Chinese-RI are victims

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