim Relations from Hartford Seminary, where one of his teachers in the fields of religious peacebuilding and interfaith relations was Prof.Yehezkel Landau, who received the Tanenbaum Peacemaker in Action award in 2000 for his ongoing involvement in Jewish-Arab peacemaking in Israel/Palestine.

In conjunction with his peacebuilding work, Jacky has spearheaded an environmental campaign entitled Save Aru Islands, demonstrating his vast array of peace interests and commitment to a holistically peaceful Indonesia. This new campaign furthers Jacky’s use of social media, with the “hashtag” method: “#SaveAru,” the tagline for the campaign that seeks to promote awareness for the cluster of Aru Islands that is threatened by a governmental plan to develop the area into sugar cane plantations.

In the News

Jacky speaks to the Jakarta Post about religion and conflict in the Malukus:
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2004/05/15/separatism-ambon-homework-government.html 

Jacky’s work is cited in global public policy watch’s research analysis: http://globalpublicpolicywatch.org/2014/06/24/extremist-social-media-use-in-indonesia-research-analysis/

Jacky’s environmental campaign: http://savearuisland.com/