A letter from Glodok, Jakarta
\nJP\/6\/E00<\/p>\n
A letter from Glodok, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Kavi Chongkittavorn
\nThe Nation
\nAsia News Network
\nBangkok<\/p>\n
Satu musuh -- sudah kebanyakan, seribu kawan -- masih
\nkekurangan, is the motto of Eddy Sadeli. He translates the
\nexpression as \"one enemy is too many, one thousand friends are
\ntoo few\". Sadeli, who is Chinese, has a greater interest in
\nmaking friends than enemies, especially among the pribumi, or
\nindigenous Indonesians. After all, he is taking part in the
\nlegislative election scheduled for April 5.<\/p>\n
Sadeli, who is running under the new Democratic Party (Partai
\nDemokrat) of General (ret) Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the former
\nsecurity minister under President Megawati Soekarnoputri,
\nadmitted that though Chinese Indonesians see themselves as \"real\"
\nIndonesians, many Indonesians do not share this view.<\/p>\n
A reflection of this sentiment among ethnic Chinese
\nIndonesians is the increase in the number of Chinese candidates
\n-- about 172, all told -- contesting in the elections for the
\nHouse of Representatives and Regional Representatives Council.<\/p>\n
As one of the Tionghoa, as ethnic Chinese are called locally,
\ncompeting in the race, Sadeli, or Lee as he is known among fellow
\nChinese, must tread a very thin line because he does not want to
\nturn away ethnic Indonesian voters.<\/p>\n
Sadeli said there are approximately 12 million Indonesian
\nChinese, representing about 5 percent of the country's 220
\nmillion-strong population, giving Indonesia the largest Chinese
\npopulation in the world outside China and Taiwan. He said the
\nTionghoa are actually not a minority in Indonesia as they rank
\nthird in terms of size after the Javanese and Sundanese peoples.
\nHe added that for this reason, Chinese people should claim the
\nrights they should have under the country's constitution.<\/p>\n
Sadeli said Chinese people began settling in Indonesia in the
\n14th century and, in fact, Chinese Muslims first introduced Islam
\nto the country. The form of Islam they brought was distinctively
\nof the Oriental tradition, he said.<\/p>\n
\"That is why Indonesian Muslims are different from Middle
\nEastern believers,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Sadeli's assistant Hussein said the government should
\nreintroduce the Chinese curriculum for teaching Islam and other
\nsecular subjects. His voice was bitter but firm. Hussein, a
\nChinese descent from Fujian, said Indonesia would be a better
\nnation if all people and all ethnic groups were equal.<\/p>\n
\"After all, the constitution recognizes all religious
\nbeliefs,\" he added.<\/p>\n
However, an historical animosity towards people of Chinese
\ndescent keeps Indonesians from readily accepting them as locals.
\nHe contrasted the situation to that in Thailand, where the
\nChinese have assimilated without any problem.<\/p>\n
Rebecca Harsono, a young activist, thinks it is time to
\naddress the role of Chinese Indonesians in a holistic manner. As
\nan executive director of the Institute of Anti-Discrimination in
\nIndonesia, a non-governmental organization fighting anti-Chinese
\ndiscrimination, she has been helping poor Chinese people tend to
\nlegal and official matters.<\/p>\n
\"The Indonesians talk about rich Tionghoa, but they forget
\nabout the poor Chinese who have the same lot in life,\" she said.
\nThese people, she added, earn a meager income from fishing,
\nmanual labor and other odd jobs.<\/p>\n
Some older Chinese say things have improved since Soeharto's
\nrule ended in 1998. Chinese culture, rituals and practices are
\nagain being observed after more than three decades of
\nsuppression. Activities that were prohibited in the past, such as
\nthe Lunar New Year (now national holidays) celebration or dragon
\nand lion dances, are permitted to take place.<\/p>\n
So is the display of Chinese characters. Four Chinese dailies
\nare competing for the attentions of an admittedly limited
\nreadership. Ten years ago in Glodok, everything Chinese was
\nhidden or camouflaged.<\/p>\n
If these phenomena are now out in public, one thing has not
\nchanged -- the most popular Hakka restaurant, Angke, is still
\nnumber one in Jakarta. It is jam-packed every day of the week,
\nevery week of the year. But in an atmosphere of burgeoning
\ndemocracy, Chinese Indonesians know they cannot be quiet as their
\nforbears were. Indeed, they are asserting themselves and claiming
\ntheir rights. Before that can take place, a change of mind-set is
\nneeded among both indigenous and Chinese Indonesians, Harsono
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
\"Their lives are intertwined and inseparable,\" she said.<\/p>\n
One way to demonstrate confidence in Chinese Indonesians would
\nbe to get rid of the citizenship certificates that are given to
\nthe Chinese at their birth.<\/p>\n
Sadeli, Hussein and Harsono agreed that while Indonesian
\nsociety in general has become more tolerant of Chinese people,
\nthe derogatory racist term orang cina is still used in certain
\nquarters.<\/p>",
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