Golkar vows to support antidiscrimination policies
JAKARTA (JP): Five months after President B.J. Habibie instructed his administration's rank and file to scrap policies discriminating against Indonesians on the basis of ethnic origin the ruling Golkar party has taken up an agenda to draw in Chinese-Indonesian constituents.
In a party meeting in West Kalimantan on Monday, Golkar Chairman Akbar Tandjung, who is also the Minister/State Secretary, vowed the party would support the House of Representation's ratification of a United Nations convention against discrimination.
The ratification itself has been on the list of bills to be endorsed by the House before its present session ends next April 1.
Akbar boasted that Golkar wished to see all Indonesian citizens free of discrimination, arguing that everybody is equal before the law.
"Regardless of their descent, Tionghoa (Chinese-Indonesian), Arab-Indonesian or Indian-Indonesian, everyone is the same before the law," Akbar was quoted by Antara as saying to thousands of supporters in Pontianak.
Chinese-Indonesians comprise 14 percent of West Kalimantan's four million population, the third largest number after the indigenous Dayaks and the Malays.
Akbar, touring the region on Monday as part of the party's nationwide-wide consolidation, pointed out that Chinese- Indonesians would no longer face discrimination, citing citizenship documents.
They would no longer be required to show a specially-produced document called SBKRI -- issued by the country's justice ministry -- when they want identity cards or passports, Akbar said.
"It's because they are already Indonesian citizens," Akbar told a gathering at Pontianak's Syarif Abdurachman stadium where party supporters were entertained by Jakarta artists and the long-banned Chinese dragon dance attraction.
Akbar also took the chance to tell Golkar supporters that Mandarin language -- long suppressed from public usage -- would also be allowed to be taught again.
In a presidential instruction dated Sept. 16, Habibie ordered ministers, heads of state agencies, governors, mayors and regents to dispense with the terms pribumi (indigenous) and nonpribumi (nonindigenous).
The instruction has been framed to "to give equal treatment and service to all Indonesian citizens... and to remove discrimination in any form or degree, whether based on tribal, religious, racial affiliations or origins."
Chinese-Indonesians have often complained that the government systematically treats them as second-class citizens. Their identity cards (KTP) bear special codes, and careers in the military and government bureaucracy are practically closed to them.
But some days before last Feb. 16's Chinese New Year celebrations, civil servants said they had not received instructions to lift the ban.
Meanwhile, on Sunday Akbar touched on the issue of the presidential nomination and said that Habibie's candidacy for the next presidency was not yet a formal party decision.
"Though Habibie appears to be Golkar's strongest presidential candidate, the final decision rests with the Golkar's provincial branches, and Golkar-supporting organizations, as well as the public," he said as quoted by Antara.
The agency also reported that the East Java Golkar chapter said it would nominate Yogyakarta governor and monarch Sultan Hamengku Buwono X.
Chapter deputy chairman Kahfan Arifin dismissed Akbar's recent nomination of Habibie as simply an "individual" opinion. (aan)