Law needed to protect minority interests

Law needed to protect minority interests

The mass rioting in Jakarta and other cities in the middle of
May badly affected many businesses owned by Chinese Indonesians.
Director of the Indonesian Business Data Center, Christianto
Wibisono,proposes measures to revive their businesses.

Question: How much do you estimate the direct losses incurred
by the arson, destruction and looting in the recent rioting?

Christianto: The direct losses might have been as high as Rp
10 trillion (US$909 million) since thousands of houses, shops and
other buildings were burned, destroyed and looted. In my
daughters' housing complex in West Jakarta alone, where about 60
houses were set ablaze, the losses might have totaled Rp 6
billion. We have yet to calculate the indirect losses, which
includes the halt in the operation of shops. The cessation of
their operations also means the obstruction of distribution for
industrial activities.

Even though the targets of the rioting were generally the
assets of the ethnic Chinese, why did some Chinese Indonesians
also take part in the looting?

The Chinese Indonesian looters were those living in slum
areas. That indicates that the rioting was also partly caused by
the widening gap between the rich and poor, besides racial
prejudices between indigenous and nonindigenous people.

Did the rioting cause capital flight?

Yes. But the amount of funds sent abroad by the ethnic Chinese
after the rioting was not much because most of them, as well as
corrupt government officials, had already put their money,
estimated to reach tens of billions of dollars, overseas not long
after the start of the monetary crisis last July.

How long will it be before ethnic Chinese businesspeople
restart their businesses?

I think it will not be too difficult for them to revive their
business facilities and generate new capital. The most difficult
thing for them now is how to cope with their trauma. My
traumatized daughter, for instance, will never return to her
home. They need a feeling of safety to resume business activity.
The funds which are now being saved overseas will never return
either, unless security is guaranteed.

President B.J. Habibie has promised that he would no longer
tolerate discrimination based on differences of race, religion or
groups. Is such a presidential promise adequate?

Such a promise has been issued several times by the government
but when seemingly organized criminals incited the mid-May
rioting, no security forces were available to stop their arson,
looting and vandalizing.

So, I think we need a law to protect the interests of
minorities. Furthermore, more than 20 existing regulations, which
are discriminative in nature, must be revoked or revised. The
regulations include the one on civil registration, which has
encouraged local administration officials to offer "better
services" in return for illegal levies.

Is it possible for indigenous Indonesians to develop the
country's economy with a high growth rate without the
participation of ethnic Chinese businesses?

It would be difficult because the ethnic Chinese contribute
about two-thirds to the country's economy. Chinese Indonesians
contribute little to business sectors dominated by state-owned
companies but play a major role in other sectors.

In train transportation and business ventures for fuels,
asphalt, fertilizer, dynamite and methanol, for example, they
play no role. The government is the main manager of these
sectors. But the ethnic Chinese dominate in bus transportation,
banking, construction, coffee plantations, forestry and the
production of alcohol, textiles, pulp, paper, electronic
products, jewelry and cigarettes.

The ethnic Chinese also strongly dominate in the distribution
of goods. That's why as soon as their shops were burned, the
distribution network in the country almost collapsed. The
government is now trying to encourage cooperatives to play a
bigger role in the distribution of goods but are they ready for
the job? The State Logistics Agency (Bulog) has actually
prioritized companies owned by indigenous Indonesians to
distribute its goods, such as sugar, but those companies, in
turn, assign nonindigenous Indonesians to carry out their jobs on
a fee basis.

Is it true that ethnic Chinese conglomerates have developed
through collusive practices with government officials?

Only a few of them have developed through collusive practices
but because their businesses are big, the amount of funds
involved were big too.

What do you think is the best way to narrow the gap between
the rich, which are mostly ethnic Chinese, and the poor, which
are mostly indigenous Indonesians, to reduce social jealousy?

I wouldn't mind the introduction of an affirmative action law
with the aim of, say, providing privileges to indigenous people.
Such an affirmative action program, in spite of its
discriminatory principle, would be positive because it would
offer assistance to the weak. But such a policy should not allow
any resistance to the growth of the strong or drive indigenous
Indonesians to become lazy, by selling their job accreditations
to other parties.

The collection of funds equal to 2 percent of companies' net
profits -- if the profits exceeded Rp 100 million a year -- under
a presidential decree issued by former president Soeharto was a
bad example of helping the weak by taking from the strong.
Furthermore, such fund collections created discipline problems in
state-budgeting and their accountability was doubtful. (riz)