Change becomes daily phenomenon

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