Ethnic Chinese

Ethnic Chinese

The feature article titled Poor Chinese, natives live in harmony in Jembatan Lima (The Jakarta Post, Jan. 3, 1999) is both interesting and touching. In small towns and rural areas across the country, the relationship between Chinese-Indonesians and indigenous Indonesians is, in fact, quite harmonious.

Mixed marriages like that between Nenny and Wie no longer pose any problems. The majority of Chinese-Indonesians are professionals, small-scale merchants and employees of private companies. They all work hard and honestly to earn a living and collect their assets bit by bit. But these people can go nowhere for shelter every time there is a riot, in which they are always targeted (no matter what caused the riot), their houses burned, their shops looted and they themselves tortured.

Many of these Chinese-Indonesians no longer deem it relevant to tell their children they are really of "Chinese descent". However, after all sorts of racist riots, these children have "new awareness". They have to face the fact they belong to a different social group, a group in the community invariably set as a target for looting, violence, harassment and hatred, not owing to their personal mistakes. It is obviously beyond one's wish to be born Arabic, Chinese, Indian, Javanese, etc. Such is God's gift. What distinguishes all of us before Him is our deeds.

Unfortunately, it is the government that has sharpened the differences in life views between nonindigenous and the indigenous Indonesians. Such an attitude has been adopted by the government because it is the easiest way to divert attention from various problems created by the government itself.

An example of the government's inconsistency is Presidential Decree No. 56/1996 on "Evidence of Citizenship of the Republic of Indonesia", in which one of the stipulations is that children whose parents are Indonesian citizens need no longer possess a certificate of evidence of citizenship (SBKRI) and that a birth certificate will suffice to prove someone's Indonesian citizenship. Unfortunately, the immigration office still sets the SBKRI as one of the requirements for a passport application.

On this occasion, allow me to call on the justice minister, the minister of education and culture (in connection with requirements to enter a university) and other relevant ministers to firmly instruct their ranks to consistently execute Presidential Decree No. 56/1996 to prevent differences between nonindigenous and indigenous citizens from becoming wider.

ANDREAS RAHMANTO

Jakarta