Govt asked to protect indigenous businesspeople

Govt asked to protect indigenous businesspeople

JAKARTA (JP): A government ruling that keeps people of Chinese
descent from business fields traditionally run by their
indigenous counterparts will avoid further ethnic tension, former
minister of home affairs Rudini suggested yesterday.

Rudini said such a regulation would ensure that small
businesses would not succumb to big companies, especially those
owned by ethnic Chinese. The government could expand the
protective measures to informal sectors, he added.

"We have learned that it is shops and houses owned by ethnic
Chinese that always become the target of vandalism in riots, no
matter what triggered the riots," said Rudini, chairman of the
Institute for Strategic Studies of Indonesia.

He was speaking at a preview of a national dialog on a
harmonious relationship among various ethnic groups in Indonesia,
scheduled for next Tuesday.

The dialog is organized by the Center for Information and
Development Studies (CIDES), a think tank affiliated with the
Association of Indonesian Moslem Intellectuals (ICMI).

Rudini, also a member of the ICMI board of patrons, said the
protective regulation should clearly define areas in which ethnic
Chinese were allowed to run their businesses.

People of Chinese descent make up less than 5 percent of
Indonesia's population of 200 million people, but they control
approximately 60 percent of the national economy, causing
resentment in some layers of society.

A series of sectarian riots in Java prior to the May 29
general election deteriorated into anti-Chinese sentiment. A riot
broke out last month in Ujungpandang, South Sulawesi, after a
mentally ill Chinese man killed a nine-year-old "indigenous"
girl.

At least eight nightclubs, a Buddhist temple, a Protestant
church, 25 shops, 10 cars and 58 motorcycles were burned and
another 1,471 shops, 67 cars and 100 motorcycles were damaged in
the Ujungpandang unrest.

Rudini said ethnic Chinese businesspeople should also
encourage a more balanced economy by helping their indigenous
counterparts improve their competitive power and increase their
income.

"The Chinese descents are Indonesian citizens who have to
apply economic democracy as stipulated by the state ideology
Pancasila," he said.

Military experts Lt. Gen. (ret) Sayidiman Suryohadiprodjo and
Maj. Gen. (ret) Maulani Z.A., entrepreneurs Sofyan Wanandi and
Jusuf Kalla, historian Ong Hok Ham, economic analyst Kwik Kian
Gie and human rights campaigner Baharuddin Lopa are scheduled to
speak at the one-day seminar. (amd)