Govt told to end discrimination
Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Experts and a politician of Chinese descent demanded on Thursday that the government enforce the termination of discriminatory rulings against Chinese-Indonesians and revoke the remaining rulings to ensure equality among the country's citizens.
"We praise the adoption of the Chinese New Year or Imlek as a national holiday and the policy to scrap the term that identifies Chinese-Indonesians as non-indigenous people as good signals to develop equality.
"But there are some basic discriminatory rulings which have not been revoked, while those already annulled remain non- operational," Chinese-Indonesian expert Andrie Wongso told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.
Andrie was referring to a crucial decree on the Republic of Indonesia Citizenship Certificate (SBKRI) which in fact has already been revoked, but many institutions such as immigration office and universities still require the SBKRI for Chinese- Indonesian applicants on the grounds that there are no operational rulings that enforce the revocation of the decree.
It was former president Soeharto who issued Presidential Decree No. 56/1996 which states that SBKRI would not longer be in force.
The governments after Soeharto have issued several decrees aimed at eliminating discrimination against Chinese-Indonesians, but many other discriminatory rulings remain in effect.
Andrie questioned whether the problem was a lack of technical instructions for its implementation and why the government failed to issue such instructions to make the institutions comply with the new decrees.
The most controversial SBKRI case occurred last year when prominent badminton player Hendrawan faced difficulty in obtaining a SBKRI despite his contribution to Indonesia's victory in the Thomas Cup world men's team championship.
He finally obtained a SBKRI only after President Megawati Soekarnoputri intervened.
Last year, Megawati declared imlek a national holiday, effective in 2003, for the sake of solidarity.
Andrie suggested that the government look at Chinese- Indonesians here as an asset for the country who would develop the nation alongside other indigenous people.
"Many Chinese-Indonesians want to dedicate themselves like Kwik Kian Gie, State Minister for National Development Planning, but they hesitate due to the discriminatory atmosphere," he said.
Ernawati Sugondo, an advisor of the Chinese-Indonesians Society, and Ponijan, leader at the Chinese-Indonesian Reform Party shared Andrie's view.
"There are many changes now, but in fact discriminatory measures and rulings persist," Ernawati said.
Besides the SBKRI case, dozens of discriminatory rulings must be revoked, including a decree issued by the minister of religious affairs that does not recognize Confucianism as one of the country's beliefs.
"The decree creates difficulties for Chinese-Indonesians who follow Confucianism to get married here. Their marital status is not recognized here," she said.
Almost 5 percent of the country's 210 million people or 10.5 million people are ethnic Chinese.
Discriminatory regulations
1. Presidium Cabinet Instruction No. 37/1967 about Main Government Policies on People of Chinese Descent.
2. Minister of Justice Decree No. JB/1978 about a Certificate of Citizenship for People of Chinese Descent.
3. Minister of Justice Decree No. MO1441/1983 about a certificate of citizenship based on dual citizenship between Indonesia and People's Republic of China.
4. Minister of Education and Culture Decree No. 170/1975 about assimilation directives on education.
5. Minister of Home Affairs Decree No. 455.2/1998 about the management of temples.
6. A letter from the Minister of Social Welfare to the Minister of Home Affairs No. 764/1983 about policies related to the Confucian community.
7. An Internal Memo from the Ministry of Information No. 2/1988 about the banning of publications and advertisements using Chinese characters.