Ethnic Chinese at the ready for quick escape

JAKARTA (JP): Anecdotal evidence shows thousands of Chinese- Indonesian families in the capital have prepared themselves to pack up and head to more accommodating shores at the first sign of renewed unrest.

With passports up-to-date and in hand, the families said last month's riots taught them a valuable but painful lesson about their acute vulnerability in this society.

"My relatives and most of my students keep their passports with them so they can flee as soon as a new riot takes place," Edison Yulius, a lecturer of architecture at Tarumanegara University here, told The Jakarta Post yesterday.

The families, he said, were kept on tenterhooks that more riots may break out in the next few days.

In a desperate bid to offload their belongings and get quick cash, some are reportedly offering houses, vehicles and furniture at low prices.

Temporary

Preferred destinations for temporary refuge are Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong, which require no visas.

"If another violent riot happens again, I'll immediately rush to the airport with my two teenage daughters and leave all our belongings behind," avowed housewife Liliek of Jelambar, West Jakarta.

She said she knew of hundreds of families, neighbors and friends who shared a similar strategy to get out.

"It's no use to stay and defend our shop or house only to face an endless horrifying nightmare."

She told of a couple undergoing treatment at Bhakti Husada Hospital for deep psychological trauma.

They could not bear to face the reality of the deaths of their three teenage daughters at the family's shop at Glodok business center in West Jakarta on May 13.

"Two of the girls threw themselves into the fire that gutted the shop after they failed to help their youngest sister, who was gang raped by a mob," Liliek recounted.

Distraught, the young girl followed her sisters by jumping into the fire from the second floor of the building.

"Their parents are in a deep shock from this tragedy which took their only children, and they refuse to communicate with anybody," Liliek explained.

"The lesson of the family's grim suffering and many other bad experiences during last month's riots are more than enough for us."

Liliek said she quickly took her two teenage daughters to the local immigration office to obtain passports because she did not want her children to be victims in any future riots.

"My eldest daughter told me how her friends were stripped naked by mobs during the recent riots. They were not raped but the mobs brutally groped their breasts."

Her family lived in constant fear until their passports were completed last week.

"At least, we have a plan for survival," she said.

Hard decision

Last week, the Forum of Reform Entrepreneurs revealed that about 110,000 Chinese-Indonesian families had left the country since the riots erupted.

About 80,000 of the families planned to return if the political and security situation stabilized, 20,000 were still undecided, and the remaining 10,000 had decided to move to Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong, the group's spokesperson Nazar Haroen said.

Deep concern prevails in the Chinese-Indonesian community over the future, and for good reason.

Ethnic Chinese are the usual target for mob violence during times of hardship in Indonesia for their perceived wealth.

They make up 4 percent of the more than 200 million population but reportedly control about 70 percent of the trade and commerce through the vast archipelago. Economic recovery for the country also involves drawing them, and their business, back.

Despite the resentment and hostility against them, many Chinese-Indonesians are quick to point out that this is the only land they have ever known.

"The decision to prepare to leave Indonesia, the country where we were born and grew up, is not an easy choice," said Oin Yang Min Tze of South Jakarta.

"My shop and belongings have all been looted and burned. I still owe so many people but cannot afford to pay them. I even have to struggle for my family's daily needs."

Still, he is preparing for the worst.

"I spent the only money we had after the riots to make passports for me, my wife and my two daughters."

Oin Yang and his family plan to fly to mainland China or the United States, where his brothers are enthusiastically waiting for his family's arrival.

"But I hope our plan will not become a reality," he whispered. (bsr)