Chinese descent misconceptions

Benny Subianto has accurately unveiled the love-hate relationship between Indonesians of Chinese descent and other Indonesians. This is due to the authorities' attitude and policies dating back many years regarding people of Chinese descent.

Allow me to quote Mr. Subianto's vivid description from his article No easy answer to racial issues (Nov. 14, 1997). "In the last 30 years, the New Order government has opened big opportunities to a small number of Chinese who have direct connections to the power elite to build their business conglomerates. On the other hand, the Chinese have been excluded from public activities, badly discriminated against by the bureaucracy, and also in matters of education, and even worse, they have been a permanent target of racketeering by bureaucrats.

"They are also deprived of their cultural right such as the prohibition of the circulation of books with Chinese characters, the establishment of Chinese schools and celebration of the Chinese New Year.

"The New Order seems to have an interest in maintaining the powerful business skills and the networks of the Chinese, but at the same time to make them politically precarious, in order to enable them to keep those of Chinese descent in control."

In addition to that, we see other phenomena in action. When crimes, or misdemeanors are committed by individuals who happen to be of Chinese descent, the issues tend to be blown up or overshadowed with racial sentiment rather than treated with a dispassionately criminal outlook.

But we tend to disregard their identity when Indonesians of Chinese descent excel in sports, art, academia, the economy or any other areas that contribute to the nation. We close our eyes to the fact that our compatriots of Chinese descent are not such bad citizens after all; instead we prefer to keep in mind the less good things about them. We seem to forget that good guys and bad guys come from any race.

We have been carrying misconceptions about all those of Chinese descent being rich and all their fellow Indonesians being poor for too long. We've urged the rich Chinese to mingle with the poor Indonesians. The fact is that there are a lot of rich Indonesians and there are also poor Chinese.

Forcing the rich to mingle with the poor and vice versa, in my opinion, sounds rather absurd. As the old saying goes: "Birds of the same feathers flock together." The Indonesian tycoons can get along beautifully with their counterparts of Chinese descent.

It is also true that low-income Indonesians of Chinese descent and their Indonesian counterparts have integrated naturally and harmoniously in rural villages as well as in cities. I don't think the rich Indonesians of Chinese descent can get along much with the poor people in their own community, let alone other communities. Neither are the rich Indonesians interested in mixing with poor Indonesians That is human nature, I suppose.

The racial problem does not have a solution, the situation will not change unless the authorities, the intellectuals, and the media, are willing to correct their attitudes toward our compatriots of Chinese descent.

They have to encourage people to have a better understanding of and tolerance toward ethnic groups other than their own. Every one of us has to start thinking positively about each other. Then we can build trust between all Indonesians, whatever their ancestry.

JENNY LAURITZ KHOENG

Jakarta