Activist of a different kind

Dewi Anggraeni, Contributor, Jakarta

When meeting someone for an interview you are usually prepared for some surprises. With Eddie Lembong, president of INTI (Association of Chinese Indonesians) however, the surprise was up front.

He does not just sit back waiting for your questions -- he immediately interviews you first, finding out the blend of your ethnic background, then proceeding to analyze you as a person.

It may well be an indication that Eddie is always aware that someone's ethnic blend reflects the life journey that has shaped and is shaping the person's outlook on life.

When he is satisfied who his interviewer is, Eddie happily recounts his own life story.

His parents both, but separately, came from Xiamen, a big port city in Fujian (Hokkien) province in China, early in the 20th century. His mother, who had come first, almost immediately adopted the local mores. She identified with the peranakan (local ethnic Chinese) and wore kain-kebaya. The union produced 10 children, who were all sent to a Dutch school.

"For them it was a great leap forward, culturally speaking. They themselves had limited Western education, yet they were very broad-minded and forward-looking," Eddie recounted.

He also explained this by saying that Hokkienese were well- known for their adaptability. "Most ethnic Chinese in Java have Hokkien ancestry, and they adapt readily to the local culture."

As for his parents' ease in integrating into local society, Eddie particularly gives credit to the openness and all-embracing nature of the Manadonese culture.

Eight of the 10 children are university graduates. Besides Eddie, who became a pharmacist, his brothers and sisters graduated in fields as diverse as medicine, engineering, law, economics and English literature. It must be remembered that finishing university in the fifties and sixties carried a great deal more prestige than it does now, as graduates then were few and far between.

Things did not always go swimmingly for Eddie, however. Born in 1936, by the time he was ready to go to school, there were no Dutch schools left. He subsequently took private tuition in Mandarin, and later went to an Indonesian school.

"I was very lucky to have been educated by the priests," he reminisced, "because they certainly had superior skills in imparting knowledge."

When applying for a university place, his first choice was actually Medicine. However in 1957, the year he graduated from secondary school, the quota for ethnic Chinese in Medical School was 10 percent, cut down from 50 percent the previous year. So while he passed the scientific tests easily, he was told he had not passed the psychological tests. So young Eddie picked what he regarded as second best, "the sister of Medicine", Pharmacy.

Eddie's awareness of his Chinese ethnicity came to the fore in Java. Having come from Manado, where the blending of various ethnic groups was smooth and problem-free, the situation in Java struck him as marked by racial segregation and colored by cultural discrimination. Even among the ethnic Chinese, there were distinctions between the Dutch educated and the Chinese educated. Then the ethnic Chinese, even if immersed in the local mores, did not necessarily mix with the indigenous population.

His social awareness drove him to become active in student organizations. He also showed initiative by narrowing the barrier between the indigenous and the ethnic Chinese students.

Until 1956 when the authorities introduced affirmative action and imposed quota on ethnic Chinese wishing to enter university, there were more ethnic Chinese students in the more "desirable" faculties such as Medicine and Engineering. Thus, the indigenous students post-1956 found it hard-going as they did not have many seniors who could pass them their lecture notes.

"Many lecturers at that time were somewhat sadistic," Eddie recounted, "they came and gave lectures, then walked out without telling the students which textbooks to look up. So lecture notes from our seniors were invaluable. Needless to say, having friendly seniors became crucial. And the common knowledge then was that the pretty first year students always landed more lecture notes from their male seniors. And the indigenous students, not having made close friends among the non-indigenous seniors, got next-to-nothing."

This inequity offended Eddie's sense of fairness. He managed to collect most of the good lecture notes and obtain access to a cheap stencil-copy machine. He copied them and sold them at cost to everybody who needed them, allowing all students to compete on a par. And through his network, he was also able to import heavily subsidized, up-to-date books from the United States, thus disseminating state-of-the-art pharmaceutical knowledge in Indonesia among those in a wider circle than the "chosen few". This early version of "activism" created a path for him to become accepted among indigenous circles.

However, he did not stop mixing among the ethnic Chinese communities either. His ability to speak fluent Chinese provided access for him to get to know the Chinese-speaking communities well. He became familiar with their trials and tribulations, their shortcomings, their strong and weak points, what made them tick, and often, their inner happiness and inner fears.

"Many of the peranakans had no idea about what was going on in the world of these Chinese-speaking people," Eddie added.

Now that he is no longer active in his pharmaceutical business, he has devoted himself to researching the historical background of the ethnic Chinese in Indonesia, and to finding ways of breaking down whatever barriers that still exist which separate them from the majority of Indonesia's population.

His social skills and knowledge are no doubt invaluable assets for Eddie in heading the Association of Chinese-Indonesians.