Discrimination still common: Sociologist

Discrimination still common: Sociologist

JAKARTA (JP): A noted sociologist said on Wednesday that
President B.J. Habibie's instruction outlawing discrimination had
yet to prove to be effective considering the difficulty
experienced by Chinese-Indonesians in dealing with the
bureaucracy.

In his Sept. 16 instruction, the President banned government
agencies and officials from discriminating against citizens based
on "tribal affiliations, religion, race and societal groups".

Ministers, heads of state agencies, governors, mayors and
regents are to dispense with the use of the terms pribumi
(indigenous) and nonpribumi (nonindigenous).

"We need clarity in (the decree's) implementation, because at
the lower level it might not be applied the same way (by
officials)," Mely said after the launching of a book on Chinese-
Indonesians by renowned writer Pramoedya Ananta Toer.

"According to a 1996 rule, every Indonesian citizen only needs
an identity card and birth certificate to apply for documents,
but until now Chinese-Indonesians need to provide more, including
a letter of citizenship and proof of their change of name," Mely
told The Jakarta Post. She stressed that there should only be two
groups of residents: Indonesians and foreigners and the need for
legal certainty against discriminatory practices.

Pramoedya's book Hoakiau di Indonesia (Chinese in Indonesia)
is a reprint of the first edition printed in 1960. It was first
published by Bintang Press and was banned in the same year.

The publisher of the new edition, Garba Budaya, says the May
riots triggered publication.

One of the reviewers on Wednesday, Sumit Kumar Mandal of
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, said that apart from Pramoedya
being jailed, the deeper implication of the book being banned was
the nonexistence of polemic concerning the book, which was on "an
exploration of dimensions of a nation's identity".

The book contains Pramoedya's correspondence to "Ch. Hs-y in
P" on hoakiau. A term usually understood as overseas Chinese,
Sumit said Pramoedya referred to "natives with the culture and
norm of Tionghoa (ethnic Chinese)."

Pramoedya said the book was written in response to the
treatment of Chinese-Indonesians following the issuance of
government regulation no. 10/1959. The regulation aimed to give
more opportunity to native entrepreneurs and stated that Chinese-
Indonesians operating in rural areas were to close their
businesses by Jan. 1, 1960.

Force was apparently used in some areas. In 1960/1961 about
100,000 Chinese-Indonesians left the country, Pramoedya said.

Another reviewer, chief editor of the new Tempo weekly
Goenawan Muhammad, questioned whether racial-related riots here,
including those in the 1950s, were "state racialism" or "mass
racialism", or a combination of both.

Further study, he said might enable "better analysis of the
(recent) riots and violence, including the rapes." (01)