Has anti-Chinese sentiment ebbed?

By Harkiman Racheman

MEDAN (JP): In the middle of May 1998, a series of engineered anti-Chinese riots culminated in a horrific series of rapes in Jakarta and Surakarta. Condemned by the international community for its barbarity, the organized violation of human rights, especially women's rights, also triggered off the unprecedented student-led overthrow of Soeharto's dictatorial regime.

As a result, the whole country, still not fully recovered from the nightmare, has continued to lament the disappearance of its once-boasted "racial harmony". This atmosphere of mourning has seemed to worsen day by day, with similar racial wars in Sambas, Ambon and elsewhere.

Today, the masterminds behind these highly organized riots and rapes have not been brought to court. Neither has any suspect been clearly identified or disclosed to the waiting public. In fact, the Habibie administration seems to have turned a blind eye to all the international pressure on it to unravel one of the most wicked human tragedies in modern Indonesian history.

Thus, in conjunction with the first-year commemoration of the mid-May national tragedy, we may need to remind ourselves of how destructive the long-term institutionalized practice of state racism is, especially toward the vulnerable Chinese minority. At the same time, it is essential to ensure that similar dark incidents will never again happen in this reformed era of accelerated democracy.

Under the New Order regime, with its inherited Dutch colonial racist politics -- devide et impera (divide and rule) -- Indonesians of Chinese descent for over three decades could only submit themselves to various kinds of political mistreatments, exploitation and other kinds of injustices imposed on them.

It is widely acknowledged that, due to a blatant lack of political and human rights protections, Chinese-Indonesians were forced to become political scapegoats. They were used by the corrupt regime as a sacrificial buffer against indigenous Indonesians' often radical anti-establishment outcries.

Today, despite growing sympathy from around the country toward Chinese-Indonesians, there are clear signs that this pattern will not disappear immediately. Although major political parties, such as Amien Rais's National Mandate Party (PAN) and Gus Dur's National Awakening Party (PKB), have openly condemned institutionalized practices of racial discrimination against the Chinese, their promised corrective actions remain to be seen.

However, such apparent willingness to accommodate the social, political and cultural grievances of ethnic Chinese, as well as aspirations to eliminate the minority's historically inherited misfortune, cannot be underestimated. To a certain extent, it will suffice to lay down the necessary foundations for future genuine rehabilitation. That is to say, until the post-June 7 government materializes.

The inconsistency of the New Order administration in implementing the state ideology Pancasila and the 1945 Constitution -- especially with regards to fair and equal treatment of all Indonesian nationals -- has turned the Chinese into a "floating mass" or, in other words, an unprotected minority community.

Becoming a political orphan in the New Order political constellation, as it were, Chinese-Indonesians were continually victimized, systematically deprived of powers and constantly frustrated in their efforts to secure basic human rights, especially in the face of the excesses of indigenous Indonesians' political intrigues.

The Chinese were (and, to a certain degree, still are) banned, or at least strongly discouraged, from demanding their fundamental rights openly. Why? In order that they could be easily turned into targets. It is not surprising, therefore, that the upsurge of Chinese cultural revivalism in Indonesia these days, in addition to the long-awaited Chinese political party the Bhinneka Tunggal Ika Party, has seemed to worry a number of status quo supporters, who may be planning a political comeback through cliched anti-Chinese political tactics.

However, with mounting pressure from the country's vocal reformists, we can rest assured that this old racist political plot is not going to resurface unchallenged. With the idea of civil society ahead of us as the be-all-and-end-all destination for the entire nation, there is no way Chinese-Indonesians can again be easily exploited or utilized as political guinea pigs.

However, it must be stressed here that, despite some noticeable changes of attitude within the indigenous majority, there is still in our society a disturbing amount of ethnic nationalism. Closely associated with the sense of indigenousness, this demonstrative moody love for the country, though seemingly innocent, spontaneous and natural, is still heavily characterized by unhealthy anti-Chinese sentiment, deeply rooted in racist and religious fanaticism. It is not surprising, therefore, that unless this apparent misconception is reformed, this species of nationalism will potentially be the primary source of discriminative and xenophobic attitudes.

Deliberately nurtured by the New Order regime (why?, some ask), this primordialism is still "alive and kicking" in our neighborhood, even though the initiator may have temporarily left the country's political scene. The present government, in fact, seems to continue to underestimate and ignore the continuing contributions of Chinese-Indonesians in all spheres of national life (including, of course, the economy).

To mention but one example, the assassination of Hendriawan Sie, the Chinese reformist student martyr from Trisakti University, has not even been properly mentioned in contemporary discourses on the country's political reformation. It is as if, due to Hendriawan's ethnic Chinese background, his self-sacrifice is not deemed instrumental to the reform movement at all.

That is why the racial polarization, coldbloodedly slicing the country into indigenous and nonindigenous segments across the formal, social as well as bureaucratic structures, should be immediately abolished forever.

Such anti-Chinese sentiments will not only continue to discredit the Indonesian government as well as the indigenous population (for continually committing wicked discrimination), but will increasingly cause suffering on the part of the Chinese- Indonesians themselves. If unfair practices are not halted but tolerated, the Chinese will soon be deprived of all their natural rights.

In other words, unless the "legalized" practice of anti- Chinese discrimination is totally terminated, ethnic Chinese will always be the traditional targets of the tyrannical indigenous majority (backed by the government) who are not only judgmental, but dictatorially undemocratic.

With the May 1998 fall of Soeharto's administration, remembered by the Chinese for its transparently unjust and unprotective policies (except for a handful of corrupt Chinese tycoons who were Soeharto's accomplices), it is now time for indigenous Indonesians to put an end to the anti-human rights, anti-religion and anti-nationalism practices that the old regime has handed down.

Now, exactly one year later, the question remains the same: What can we do to solve the problem of anti-Chinese racial discrimination in Indonesia? Even though the answer does not get any easier, the following suggestions may prove realistic and relevant.

First, structural racism implemented by the New Order regime should stop right now. Authorities must put an end to racial discrimination, including numerous gaps in the legal system still existing, from the top of the bureaucratic ladder down to the very bottom.

Although some of these measures have been implemented by the Habibie transitional government, more far-reaching policies to stop racial discrimination be encouraged. It seems that, in the absence of necessary legal sanctions, these new regulations will not be translated into empirical actualization.

It is also high time that the nation returned whole-heartedly to the contextual substance contained in the all-encompassing Pancasila ideology and the undiscriminating 1945 Constitution.

Even though a certain amount of revision of certain parts of the Constitution has been suggested to be essential to bring it up to date to the test of time, the ideology, not yet contaminated by biased interpretations, may function as the most legitimate reference for equal treatment for all citizens of the country.

Finally, it cannot be overemphasized that there is nothing more urgent today than legal certainty to bring about justice and order. For instance, criminals must be brought to court regardless of their backgrounds. The provocateurs or "intellectual actors" behind the racial riots must be arrested and held responsible for the collateral damage they have caused.

Thus, even though it would be too much to ask for a complete abolition of anti-Chinese discrimination now -- the ideal standard which Indonesia will find hard to achieve -- there is optimism for a future Indonesia free of racial discrimination.

The writer graduated from Victoria University of Wellington. Based in Medan, he is currently a freelance writer and teacher at private universities.