Change becomes daily phenomenon
I read with interest the article Toward a true unitary nation by Mr. Harkiman Racheman in The Jakarta Post, Aug. 3, 1999 and would like to comment.
* It has never crossed my mind to "ban all Chinese culture in Indonesia" as alleged in the article. Who am I to dare have such wild ideas? Perhaps someone misunderstood my suggestion that Indonesian of Chinese ethnicity should concentrate on their "Indonesianness" instead on their "Chineseness". As we know, in the eyes of their indigenous fellow citizens, ethnic Chinese are still aliens and "not belonging to us". Giving priority to Indonesianness will certainly help to come closer to the people at grassroots level. This is of course my personal view. And indeed, I represent nobody but myself. In fact, it applies to all my thinking and stance with regard to our domestic Chinese problem.
* Mr. Harkiman also made remarks on my so-called "abandonment of Chinese religious and cultural background" which he looked upon cynically. I will not discuss whether his allegations are true or not but would rather comment in a general sense, instead of from a personal angle.
In my view "abandoning" something , changing traditions, attitudes etc, are daily phenomena, happening nowadays as well as in the past or future. In former times quite a number of Chinese immigrants were even assimilated into the Javanese nobility and then highly honored. This was also the case with the Nine Holy Saints (Walisongo), some of whom were from Chinese descent. It is obvious that they all have abandoned "their Chinese religious and cultural backgrounds".
Nowadays the same is true with ethnic Chinese from Indonesia emigrating to Western countries. Their mother tongue is Indonesian (since World War II most of them do not speak Chinese anymore) and they have more or less a religious Chinese and cultural background. But these so-called Peranakan Chinese and their offspring in daily life immediately speak the language and follow the traditions of their newly adopted country. Moreover, the majority even converts to nonChinese religions and customs Should we look upon these people with their new attitudes cynically and with disgust since they have "abandoned" old values from the past? I think we should be wiser.
*As to the allegation about my evil influence on the government, I think that the author gave me too much "credit". Prof Dr. Stuart Greif in his book Indonesians of Chinese Origin (1988) stated that the solution of the Chinese problem was in fact outlined at the Army Seminar in 1966. Further laws and rules were derived from this seminar. However, I was unfortunately (or fortunately?) not a participant.
* In Siauw Giok Tjhan, a book written by his son Siauw Tiong Djin more than 600,000 were members of Baperki (page 372). This means one out of four ethnic Chinese in 1965 were members. We further know that the above organization was banned since there was a strong indication being involved in the September 1965 coup. This fact strengthened the already existing antiChinese mood. According to Prof Stuart Greif of New Zealand it is to the credit of the military men and civilians who created the New Order that they resisted the temptation to solve the Chinese problem by massive expulsion such as was applied by communist Vietnam 10 years later with their boat people. It is also a credit to the average Indonesian who is basically tolerant.
With consolidation of power, the New Order government later embarked upon a program of rational economic development with the Chinese of Indonesia as their assistants. And honor to whom honor is due: we should be grateful to the Military for this peaceful course of history.
H. JUNUS JAHJA
Jakarta