Fighting racism and xenophobia<\/p>\n
Chinese Indonesians have been able to openly celebrate Chinese
\nNew Year for the past two years. Feb. 15 also marks the once-
\nlively Cap Go Meh celebrations following the New Year. The
\nfollowing article is by Ester Indahyani Jusuf who chairs the
\nJakarta-based Solidaritas Nusa Bangsa organization which works to
\nfight discrimination.<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Racism in Indonesia continues in complex ways,
\nencompassing various spheres of life. Legally, many racial
\nregulations still confine the Tionghoa (Chinese Indonesians) in
\neconomic, social, political and cultural life.<\/p>\n
One case relates to civil registration. In the days of Dutch
\nrule, registrations of birth, marriage and divorce were permitted
\nfor Europeans and privileged Indonesians. The Chinese were not
\nentitled to this registration, the only clear reason being part
\nof a government effort to control this ethnic group.<\/p>\n
When a person of Chinese descent goes to the civil
\nregistration office now, she or he still must provide birth and
\ncitizenship certificates, as well as other documents --
\nrequirements not requested of other ethnic groups in Indonesia.<\/p>\n
Racism in Indonesia has its historical roots in the 17th
\ncentury, said to be part of the \"divide and conquer\" policy of
\nthe Dutch to ensure no opposition.<\/p>\n
A Chinese uprising in Jakarta, then known as Batavia, led to
\nthe killing of thousands of Chinese in October 1740. In the
\naftermath, the Chinese were forced to live in ghettos.<\/p>\n
Racist policies continued into the 20th century with society
\ndivided into three strata: the Europeans at the top, the
\nOrientals, including Arabians and Chinese, in the middle, and
\nnatives on the bottom rung.<\/p>\n
This division corresponded with the pattern of economic
\ndomination, with European and American companies having the
\nlargest control of economic resources and the Orientals acting as
\nintermediary traders between European and indigenous owned
\ncapital. Most natives were peasants, workers and small traders.<\/p>\n
A regulation requiring permission to leave their communities
\nwas another policy mainly targeted at the Chinese, called the
\npassen stelsel.<\/p>\n
The Dutch rulers meanwhile recruited army personnel from the
\nManadonese and Ambonese ethnic groups. Such racial policies would
\noccasionally lead to resentment and trigger riots, such as the
\nconflict between Javanese natives and the Chinese in Kudus,
\nCentral Java, in 1918, as recorded by the writer Jan Risconi in
\n1935.<\/p>\n
Independent Indonesia, in a bid to protect indigenous owned
\nbusinesses from Chinese and foreign capital, issued the Benteng
\nProgram in 1950. The aim was to confine Chinese businesses to the
\ncities. Violence was used to implement the policy in some areas.<\/p>\n
In the 1960s a number of Tionghoa radicals set up a political
\norganization to fight racial discrimination. This was the
\nConsultative Body for Indonesian Citizenship, known by its
\nacronym, Baperki.<\/p>\n
They supported \"integration\" of the Chinese into Indonesian
\nsociety. They demanded civil and political rights through
\nrecognition of the Chinese as one of Indonesia's diverse ethnic
\ngroups.<\/p>\n
Later, Chinese Indonesians were the group mainly suspected of
\nbeing communist supporters leading up to, and in the aftermath
\nof, the communist purge from 1965 through 1967. The Chinese were
\nbranded as agents of the People's Republic of China.<\/p>\n
More than a million were killed in the communist witch hunt.
\nAnti-Chinese demonstrations were staged in various regions,
\nmainly in Medan, North Sumatra, and Makassar in South Sulawesi.<\/p>\n
Riots forced dozens of Chinese to move from Aceh, North
\nSumatra. In East Java in 1966 the then regional military
\ncommander Gen. Sumitro banned the Tionghoa from trading outside
\nthe capital, Surabaya, from moving from one place to another, and
\nfrom using Chinese language in the fields of economy, finance,
\nadministration and telecommunications.<\/p>\n
This series of policies in East Java included the banning of
\nnewspapers using Chinese, according to Nugraha Katjasungkana in
\nhis 1999 book discussing racial and ethnic issues.<\/p>\n
Two years after the failed coup of 1965, unprecedented
\nviolence was inflicted on Chinese. Records note actions organized
\nby provincial chapters of the Muslim Student Union (HMI) in
\nMakassar and by the Ansor youth movement affiliated to the
\nNahdlatul Ulama organization.<\/p>\n
According to a letter of protest from the embassy of the
\nPeople's Republic of China, quoted in a 1994 book by Charles
\nCoppel, shops and houses of more than 2,000 Chinese families were
\ndestroyed and almost 1,000 Chinese families became bankrupt.<\/p>\n
The riots spread to other places in South Sulawesi. In
\nKalimantan the army used the Dayak ethnic group to oppress the
\nTionghoa, leading to the enlisting of many Chinese in the
\nPeople's Party of North Kalimantan, Paraku, during 1967 and 1968.<\/p>\n
During the New Order rule, the Chinese Question Coordination
\nBoard, or BKMC, issued documents containing several racist rules.
\nAmong the restrictions, Chinese were not permitted to form any
\npolitical organization or large organizations. Not many were
\ninterested in political activities anyway given the trauma of
\npast suppression.<\/p>\n
The government urged the Chinese to change their names into
\nIndonesian-sounding names, as part of the policies of
\n\"assimilation\" aimed at making the Chinese virtually \"disappear\".<\/p>\n
The Chinese are still identified as those obsessed with making
\nmoney, who are rich, exclusive, and involved in collusion. They
\nare \"foreigners\" who came to exploit the natives or pribumi.<\/p>\n
Such prejudices lead to the conclusion that Indonesians are
\nracist -- an impact of the racial policies of the Dutch colonial
\nrulers and Indonesian governments until the New Order regime.<\/p>\n
The prejudices led to Chinese becoming the main target of
\nanger in every crisis -- the most recent evidence being the May
\n1998 riots. Chinese were victims of robbery, rape and destruction
\nof their properties in Jakarta, Solo, Surabaya, Medan,
\nPalembang and other cities. The riots seemed to be well
\norganized, breaking out in Jakarta a day after the shooting of
\nstudents on May 12.<\/p>\n
Anti-Chinese riots also took place in other towns in Sumatra,
\nsuch as Lubuk Pakam, Tanjung Morawa, Deli Serdang and
\nTebing Tinggi.<\/p>\n
Official reports of the 1998 riots indicate the involvement of
\nsecurity officials riding on easily triggered anti-Chinese
\nsentiment, given the economic and political crisis.<\/p>\n
Earlier riots also point to the evidence of racial prejudices,
\nsuch as those in Pekalongan, Central Java, in 1997 and
\nTasikmalaya in West Java, 1998.<\/p>\n
Even the day after the House of Representative convened in
\nNovember 1998, two days after student demonstrations,
\nunidentified crowds attacked Ambonese, Chinese and churches. More
\nrecent riots took place in Batam, 1999. Temples were also
\nvandalized in those incidents.<\/p>\n
Ethnic prejudices have also contributed to the 1998 riots in
\nKalimantan, pitting Madurese, the Melayu and Dayak against one
\nanother. Complications of ethnicity, religion and politics
\ncontinue as a fuel for the conflict in Maluku until today.<\/p>\n
Racism is the belief that mankind is divided into races, skin
\ncolor or religion, making one member of an ethnic group view the
\nother as inferior. Racism in Africa, America, Europe and
\nAustralia has caused war, riots, massacres and eternally
\nthreatens peace.<\/p>\n
International solidarity and networking among organizations
\nworking against racism is critical for everyone to learn from
\neach other. In Indonesia, these networks are just beginning,
\ninvolving intellectuals, students and non government
\norganizations.<\/p>\n
As a group, women still need to be more involved, given the
\nsimilarities between discrimination of minorities and women.<\/p>\n
They are both regarded as inferior; women often become victims
\nof many kinds of racial persecution such as sexual harassment and
\nrape.<\/p>",
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