Leaders unaware of discriminative rulings

Leaders unaware of discriminative rulings

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

There are still many legal instruments still on the statute
books that discriminate against ethnic and religious minorities
in Indonesia, but there are also many leaders who are unaware of
the legal instruments in question.

Speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly Amien Rais, for
example, did not know that there was Provisional Assembly (MPRS)
Decree No. 32 of 1966 which prohibits the use of the Chinese
language and characters in the mass media.

"Hasn't that decree been revoked? I should check up on the
decree first before making any comment," he told The Jakarta Post
on Thursday when he was asked to comment on the possibility that
the Assembly would revoke it.

Amien received on Thursday a courtesy call from visiting
Chinese Prime Minister Zhu Rongji who is on a two-day visit to
the country. Zhu also paid a call on House of Representatives
Speaker Akbar Tandjung.

The Indonesian Ethnic Chinese Association (Inti) said that
there were over 50 discriminatory pieces of legislation that had
not been revoked or amended.

The legislation included laws, government regulations,
presidential degrees, ministerial decrees, state circulars,
Assembly decrees, several articles of the 1945 Constitution and
other regulations issued since the colonial era up until the fall
of the New Order regime.

State Secretary/Cabinet Secretary Bambang Kesowo also said he
was unaware that there was still much legislation extant that
discriminated against ethnic and religious minorities.

Inti has been pushing for the amendment or repeal of
discriminatory legislation. The organization in the past sent a
letter to then president Abdurrahman Wahid for such legislation
to be scrapped.

Examples of discriminatory legislation:

* Assembly Provisional Decree No.32/1966 prohibiting the use of
Chinese languages and characters
* Article 6 of the 1945 Constitution which rules that the
Indonesian president should be of indigenous Indonesian origin.
* Presidential Decree No.240/1967 on basic policies regarding
citizens of foreign descent
* Presidential decree No. 50/1969 on assignment of ethnic Chinese
affairs to the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency.
* The Agrarian Affairs Directorate General Circular of 1978 on
lands/buildings owned by groups or individuals of Dutch or
Chinese descent