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)