Buddhist group vows loyalty to RI

Buddhist group vows loyalty to RI

JAKARTA (JP): A Buddhist group, whose members are largely of
Chinese descent, reaffirmed their loyalty to Indonesia Saturday
and promised to support the government's assimilation drive.

The leaders of the group, Niciren Syosyu Indonesia, said they
planned to launch an assimilation campaign in Riau and West
Kalimantan in two weeks time.

The Buddhist group pledged their loyalty in response to Vice
President Try Sutrisno's statement last week regarding the need
for the Chinese members to abandon Chinese culture and assimilate
with the locals. Try delivered his statement during his visit to
the West Kalimantan capital of Pontianak.

Rusdy Rukmanata, deputy coordinator of the Niciren Buddhist
center, acknowledged that many Chinese members are active in
international organizations of Chinese in exile.

"Many defend their exclusive lifestyles and fear to lose their
Chinese identity and culture while others join international
Chinese mafia organizations. This all makes it even more
difficult for the Chinese to mix with indigenous people," he
said.

But he asked the government to clarify the culture they should
adopt. "We are often confused with the term 'national culture'
because the nation consists of thousands of ethnic groups with
different cultures," he said.

Djanuanto, another official at the Buddhist center, said that
Niciren Syosyu Indonesia in cooperation with the Ansor Youth
Movement, a Moslem organization under the 28 million-member
Nadhlatul Ulama, would conduct a program aimed at socializing the
Indonesian language and national culture among isolated Chinese
communities in the hinterlands of West Kalimantan.

He said 30 percent of West Kalimantan's population of 442,000
are of Chinese origin and a majority do not speak Bahasa
Indonesia.

According to Djanuanto, China's alleged involvement in the
abortive coup attempted by the now-outlawed Indonesian Communist
Party (PKI) and today's domination of the local economy by the
ethnic Chinese were affecting the assimilation drive. (rms)