Chinese descendants
Many people took a break during the recent tense atmosphere to watch the Thomas Cup and Uber Cup on TV.
Indonesians, no matter what background or ethnic group all cheered for the red and white flag. Everyone embraced the proud feeling, seeing our young players, either Chinese descendants or indigenous Indonesians, unruffled by opponents, simply doing their best to bring glory to our country. At the same time, one can not help ponder on the injustice that many Indonesian Chinese have suffered in the last week.
Despite the fact that many Chinese descendants donated a lot of basic staples to the needy over the past few months, the most ransacked areas in last week's riots were those of Chinese communities.
Following the government policy for unity, Chinese schools were banned decades ago. This alone will not change the appearance of Chinese. After years of Indonesian education, speaking Indonesian as their mother tongue, Chinese descendants were still treated differently.
According to an eye witness account at the airport during the riots' boiling point May 14, rioters stripped naked a Chinese girl at Glodok. Others recounted that rioters forced motorcyclists to take off helmets to check their race. In some areas, looters only targeted houses of Chinese. This kind of news report has greatly shaken the confidence of both Indonesian and foreign investors.
With many foreign embassies evacuating their citizens, together with the temporary closure of long-time established companies, we probably can expect another imminent capital flight. At a time when the economy's recovery is needed most, we can expect that it will take a longer time for capital to return.
While economists say that the monetary crisis will take three to five years to recover, the current chaos has certainly exacerbated investors' fears.
While lamenting last week's incident, one cannot help contemplate on how to avoid this from happening again.
People perceive that one of the reasons for rancor toward Chinese is economic disparity. Many tend to think that all Chinese are rich. The fact is the wealthy ones are only a minority. There are more Indonesians of Chinese descent who live like ordinary people or even worse, in grinding poverty.
Why do people have the wrong perception of Chinese?
The minority of wealthy Chinese needs to introspect their own extravagant lifestyle while a lot of others are in hunger.
Another factor of prejudice towards Chinese is the cultural differences. But this requires both sides' efforts to obtain a peaceful solution. We must learn to accept and tolerate our neighbors' different rituals to avoid misunderstanding. Haven't the tragedies of Bosnia and Rwanda taught us anything?
In order to advocate mutual tolerance and understanding, we must also ask: "Did the government do enough in respect of this matter?"
The government should remind the people of the role that minorities have played in the construction of our country.
Didn't Chinese descendants stand side by side with Indonesians to shed their blood and sacrifice their lives in the independence war against the Japanese and the Dutch?
How about building the economy in the past 30 years? Didn't the Chinese shed as much sweat to put Indonesia in the spotlight of the international community? Today, while Indonesia suffers its monetary woes, aren't Indonesian Chinese tormented as well?
Although we cannot reverse what has happened in the past week, we should hope that the situation will ease, that foreigners will come back and the monetary crisis will be over.
When the time comes, we urge the government to devote more strength to the agenda for "minority problem" and bring real harmony to our society.
CHEN HSUEH CHUANG
Jakarta