Drawing on history for harmony

By Pramoedya Ananta Toer

The following article is based on a paper presented at the recent relaunch of a book by the author of this article entitled Hoakiao di Indonesia (Overseas Chinese in Indonesia).

JAKARTA: Racist sentiment toward the Chinese in Indonesia, which peaked with massive rioting in Jakarta and other cities in the middle of May, has been developing since the 18th century.

The first outbreak of racial violence toward the Chinese took place in 1740 and was clearly engineered by the VOC (the Dutch United East-Indies Company). Sources referred to by Jan Risconi in his thesis Sja'ir Kompeni Welanda Berperang Dengan Tjina (1935) (Poems on the VOC's War against the Chinese) make it clear. It is regrettable that the thesis, which analyses Malay poetry written in Arabic characters, was written in Dutch so that nowadays it is less accessible to the majority of people.

Anti-Chinese riots were first recorded in the Central Java city of Surakarta (Solo) in 1740. The city was a center for the production and trade in batik, and the 1740 incident, which was instigated by the VOC, disrupted the peaceful coexistence that indigenous people and the Chinese of the area had historically enjoyed.

At that time, colonial rulers assisted by the VOC were developing the ethical policy, a policy which accepted the intellectual awakening of indigenous peoples, provided that enlightenment was not of a political nature. The philosophy underpinning this policy was similar to that used by the New Order to justify the floating mass policy.

Racial tension was also recorded in the East Java city of Surabaya around the time that Chinese traders gained a victory with their boycott against the giant Western companies of the day and while an awakening marked by the birth of the Sarekat Islam was spreading through the indigenous population. The Sarekat Islam was a Moslem group which in a very short time grew into a burgeoning mass movement. The race riots sparked by these developments are elucidated in Sang Pemula (The Beginner), a 1985 work by Hasta Mitra.

Only a limited number of sources make reference to the fear Western settlers held toward the awakening of indigenous masses with religious beliefs different from theirs. Although the Western settlers formed a very small minority, they had colonial power as the backbone of their existence.

An anti-Chinese riot also took place in Kudus, Central Java, in 1916. The incident, the town's second, engulfed the whole town and lead to many deaths. It is fortunate that Tan Boen Kim went on to record the incident in Peroesoehan di Koedoes (Riots in Kudus), but it is a pity that the work, which is based on press reports, did not investigate the background to the incident. The author did not push the possible involvement of the ruling elite, and kept reproach of the local administration to a personal level -- he deplored their attitude -- and refrained from lambasting it as an institution.

An example of anti-Chinese racism after independence is the issuance of Govt. Regulation No. 10/1960 -- a startling, nay astounding piece of legislation given that the independent Indonesian nation had only recently been founded on the Pancasila philosophy.

The book Hoakiau di Indonesia (Overseas Chinese in Indonesia), relaunched here on Oct. 21, was first published by Bintang Press in 1960 in reaction to that government regulation.

The regulation was responsible for racial abuse committed by the Army in West Java in 1963. At the time, I was a lecturer in the Faculty of Letters at Res Publika University, a seat of learning then owned by Baperki (Indonesian Citizenship Consultative Body)-- a communication forum for civil affairs -- and which is now called Trisakti. My students, who were ethnic Chinese in majority, told me of their families' treatment at the hands of the military in West Java. This formal policy of racism, developed by government officials, was designed to waylay relations between the Republic of Indonesia and the People's Republic of China. The incident was a splinter of shrapnel propelled here from the Cold War battlefields and was most certainly to the benefit of the West.

It is surprising that anti-Chinese racism continued after independence, given the government's adherence to the Pancasila philosophy and the important role played by the ethnic-Chinese in the national independence movement before and during the Japanese occupation in World War II. The ethnic-Chinese also fought and helped in the revolution after the war had ended. Only a few ethnic-Chinese joined Pao An Tui and sided with the Dutch. Likewise, not all indigenous people took the side of the Netherlands Indies Civil Administration (Nica).

The role played by the Chinese in this period of history is discussed in Lima Jaman, Perwudjudan Integrasi Wajar (Five Epochs, Realization of Natural Integration) by Siauw Giok Tjhan, Yayasan Teratai, Jakarta-Amsterdam, May 1981. A wider exposure of indigenous-Chinese relations stretching from the first migrations in the Dongson or bronze age right up to the 1970s is given by Yoe-Sioe Liem in Die ethnische Minderheit der Uberseechinesen im Entwicklungsprozess Indonesiens (Verlag Breitenbach, Saarbrucken, Fort Lauderdale, 1980).

From an early age, indigenous and Chinese cultures have integrated with wonderful effect. For example, the arrival of the Dongson civilization brought the selindro tone system to Java via the Cailendra kingdom. The selindro tone system is the foundation of gamelan music, now world famous and explicitly associated with high Javanese culture.

Another prominent figure, Liem Koen Hian, who founded the Partai Tionghoa-Indonesia (Chinese Indonesian Party) in September 1932, cooperated with the leading figures in the national independence movement of the time. He was not rich personally, but always gave them the help they needed. From the beginning, he encouraged the abolition of racial discrimination to foster unity among all Indonesians, including the ethnic Chinese. The party insisted on using the Indonesian language, which at the time was synonymous with the press language of Malay-Chinese, even although the membership included many graduates of Dutch universities.

Liem and Kho Sien Hoo were two Chinese-Indonesian freedom fighters who shared a similar fate. Despite their services to the nation, they went on to join the millions who fell victim to the New Order regime and were incarcerated as a political prisoners. Freed on May 1, 1979, Liem Koen Hian left Indonesia and settled in the Netherlands, where he died. He became embittered in prison after it became apparent that other leading independence movement figures were unwilling to acknowledge his plight, let alone help him, when before he had been prepared to surrender his life to the cause of a fledgling Indonesia. Returned his freedom, he abandoned his Indonesian citizenship.

Kho Sien Hoo who made a noteworthy contribution to the revolution was a member of the Partai Tionghoa Indonesia and reached the rank of supreme commander of Laskar Rakyat (People's Soldiers) in the Magelang and Kedu areas of Central Java. Together with a People's Security Force unit (BKR), they captured Nakamura Butai arms and fought the British Ghurka Regiment and the Nica in Ambarawa, Central Java, at the beginning of the revolution.

He was born in 1905 and died in November 1969. During the course of his life he changed his name to Surjo Budihandoko. The decorations he wore on his chest were an official acknowledgement of his services to the country and the nation. Unlike Liem Koen Hian, Kho lived out his life in peace, undisturbed by the New Order regime.

Many other Chinese-Indonesians gave meritorious service to the nation and the recurrence of anti-Chinese riots is therefore surprising. It is ironic that the worst outbreak of all took place at the end of Soeharto's New Order era in May 1998, an era during which Pancasila was learned by rote from elementary school up to university. These teachings have apparently remained as a mere lip service to the issue and have not sunk into the heart of the matter. Could it also be possible that Siauw Giok Tjhan and Liem Koen Hian were deeply disappointed by the lip service paid to race relations and abandoned the country and their Indonesian citizenship as a result?

No racism should exist in Indonesia. It is a disgrace that in half a century of practicing Pancasila, the savagery of May could still have been possible as a result of the hypocrisy of the ruling elite.

At the beginning of 1946, I traveled by rail from Jakarta to a military base in Cikampek, West Java. A young man sitting next to me showed me a book written by S. Soedjojono, a famous painter. The book discussed a newly born baby with a Mongolian spot, a bluish birthmark on the buttock. The birthmark was supposedly a sign that the baby had Mongolian or Chinese blood.

In the 13th century, Kublai Khan of China and his troops established a kingdom centering around Beijing. Chinese pirates also set up a diaspora in Palembang, South Sumatra. Beijing sent an expedition to Palembang and captured the chief pirate and sentenced him to death in Beijing, but the diaspora continued to develop and one of its members, an individual known as Jin Bun, went on to became the first Moslem king of Demak in Central Java.

Inhabitants of the diaspora intermarried with local people and the resulting mix of blood lead to a people with greater body height and clearer skin. The influence of this gene pool then expanded into the Lampung region.

If it is true that a blue birthmark on babies is a sign of Chinese blood, can the 1998 riots really be called racial? The riots were a crime against humanity, savagery, irrespective of who the perpetrators and the victims were.

In answer to the question of how to put an end to these crimes against humanity it should be said that telling the story of Siauw Giok Tjhan and others like him would help.

The writer is a prominent Indonesian writer who was imprisoned by Soeharto's administration for 14 years without trial on suspicion of being a communist.