Govt told to end discrimination
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not been revoked, while those already annulled remain non-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already been revoked, but many institutions such as immigration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.