Chinese New Year 'not a national holiday' in 2002

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Although, many calendars have a red mark on Feb. 12, 2002, marking it as a national holiday for the celebration of the Chinese New Year, there have been no regulations issued by the government to confirm it as such.

Deputy Cabinet Secretary Erman Rajaguguk told The Jakarta Post on Thursday that, to date, there is no presidential decree or any kind of presidential decision setting the date as a national holiday.

"To determine a certain day as a national holiday, there needs to be a certain regulation or decree signed by the President and so far there is no such regulation, nor has anything been officially discussed on the issue," Erman said.

He confirmed that the government had once said it would provide freedom for Chinese-Indonesians to celebrate the day, known locally as imlek, but it was never made into a formal national holiday.

During former president Abdurrahman Wahid's tenure, the people of Chinese descent enjoyed more freedom to openly celebrate their traditions than during the 32 years of authoritarian rule by Soeharto, who suppressed all the Chinese following an aborted coup attempt which he publicly blamed on the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) in 1965. The PKI had links with China, so Soeharto apparently used that as a reason to suppress Chinese-Indonesians.

Erman said that the government is focused more on the review of discriminative rulings than on the determination of holidays.

"Then-president Abdurrahman once announced that anybody could take a holiday to celebrate the Chinese New Year but that it is not an official national holiday," he said.

Chinese-Indonesian leader Gilbert Wiryadinata said that Chinese citizens here need not concentrate on small details such as national holidays, but more on the freedom to exercise all of their traditions.

Gilbert, the deputy chairman of the Chinese-Indonesian Association (INTI), said the government and the Chinese community had never officially discussed the issue to make the New Year a national holiday.