Instability 'threat to ethnic Chinese safety'

JAKARTA (JP): Ethnic Chinese businesspeople said yesterday they were still hesitant to continue their businesses in Indonesia as political instability remains a threat to their safety.

The businesspeople said at a seminar that last month's riots in Jakarta and other cities reflected the fragility of their status as Indonesian citizens.

"Ethnic Chinese entrepreneurs are still reluctant to start their businesses again because they are still traumatized," the Gemala Group chairman Sofyan Wanandi said here.

He called for an end to the current political uncertainty, so that the economy could return to normal.

"How can we start if there are still protests here and there and ministers and officials are being solicited," he said, adding that the country would collapse in three months if such conditions persisted.

Yesterday's seminar, which adopted the theme reforms and good corporate governance, was attended by more than 500 businesspeople of Chinese descent, including several prominent public figures.

Speaking at the seminar were former cabinet ministers Emil Salim and Siswono Yudohusono, economists from the Center for Strategic and International Studies Djisman Simandjuntak and Mari Pangestu and noted lawyer Todung Mulya Lubis.

Ethnic Chinese make up 5 percent of the population but control about 70 percent of the economy.

The riots, which began here May 13, resulted in massive destruction of stores and business premises, most of which were owned by ethnic Chinese entrepreneurs, and physical assaults on the owners and their families.

The businesspeople stressed yesterday that much ill-feeling was still evident from indigenous people toward the Chinese community.

"I built my business for years and it got robbed and burned. Five years later, after I rebuilt the business, it got robbed and burned again," said an emotionally charged man.

Others complained that they were never considered Indonesian nationals, although they had been citizens of the country all their lives.

"The ethnic Chinese community is like the government's mistress, she is the prettiest and perhaps the most loved one, but she never gets to be taken to a party," said political expert Harry Tjan Silalahi.

Harry adopted the North Sumatra family name Silalahi, like many ethnic Chinese, in an effort to assimilate into the local culture.

Sofyan said the 32-year Soeharto regime, which ended May 21, contributed to the prevailing sentiment regarding the ethnic Chinese.

"Toward the end of the regime, government moves regarding our community excluded us from other segments of society," said Sofyan, who in the mid-1960s was active in student demonstrations that led to the downfall of the then president Sukarno,

Nonindigenous entrepreneurs often feel compelled to collude with government officials to survive, making some of them the main source of income for the bureaucrats, he said.

Former cabinet minister Emil Salim called for the formation of affirmative policies which would guarantee equal treatment for both indigenous and nonindigenous Indonesians.

"Who can blame them (ethnic Chinese) for dominating the economy if they have been prevented from entering other professions?" he asked, adding that the government had limited them from serving in the military or running for public office.

Separately, the Forum of Reform Entrepreneurs reported yesterday that about 110,000 families of Chinese descent had left the country since the riots erupted.

The group's spokesperson Nazar Haroen said 80,000 of the families said they would return if the political and security situations stabilized.

Twenty thousand families were still indecisive, and the remaining 10,000 had decided to move to Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong, Nazar said, as reported by the Antara news agency. (das)