Government abolished anti-Chinese rules
Government abolished anti-Chinese rules
JAKARTA (JP): President B.J. Habibie issued on Wednesday an
instruction to lift an almost three-decade ban on the use and
teaching of the Mandarin language and the discriminative
citizenship requirement for Indonesians of Chinese origin.
In the presidential decree No. 4 dated May 5, the President
ordered ministers, heads of state agencies, governors, mayors and
regents to follow up his earlier instruction barring government
agencies and officials from discriminating against Indonesians
based on their origins.
The President said his new instruction was a follow-up of
previous presidential instructions No. 56 issued in July 1996,
and decree No. 26 issued last September.
In the new instruction, he ordered the officials "based on
presidential decree No. 26, 1998, to immediately review all
regulations which ban or restrict Mandarin courses".
Noted lawyer Frans Hendra Winarta, a Chinese-Indonesian,
praised Habibie's decision as a breakthrough in eliminating
discriminative regulations against Indonesian citizens.
"Anyone must be allowed to study Chinese, but I do not agree
with the reestablishment of exclusive Chinese schools as in the
1960s," Frans told The Jakarta Post.
In moves to assimilate Chinese-Indonesians, Chinese schools
were banned, as was the use and teaching of Mandarin, the main
Chinese language.
Observers have said the targeting of Chinese in recent riots
show that such policies were not effective.
A new organization of Chinese-Indonesians set up on April 10,
the Chinese-Indonesian Association, said it aims for "natural"
assimilation, to enable full participation of Chinese-Indonesians
in the country.
The 1996 rule issued by former president Soeharto on
citizenship rendered invalid the special requirement for
citizenship documents (SKBRI), which in practice discriminated
against the ethnic Chinese.
Frans said continuing necessity for the SKBRI document showed
that the issuance of a regulation or a law did not automatically
stop discriminative practices. He said one reason the practice
continued was the cost of the document.
"Up to the present, the requirement for a SKBRI still exists.
I heard it costs Rp 5 million to get a document," said the
lawyer.
"Who would want to lose such a gold mine?"
Issuance of the documents involves the Ministry of Home
Affairs and the Ministry of Justice.
Habibie has ordered Coordinating Minister for Political
Affairs and Security Gen. Feisal Tanjung to coordinate the
implementation of his instruction.
In last September's decree, the President ordered all
government officials to administer equal treatment and services
to all Indonesian citizens "and to remove discrimination in any
form, nature or level, to all Indonesian citizens, be it based on
tribal, religious, racial affiliations or origins".
Palace officials said on Friday Habibie issued the additional
order because the implementation of his previous order had not
been fully realized by government officials. They said many
organizations, including the Embassy of the People's Republic of
China here, had already obtained a copy of the decree.
"They said they have been waiting for this decision since last
year," said the official. (prb)