Discrimination blamed for ethnic conflicts

JAKARTA (JP): Discriminative government practices have been one of the major causes of tension among ethnic groups because one group has often been favored over another.

Sofian Effendi, secretary-general of the National Research Council, said public administration had diverged from its official function of giving equal service and benefits to all citizens regardless of race or social standing.

Without specifically elaborating on the reasons, he pointed out that entrepreneurs of Chinese descent were often favored in such practices in the past.

While Indonesians of Chinese descent makeup only of 4 percent of the population, they are perceived to dominate commercial activity.

He claimed that during the 30 years of the New Order administration, only between 5 percent to 6 percent of the Rp 300 trillion in development funds were distributed to develop small- scale enterprises.

The rest, he said quoting a recent report of the National Development Planning Board, went to about 200 big companies, dominated by those of Chinese descent.

"A majority of indigenous people have the strong impression that the New Order's development policy has benefited the ethnic Chinese and this was a trigger factor of the May 13 to 15 riots," he said during a speech at a graduation ceremony at the state-run Public Administration Institute here on Saturday.

A bloody conflict in West Kalimantan last year between local Dayak tribes and transmigrants from Madura was also triggered by a perception that the Madura people enjoyed more privileges from the development program policy in the province than the local people.

He said the government should, through public administration, make a serious and systematic endeavor to curb discriminative treatment to help prevent anymore ethnic conflicts in the future.

Sofian suggested three alternative measures: the first involves providing preferential treatment to important positions for ethnic groups who have been ostracized by the administration.

The second alternative would leave the implementation of development programs to market mechanisms and let people compete between themselves.

"However, this alternative can be applied only if the government has a high commitment to universal values on fairness," he said as quoted by Antara.

The third alternative would be to recruit officials in public administration which can represent all ethnic groups to create a power balance and even wealth distribution. (rms)