Chinese and privileges
Ms. Donna K. Woodward, in her letter of Aug. 20, responding to my letter of July 31, did not address the very important question I asked about where she got the data from for her allegation that Chinese-Indonesians are privileged in the economic sector. Instead of producing a more compelling argument, she repeated the same folly again that in commerce, the Chinese ascended to the position of privilege.
That assertion is as equally ludicrous and sloppy as the unsubstantiated one that claims that 4 percent of Chinese- Indonesians dominate 70 percent, 80 percent, or 90 percent (pick one as preferred) of the country's whole economy.
I feel like a broken record already. However, in the spirit of educating others, I'm willing to give her the benefit of the doubt that she probably has not had a chance to read some balanced analysis from credible economic and political observers, such as George Aditjondro, Chritianto Wibisono or Kwik Kian Gie. Hence, please allow me to pose an oft-repeated question again.
From about eight million ethnic Chinese in Indonesia, specifically a few million Chinese-Indonesian businesspeople, how many were really given the much-coveted privilege to easily win lucrative projects worth hundreds of millions of dollars? Judging from the same names that always appeared, it couldn't be more than 100 conglomerate owners. However, these people were rarely alone in their gains because they were usually accompanied by their "influential" indigenous business partners. It's true that they profited from this practice but there was little else they could in order to win projects or they would just survive.
When their businesses had grown big, realistically they couldn't refuse the power holders' children's and cronies "offers" of business cooperation, even though these people did not contribute a dime to the venture. Anybody in their position would have done the same thing under such an unfair and cold- hearted system that employed stigmatization and victimization as a political tool to gain absolute submission from people. And when these businesses violated ethics and laws, only the Chinese shareholders were noticed by the public; the very case in point has been soundly displayed by Ms. Woodward with her inadequately pondered comments.
The majority of middle-class ethnic Chinese businesspeople don't have the same privilege. Their financial success was not handed to them on a plate. It is laughable to even contemplate that those small to medium-sized shop owners who sweat over making a living are privileged businesspeople. It does not do them justice to do that.
In the case of Chinese-Indonesian tycoons, it is indisputable that privilege and collusion have allowed them tremendous growth. However, with their business acumen, they would have succeeded without these "benefits" anyway, albeit at a slower pace. Granted, the most logical premise is that their economic success is what makes them privileged or pandered to by corrupt government officials, not the other way around. The evidence for this is that there are unsuccessful Chinese businesses just as there are successful indigenous businesses. Consequently, successful indigenous businesspeople also have privileges. It doesn't make sense that corrupt officials would want to collude with poor businesspeople, Chinese or indigenous.
RAHAYU RATNANINGSIH
Jakarta