Assembly called racist over possible 'pribumi' decree

A'an Suryana and Fitri Wulandari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) became the target of criticism on Saturday and was accused of being racist and discriminative for agreeing to include the word pribumi (indigenous Indonesian or non-immigrant) in a draft decree on economic recovery.

Opposition came from businessmen, students and legislators who joined hands in their demand for legislators to take out the racist and discriminative word from the draft decree.

Assembly Speaker Amien Rais said the term pribumi and non- pribumi was outdated and must be avoided.

"The use of the word pribumi would cause controversy and create an image that after living as a free nation for more than half a century we still differentiate between pribumi and non- pribumi," he said.

Chairman of the National Awakening Party (PKB) faction Yusuf Muhammad also urged that discriminative nuances should be removed from MPR decrees.

"We must not engage in discriminative acts against other ethnic groups, the Chinese in particular," he said.

Yusuf maintained, however, that in the past (government) policies were favorable to Chinese, causing suffering to the majority of Indonesians.

Commission B in the MPR Annual Session agreed on Friday to include the word pribumi. The inclusion of the word followed a heated debate due to strong opposition from several commission members.

The draft decree recommends, among other things, "Improving the national economic structure by widening public participation and emancipation, including gender equity, in order to boost and develop the economic status of the underprivileged and indigenous people."

The term non-pribumi refers to Indonesians of Chinese descent, despite the fact that there are other non-indigenous people, including Indians and Arabs.

Sutrisna from the Regional Representatives faction meanwhile defended Commission B's decision.

"Seventy-five percent of our people are poor, they don't have dignity, even our migrant workers are being sent home. Let's not be hypocrites, we are indigenous and we are representatives of the people, not of the business tycoons," Sutrisna said.

Other legislators also strongly demanded that the indigenous people be given privileges in the economic sectors, to enable them catch up with fellow Chinese-Indonesians who were already ahead in the business sector.

Similarly, Soetardjo Soerjogoeritno of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) said his faction was against the use of the word pribumi.

The term could fuel antipathy and disappointment among the ethnic Chinese, who have been living in harmony with locals for hundreds of years and who have the same rights and duties as other Indonesian citizens, said Soetardjo, who is also a deputy chairman of the House of Representatives.

Another PDI Perjuangan legislator, JE Sahetapy, added that the word pribumi was used only by Dutch colonialists.

"During the Dutch colonial times, there were many regulations written in Dutch regarding public facilities that really hurt our feelings, such as notices that read 'Entry to all except indigenous and dogs'," Sahetapy said as quoted by Antara.

Opposition also came from the Student and Small Business Coalition, who accused the MPR of being racist.

Alvin Lie Ling Piao, a member of the Reform faction, threatened to walk out of the meeting if the plenary endorsed the recommendation for the use of the word pribumi in the draft decree.

"If the debate on pribumi and non-pribumi is continued, then the MPR will regress," said Alvin, adding that the amended 1945 Constitution had eliminated the word pribumi.

He was referring to the amended version Article 6(1) on the president and vice president, which says that presidential and vice presidential candidates must be Indonesian citizens by birth. The original version stated that the president and vice president should be indigenous citizens of Indonesia.

Meanwhile, experts lambasted the decree as a throwback to the New Order regime era, saying that such a dichotomy was the last thing the country needed in its bid to recover from the economic crisis.

Noted economists Pande Radja Silalahi and H.S. Dillon said that the decree would only tear the country apart while at present we needed to join hands to handle the crisis.

"We can't go back to the old paradigm. What we need to do is to build the country based on social and economic justice," Dillon told The Jakarta Post.

Both Dillon and Pande said that should the decree be approved it would have a negative impact on the country, not only economically but also politically.

"People may interpret the decree according to their interests. It will effect government policies," said Dillon.

In addition, Dillon said that it could prevent direct foreign investment from entering the country.

"Who wants to invest in the country where the democratic process is not functioning?" Dillon remarked.