Golkar vows to support antidiscrimination policies

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)