LIPI team conducts study on interethnic relations

LIPI team conducts study on interethnic relations

JAKARTA (JP): A study on how members of ethnic groups in the
country relate to one another is currently being conducted by the
National Institute of Science (LIPI), it was reported on Friday.

The head of a 12-member LIPI research team, Rusdi Muchtar,
said he hoped the study would yield results that could be used by
the government to improve its policies with regards to the issue.

"The recent racially-motivated riots raised many questions,
chiefly abroad," communications expert Rusdi said in Bandung,
Antara reported.

Rusdi said he hoped his team would provide an insight into the
May riots in which over 1,200 people died and over 100 Chinese-
Indonesian women were reportedly gang-raped.

The team includes noted scholars, researchers and historians
including Taufik Abdullah, Mohamad Sobary, Soewarsono, Ninuk
Kleden, Thung Ju Lan, Abdul Rachman Patji, Ibnu Qoyim,
Rochmawati, Hayaruddin Siagian, Pauline R. Hendrati and
Widjajanti.

Rusdi, the team's coordinator, said the team has been working
on the study since July.

We are currently making field observations in areas selected
for study. The areas are in Jakarta, the West Java towns of
Bekasi, Tangerang and Bandung, Semarang in Central Java, Surabaya
in East Java and Lampung on the island of Sumatra.

Rusdi said the team would make the results of the study public
next March.

He said the study aimed to obtain "concepts and strategies" on
how to address problems arising from the relationships between
different ethnic groups in the country. Special attention will be
given to Chinese-Indonesians and their relationship with other
ethnic groups.

The study will also seek to identify "deviations in the
process of assimilation between ethnic groups," he said.

Making all ethnic groups in the country a part of the nation
is essential, Rusdi said, adding that it was an ideal to which
the country had aspired even before independence was proclaimed
in 1945.

The team also plans to look at issues associated with the
social and economic gap in the country that he said had created
"ethnic pyramids".

Although making up only 4 percent of the population, Chinese-
Indonesians are perceived to be the dominant force in the
country's economy.

The recent riots, in which they were targeted by violent mobs,
has driven a significant number of them out of business.

Rusdi said the team would examine how Chinese-Indonesians were
perceived by other ethnic groups and the influence exerted on
these perceptions by the country's political and economic elite.
(aan)