Study on the Forgiveness Concept of Aceh Conflict Victims
Hafnidar Hafnidar, Nursan Junita and Ratna Ratna
Malikussaleh University, Kabupaten Aceh Utara, Indonesia
Keywords: The Forgiveness, concept, Aceh conflict victims.
Abstract: The people of Aceh experience traumatic experiences due to conflict and prolonged war. This research was
started from a literature study. The field study was then conducted by using phenomenology as a qualitative
method. The aims of this research are to find the forgiveness basic concept of Aceh people. The total of
research participants were 10 respondents which chosen from 1 to 3 direct victims by using purposive
sampling technique. The data collection methods utilized in-depth interviews, observation, and analysis of
documentation. This study applied the important principles in a phenomenology research: epoch,
phenomenological reduction, imaginative variation, and synthesis of meanings and essences. The concept of
forgiveness varies depending on the socio-cultural norms of each individual. The results reveal that for the
Acehnese who are rooted in the conceptualized culture of Islam, the concept of forgiveness is closely related
to the concept of spirituality.
1 INTRODUCTION
People in Aceh are still suffering from a highly
traumatic experience of Aceh conflict. The conflict
between the Indonesia Government and the Free
Aceh Movement (GAM) took place from 1976 to
2005. Nurrachman (2005) said that on an individual
level, the tragedy of Aceh conflict can leave
physical, mental and emotional trauma, and from the
social level, the events will always be remembered
and memories will be passed on from generation to
generation. This memory may not be separated from
hatred and resentment. In line, Hafnidar (2012)
found that the conflicts in Aceh left deep
psychological wounds, both to people who
experienced Aceh conflict as a victims first hand
(direct victims) as well as the people who only see,
hear, and read (indirect victims).
Forgiveness is one of way to maintain peace in
Aceh. Warmke and Warmke (2016) stated that
forgiveness allows both sides to rethink. Enright and
Coyle (1998) view forgiveness as a process through
which negative thoughts, feelings, and behaviors
towards a transgressor are replaced with positive
thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
Several experts mention that forgiveness has a
positive relationship with a number of psychological
aspects in human beings such as well-being, self-
esteem, depression, anxiety, spirituality, and post-
traumatic development (Poloma and Gallup, 1991;
Enright and Fitzgibbons, 2000 ; Fischer, 2006;
Fincham, 2015; Lutjen, Silton, and Flannelly, 2012;
Maltby, Day, and Barber, 2004), Matter, Mcfarland,
Smith, Toussaint, and Thomas Smith, Toussaint,
andThomas,2012; Svalina and Webb, 2012;
Unterrainer, Lewis, andFink, 2012; Webb 2012;
Unterrainer, Lewis, and Fink,2012; Webb, Phillips,
Bumgarner, and Conway-Williams 2012).
Therefore, forgiveness is very important to allow a
person to stay psychologically healthy, have a vision
for the future and can re-grow and heal after
experiencing traumatic experience (Hafnidar, et al,
2013).
The concept of forgiveness is essentially
complex and multidimensional (Enright and North,
1998), and has a great deal of influence on the way
individuals think, feel, and behave and is rooted in
cultural views and traditional values (Ryeetal, 2000).
Thus the concept of forgiveness varies depending on
the socio-cultural norms of each individual.
Likewise, the Acehnese who are rooted in the
conceptualized culture of Islam, need to learn to find
the basic concept of forgiving and the concept of
forgiveness in accordance with the culture of the
Acehnese society that is a Muslim majority. The
Aceh conflict victim’s forgiveness concept will be
an important theory that will append to the large
concept of forgiving in general. The finding of the
316
Hafnidar, H., Junita, N. and Ratna, R.
Study on the Forgiveness Concept of Aceh Conflict Victims.
In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Sociology Education (ICSE 2017) - Volume 1, pages 316-320
ISBN: 978-989-758-316-2
Copyright © 2018 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved

concept of forgiving in this study also will append to
help the religious community like Acehnese.
2 METHODS
This research took on a qualitative
phenomenological approach. The informants of each
element were selected from 1 to 3 people using
purposive sampling technique, that is based on the
following predetermined criteria: (1) is one of the
following elements: Islamic leaders, scholars,
casualty in remote areas and urban area, social
activists, political organization activist, government
official, housewife, as well as representatives of
each profession in society, (2) Represents direct
victims of Aceh conflict, (3) A native Acehnese and
have lived in Aceh since the conflict (1976) until
now. The data collection methods were in-depth
interviews, observation and documentation analysis.
According to Moustakas (1994), there are several
important processes in phenomenology research:
epoche, reduction, imaginative variation, and
synthesis of meanings and essences. Epoche is the
process of eliminating prejudices, reducing biases
and opinions on things. Reduction is a methodical
procedure whereby the researcher can interpret
knowledge from fact to idea or from fact to essence
in general. Then, in the process of imaginative
variation, researchers look for possible meanings
through the use of imagination, differentiation of
various reference frames, grouping and reversal, and
phenomenon approach from diverging perspectives,
positions, roles, or different functions. The goal is to
achieve a structural description of experience, the
underlying factors and affect what has been
experienced.
The steps in conducting imaginative variation
include:
a. Establish systematically from the possibilities of
all constructed meanings that may be the basis of
the textural meaning.
b. Recognize themes or contexts as the basis for the
cause of the phenomenon.
c. Consider the overall structure that can lead to
conclusions that are too fast for the feelings and
thoughts associated with a phenomenon, such as
the structure of time, space, attention that is only
focused on the main things, materiality, causality,
relationships with self, or relationships with other
people.
d. Look for illustrations as examples that can give a
clear picture of the structure of unchanged
themes and facilitate the development of
structural phenomenon description.
The final step of the phenomenological research
process is the fundamental integration of the textural
and structural descriptions into a statement as the
essence of an experience of the overall phenomenon
(Husserl in Moustakas, 1994)
3 RESEARCH FINDING
3.1. Definition of Forgiveness
The definition of forgiveness from the respondents
of this study can be summed up as the willingness
and ability to control negative thoughts, feelings and
behaviors about bad experiences of the past into
positive thoughts, feelings and behaviors whether it
is forgiving oneself, situations or others.
The above definition is very broad and covering
general aspects, and different from the definitions
previously put forward by experts. This is because
previous experts still make restrictions on some
terms that should not be excuses for forgiveness
such as pardoning (legal term), condoning (implying
good offense reasons), excusing (implying
justification for mistakes), denying (implying a
reluctance to acknowledge), forgetting (implying
failed memory, something beyond conscious
awareness), or reconciling (Enright and Coyle, 1998;
McCullough, Pargament, and Thoresen, 2000). Like
Enright and Coyle (1998), Augsburger (1981),
Enright and Fitzgibbons (2000), McCullough,
Fincham, and Tsang (2003), Worthington and
Scherer (2004). In this study, the respondents focus
more on efforts to surrender to God. In other words,
the aspect of spirituality and religiosity is
highlighted thus a complete forgiveness will be
easily achieved.
3.2 Dimensions of Forgiveness
Based on the data analysis of the data collected, the
dimensions of forgiveness are:
3.2.1 Forgiveness of Self
3.2.1.1 Be willing to accept God's Fate:
● Willing to accept (related spiritual concept).
Accepting means to believe that everything is a
scenario that God has established for one. God
never has evil intentions for his servant. It also
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317

means simply expecting a good outcome from
Allah SWT. It can also mean ridha, according
to the Hadith of the Prophet SAW, namely: "If
Allah loves a person then He will test them.
Anyone who is blessed (to the test) then for him
ridho Allah and those who are angry (against
the test) then for him his wrath." (Tirmidhi and
Ibn Majah at Tirmidhi, a Hasan Ghorib hadith).
● Having no regrets about what has happened
(related with Post traumatic Growth (PTG)
concept)
Having no regrets is defined as not complaining
and not wishing for an event that had passed
had not taken place. It also means accepting all
the events that had passed with an open heart.
Respondents were more looking ahead than
looking back.
● Self-acceptance (related with positive self-
concept)
Forgiveness means having a positive self-
concept. Accepting shortcomings and strengths,
so whatever negative things have happened to
him, over time he can tolerate himself and let it
slide.
3.2.1.2 Take wisdom or lessons from bad
past experiences:
● Fix mistakes (related with PTG concept)
To forgive is to learn from past experience and
to fix it in the future.
● Not repeat mistake (related PTG concept)
Forgiveness means not wanting to repeat the
same mistakes, therefore he can learn from his
past experience not to fall again for the same
problem.
● Stop interacting with the things that cause
the problem (related with trigger concept)
Forgiveness means not wanting to repeat the
same problem. Interacting with the things that
cause the problem has a chance to repeat the
same problem.
● Be able to think logically and profoundly
(related with strategic coping concept).
Forgiveness means not wanting to repeat the
same problem. Interacting with the things that
cause the problem has a chance to repeat the
same problem.
● Be able to think logically and profoundly
(related with strategic coping concept).
A person who is able to think logically and
profoundly will only take wisdom from painful
past events and then rise up to meet his future.
Regretting what has happened is something
illogical. Time cannot be turned back and the
past cannot be changed.
● Patience (related with emotion focused
coping concept)
The person who has forgiven himself can be
patient and tolerant of everything that happens,
because of his belief that God is just, and that
after bad events there will be good and pleasant
things for him.
3.2.1.3. Have hope for the future:
● Be optimistic (related PTG concept)
The person who has forgiven himself will be
optimistic in achieving a better future. An
optimistic person can get out of trouble easily.
● Not despair of God's grace (related
spirituality concept)
The self-forgiving person is convinced that
God's Grace is vast, even though it is now in a
bitter experience but never despair that one day
he will meet the situation he aspires to.
● Be grateful (related PTG concept)
The person who has forgiven himself can be
grateful for what his current state is. Especially
when looking at others who are in worse
conditions.
3.2.2 Forgiveness of Situations
● Accept events as destiny from Allah (related
with religiosity):
The person who has forgiven the situation
believes that everything is God's destiny. Any
endeavor cannot fight fate.
● Learn from the past (The ability of lessons
learned)
The person who forgives the situation never
regrets the situation of the incident, but is able
to take lessons so that the same incident will not
happen again, or if it happens again he already
has ways to overcome it.
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● Wish to change the situation
The person who forgives the situation has a
desire to turn a painless situation into a pleasant
situation when he sees no opportunity for it, for
example, joining a community organization, a
socio-political organization, publishing its
experiences and thoughts about the painful
situation and how to handle it, whether written
or oral and so on.
3.2.3 Forgiveness of Others
● Hold no grudge (related with religiosity
concept).
People who forgive others are able to accept
others without the slightest feeling of
vengeance. This can be done if someone has a
good relationship with Allah SWT. The person
is convinced that there is happiness in the
world and in the hereafter for someone who
will forgive others. A Muslim does not need to
be overwhelmed by stress and frustration
because whatever he experiences is essentially
all solutions already in the Qur'an.
● Gain insight (the ability of lessons learned)
The ability to gain insight from a lesson is very
important for a Muslim. Wisdom is a positive
lesson from every occasion. Forgiveness is
very closely connected with wisdom. The more
wisdom obtained from an event the easier one
forgives another person. Al Baqarah: 269 says:
"Allah bestows wisdom on whom He will. And
whoever is blessed with wisdom, he has indeed
been blessed with many gifts. And only those
who believe can learn from it”.
● Not giving physical or psychological
punishment
Forgiving others means not giving punishment
of both physical and psychic punishment. But
it does not matter if the authorities give the
punishment.
● Leave problems to the experts
People who forgive others do not mean they do
not want to leave the issue to the authorities.
The victim gives full authority to the
authorities to pay off his case without requiring
the authorities to impose penalties, etc.
● Understand the mistakes of others
People who forgive others find ways to
understand the mistakes of others.
● Set aside the mistakes of others, just look at
the advantages
People who forgive others try to put aside
other people's mistakes, but that does not mean
forgetting. The one who forgives others merely
sees the strengths of others as a way of
maintaining a relationship with that person.
● Be realistic, practice logical thinking, and
focus on the purpose of life
People who forgive others will think logically
and deeply that thinking about the future is
better than keeping the bitterness of the past,
which certainly will not change what has
happened.
● Pray for the good of the people who hurt us
People who forgive others also want to pray
for the good of others.
● Not sacrifice others.
Do not sacrifice others. Do not forget that the
person also has a family and friends who will
be affected by what happened to him.
● Do not throw out anger at others
Some forgiving people have displaced others
by throwing out anger at those who hurt them
by releasing angry emotions on others who are
not at fault or inanimate objects, etc. For
example, a mother who is angry at her husband
to throw out angry emotions on innocent
children.
● Trigger has no power
In someone who has forgiven others, the
trigger has no power to bring it back in the
past.
● Be casual in meeting the other person
People who forgive others will treat others just
as before a painful event occurs.
4 CONCLUSIONS
The concept of forgiveness of Aceh conflict victim’s
very influences by socio-cultural norms of
Acehnese. The results reveal that for the Acehnese
concept of forgiveness is closely related to the
concept of positive psychology such spirituality,
post traumatic growth (PTG), coping strategic and
positive self-concept. Aceh conflict victims define
forgiveness as the willingness and ability to control
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319

negative thoughts, feelings and behaviours about bad
experiences of the past into positive thoughts,
feelings and behaviours whether it is forgiving
oneself, situations or others.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Researchers would like to thank to the Ministry of
Research, Technology and Higher Education of
Indonesia which has providing support of this study.
A big thank you also goes to respondent of this
study and also to Research and community service
Institute of Malikussaleh University or LPPM.
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