Conspiracy or nation building
I would like to add a few words to the comments "Two-way conspiracy" by Hafiansyah Mege in your paper on Oct. 20, 1998 which was in response to Rahayu's two-part article published on Oct. 8 and Oct. 9.
Seeing the strategic and porous archipelagic geography, one does not, I think, have to hold a Ph.D to comprehend that dozens of races or more left their footprints on this archipelago, as did all the world's great religions.
Bahasa Indonesia with its origin in Malay is the most alive and vivid monument to this testament where you can find foreign words like Indian sutradara, Arabic tabib, Chinese tahu, Portuguese sepatu Dutch kantor etc. On Bali, you can find the transformed Chinese Barong dance, and The Jakarta Post reported the use of Chinese coins as offerings in Hindu temples.
Actually, anthropologically, the word "Malay" denotes a mixture of the Melanesian and Mongolian races. Indigenous or nonindigenous is blurred ethnically, culturally and linguistically.
The notion and concept of nation is very much a European concept based on one race (blood), one language and culture, while Indonesia is basically multinational and multicultural and common political unity was started only after the formation of colonial Dutch East Indies.
The Dutch were always ambivalent toward the Chinese, alternating between need and antipathy. At times, hostilities and atrocities happened too. Preferential treatment of the Chinese by the Dutch was by no means given, but was seen more as a necessity from the formation of the Dutch East Indies company in 1602 until the introduction of colonial ethical policy in the early 20th century (around 1908).
In 1740, 10,000 Chinese in Batavia were massacred (10 percent of the then 100,000 Chinese population on Java) under governor Adrian Valckenier.
In 1623, Jan Pieterszoon Coen wrote a letter to Peter de Carpentier as follows: "Very great number of people will be needed in the settlements at Batavia, the Moluccas: Amboyna and Banda as well as money, to send high profits home to the Netherlands... Nowhere in the world are there any people who can be as useful to us as the Chinese... At this stage, if it is difficult to acquire them by friendly methods such as trade, it will be essential to... a fleet to the China coast and bring back as many people of both sexes as possible, as prisoners... Even if there should be an armed clash with China... it is most desirable to capture a large number of Chinese, particularly girls, to populate Batavia, Amboyna and Banda...
"Ransom for Chinese is to be fixed at 60 Ryals per person but you must not allow Chinese females to return to their country or to move to an area outside the company's jurisdiction; permission is only to be given for the case of settlement in the areas mentioned."
The success of Chinese businessmen, then and now, were and are because of individual adaptation and endeavor and there was and is no conspiracy at all. As a matter of fact, Chinese businesspeople are fighting tooth and nail among themselves.
Also, wealth in Southeast Asia does not equate power, as shown in a study by Dr. Wang Gungwu. Wealth accumulated is merely for protection out of a lack of a sense of security.
I am afraid that the more riots there are, the more harder the Chinese will work to try to accumulate wealth out of the very natural instinct for survival. But the Chinese cannot be an island of prosperity surrounded by a floating mass of poverty. They must care about humanity and human kindness even though it may mean their progress is hindered.
SIA KA MOU
Jakarta