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"Hasn't that decree been revoked?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Ethnic Chinese Association (Inti) said that there were over 50 discriminatory pieces of legislation that had not been revoked or amended.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