Imlek in the eyes of INTI chairman

Imlek in the eyes of INTI chairman

By Oei Eng Goan

JAKARTA (JP): Gone are the days when Indonesians of Chinese
origin had to restrain themselves from celebrating the Lunar New
Year in festive mood and with colorful attractions like the
traditional lion and dragon dances.

Under former president Soeharto's rule, everything related to
Chinese culture was banned from public display and the ethnic
Chinese here were discouraged from celebrating the Lunar New Year
in the grand, traditional Chinese style.

All this has changed under the fledgling democratic government
of President Abdurrahman Wahid, better known as Gus Dur.

The Lunar or Chinese New Year, better known locally as Imlek,
which this year falls on Jan. 24, marks the beginning of a new
year in the lunar calendar believed to be have been introduced by
China's legendary Emperor Huangdi in the year 2637 B.C.

For scores of centuries, the Chinese New Year, based on the
lunar calendar, would fall sometime between Jan. 20 and Feb. 19.
And those are the days that mark the end of the winter season.
This explains why China today celebrates the Lunar Year as the
Spring Festival.

Earlier this week, a number of Indonesian Chinese
organizations proposed to the Jakarta government that the Lunar
New Year be declared a national holiday, giving rise to pros and
cons being voiced among the general public, including the ethnic
Chinese community.

Minister of Religious Affairs Muhammad Tolchah Hasan told
journalists earlier this week that he had recommended to
President Abdurrahman that Imlek be made a national holiday and
was awaiting a presidential decision.

In a bid to give a better insight on the significance of Imlek
to the Chinese people in general, The Jakarta Post interviewed on
Thursday a leading entrepreneur turned community leader, Eddie
Lembong, who himself is an Indonesian of Chinese origin.

Eddie is currently the chairman of the Association of
Indonesians of Chinese Descent (INTI), which was set up in
February 1999 in Jakarta, nine months after the bloody anti-
Chinese riots in the capital that brought about international
condemnation.

INTI aims at guiding and developing the entire potential of
Chinese Indonesians as an integral part of the Indonesian nation
and people.

The following are excerpts from Eddie's comments on Imlek and
its celebration in the country:

"Imlek is an inherent part of Chinese culture. Even in
Indonesia, especially in Java and some parts of Sumatra, it has
been well and traditionally celebrated for centuries. The
Confucianists regard it as a holy day to revere their parents and
to drive away evil spirits and bad omens so that all the family
members will be able to pass the year joyfully and safely.

"If we consider Imlek as a religious day for the
Confucianists, then it is worth considering making it a national
holiday, be it a full national holiday or just an optional one,
as it is in line with the government's policy of treating all
religions here as equal. But if Imlek is regarded as the new year
of the ethnic Chinese, then it is a different argument. As the
ethnic Chinese here are part of the Indonesian nation, we, in
INTI, believe that it is inappropriate to ask the government to
declare Imlek a national holiday. There are hundreds of other
ethnic groups in Indonesia, so one can imagine how many national
holidays there would be in a year if each ethnic group were to
demand that their traditional festivals be made national
holidays.

"Just like our other Indonesian brothers and sisters, the
Chinese Indonesians themselves are not homogeneous (as their
ancestors comprise people from various provinces in China who
speak and have adopted different dialects and customs). Based on
this awareness, we have to wisely welcome Gus Dur's democratic
policy that respects and upholds the plurality of Indonesian
cultures and peoples.

"We, Indonesians of Chinese descent, should by no means be
immersed in a state of euphoria now that the President has given
us a respected status like any other (indigenous) Indonesian
nationals, because we must also realize that there are still many
Indonesian people who will not readily accept the new policy
(after years of discrimination against the ethnic Chinese).

"We should be grateful for the introduction of the new policy.
We have to do our best in return. We should give something in
return or in gratitude, not to Gus Dur but to our motherland
Indonesia and the Indonesian nation and people.

"Don't let the euphoria lead us to engage in improper conduct
or behavior that could hurt the feelings of the majority of
Indonesian people. This doesn't mean that we should not celebrate
Imlek.
On the contrary, feel free to celebrate it. Feel at ease as if
you were celebrating Imlek in your own home, because Indonesia is
our home and we are part of the Indonesian people.

"Celebrate it in an entertaining way, but don't be wasteful,
especially at a time like this when many of our Indonesian
brothers and sisters are living in poverty due to the myriad of
problems still plaguing the country."

Those were the views of Eddie Lembong, 64, a pharmacist who
founded the Pharos pharmaceutical company in 1971 and, along with
his associates, developed it into one of the country's leading
enterprises, one that has withstood the economic woes which began
to assail the country in late 1997 and which brought many large
local companies to ruin.

He called on Chinese Indonesians to make this year's Imlek
celebration a force for driving away all the bad luck that may
befall the country so that all the Indonesian people, regardless
of their cultural and religious backgrounds or ethnicity, can
pass the year in happiness and safety.

Gong Xi Fa Cai