Chinese-RI are victims
In this day and age, it saddens to read a letter such as that written by Sumarsono Sastrowardoyo The Jakarta Post, May 30, 1998, in which he criticized the Chinese-Indonesian who fled the country during the recent riots.
If only you had experienced your house or shop-office being surrounded by hundreds of people attempting to get in with fire in their hands (God knows what they were going to do to your family).
If you heard from your relatives or friends that they lost everything in a single day, or that your nephew was badly beaten up and left for dead on the road, or that women were brutally gang raped, or heard the constant screaming or crying of your next door neighbors at night when a mob came.
If only you experience all this and then could judge for yourself what course of action to take to safeguard your loved ones. Have you seen the Glodok, Angke and Pesing areas lately? Then tell me that you think the Chinese are to blame for having your so-called "seized" mentality?
It may be true that the riots were purely criminal in nature, that the masses woke up one day and had the urge to cause damage with no political instigation, nor hint of racism. Maybe some people just put out their peci (Moslem cap) or pray mats out to dry on their windowsills because it was sunny day or they wanted to be known as proreformists, pribumi (indigenous) Moslems or even a Pak haji on that particular day. Maybe the "friendly" mobs that day stopped motorcyclists on the road demanding that they take off their helmets just in order to get to know them much better. It's amazing that people on motorcycles or even minibus went from one place to another with rocks in their hands, calling for the masses to loot and burn. And yet no one has investigated who was the mastermind behind all these acts. It's amazing that these acts were not prevented for two straight days. Will the government seriously investigate all this?
It maybe also true that Chinese-Indonesians never fought side by side with pribumi against the Dutch. Does this mean we are less nationalistic? Does this mean we don't contribute anything to the nation? If this is so, it's a pity that people like Rudy Hartono, Susi Susanti, Tan Cheng Bok, Titiek Puspa are all of Chinese descent. It's a pity, too, that most Chinese here cannot even speak Chinese or even write a single Chinese character, but are fluent in Bahasa Indonesia or Javanese only.
Stereotyping does not serve any beneficial purpose to anyone and is even dangerous in the long run. Not all Chinese are rich and pribumi poor. Not all Chinese are evil nor all pribumi good. Humans are all alike. I regret that through the years the government has not shown any seriousness in narrowing the disparity gap between the rich and poor, changing the image of the Chinese minority group (as if all Chinese are Mr. Edy Tansil!) and most importantly putting a stop to making the Chinese scapegoats or the valve of frustration for the masses.
Prejudice and discrimination left unchecked can only lead to extreme excesses such as what occurred recently. I hope and pray that the racial subject of non-pribumi or pribumi will no longer be an issue to future generations, that those all born, living and dying in this beloved nation are simply called Indonesians.
WIDODO
Jakarta