Chinese-Indonesians politically active

Kavi Chongkittavorn, The Nation, Asia News Network, Bangkok

Satu musuh -- sudah kebanyakan, seribu kawan -- masih kekurangan, is the motto of Eddy Sadeli. He translates the expression as "one enemy is too many, one thousand friends are too few". Sadeli, who is Chinese, has a greater interest in making friends than enemies, especially among the pribumi, or indigenous Indonesians. After all, he is taking part in the legislative election scheduled for April 5.

Sadeli, who is running under the new Democratic Party (Partai Demokrat) of General (ret) Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the former security minister under President Megawati Soekarnoputri, admitted that though Chinese Indonesians see themselves as "real" Indonesians, many Indonesians do not share this view.

A reflection of this sentiment among ethnic Chinese Indonesians is the increase in the number of Chinese candidates -- about 172, all told -- contesting in the elections for the House of Representatives and Regional Representatives Council.

As one of the Tionghoa, as ethnic Chinese are called locally, competing in the race, Sadeli, or Lee as he is known among fellow Chinese, must tread a very thin line because he does not want to turn away ethnic Indonesian voters.

Sadeli said there are approximately 12 million Indonesian Chinese, representing about 5 percent of the country's 220 million-strong population, giving Indonesia the largest Chinese population in the world outside China and Taiwan. He said the Tionghoa are actually not a minority in Indonesia as they rank third in terms of size after the Javanese and Sundanese peoples. He added that for this reason, Chinese people should claim the rights they should have under the country's constitution.

Sadeli said Chinese people began settling in Indonesia in the 14th century and, in fact, Chinese Muslims first introduced Islam to the country. The form of Islam they brought was distinctively of the Oriental tradition, he said.

"That is why Indonesian Muslims are different from Middle Eastern believers," he said.

Sadeli's assistant Hussein said the government should reintroduce the Chinese curriculum for teaching Islam and other secular subjects. His voice was bitter but firm. Hussein, a Chinese descent from Fujian, said Indonesia would be a better nation if all people and all ethnic groups were equal.

"After all, the constitution recognizes all religious beliefs," he added.

However, an historical animosity towards people of Chinese descent keeps Indonesians from readily accepting them as locals. He contrasted the situation to that in Thailand, where the Chinese have assimilated without any problem.

Rebecca Harsono, a young activist, thinks it is time to address the role of Chinese Indonesians in a holistic manner. As an executive director of the Institute of Anti-Discrimination in Indonesia, a non-governmental organization fighting anti-Chinese discrimination, she has been helping poor Chinese people tend to legal and official matters.

"The Indonesians talk about rich Tionghoa, but they forget about the poor Chinese who have the same lot in life," she said. These people, she added, earn a meager income from fishing, manual labor and other odd jobs.

Some older Chinese say things have improved since Soeharto's rule ended in 1998. Chinese culture, rituals and practices are again being observed after more than three decades of suppression. Activities that were prohibited in the past, such as the Lunar New Year (now national holidays) celebration or dragon and lion dances, are permitted to take place.

So is the display of Chinese characters. Four Chinese dailies are competing for the attentions of an admittedly limited readership. Ten years ago in Glodok, everything Chinese was hidden or camouflaged.

If these phenomena are now out in public, one thing has not changed -- the most popular Hakka restaurant, Angke, is still number one in Jakarta. It is jam-packed every day of the week, every week of the year. But in an atmosphere of burgeoning democracy, Chinese Indonesians know they cannot be quiet as their forbears were. Indeed, they are asserting themselves and claiming their rights. Before that can take place, a change of mind-set is needed among both indigenous and Chinese Indonesians, Harsono said.

"Their lives are intertwined and inseparable," she said.

One way to demonstrate confidence in Chinese Indonesians would be to get rid of the citizenship certificates that are given to the Chinese at their birth.

Sadeli, Hussein and Harsono agreed that while Indonesian society in general has become more tolerant of Chinese people, the derogatory racist term orang cina is still used in certain quarters.