MPR drops 'racist' reference

MPR drops 'racist' reference

Agencies, Jakarta

The People's Consultative Assembly early Sunday dropped a
"racist" reference to pribumi (indigenous Indonesian) in their
recommendations to the government on economic policy.

The majority members of the MPR, the country's highest
legislative body, rejected the inclusion of pribumi and non-
pribumi in the recommendations to the government on policies to
accelerate economic recovery after drawing cries of "racism" from
critics.

The two phrases were part of the working vocabulary of former
Indonesian autocrat president Soeharto, who during his 32-year
rule enforced a dual policy of discriminating against "non-
pribumi, primarily Indonesia's large ethnic Chinese population,
while favoring a select few ethnic Chinese business tycoons who
were his cronies.

The pribumi clause was dropped after heated debate at 2:40
a.m. Sunday morning.

Alvin Lie, an ethnic Chinese legislator from the National
Mandate Party (PAN), threatened to walk out of the plenary
session Saturday night if the pribumi phrase was included.

"If the dichotomy of pribumi and non-pribumi continues to
color our thinking, the MPR is regressing," Alvin said.

Earlier, MPR speaker and also PAN chairman Amien Rais said the
term pribumi was outdated and must be avoided.

"The use of the world pribumi would cause controversy and
create an image that after living as a free nation fro more than
half a century we still differentiate between pribumi and non-
pribumi," he said.

Meanwhile, experts welcomed the omission of the words pribumi
and non-pribumi, saying that such a dichotomy was the last thing
the country needed in its bid to recover from the economic
crisis.

Noted economists Pande Radja Silalahi and H.S. Dillon said
that a decree containing such two outdated words would only tear
the country apart while at present we needed to join hands to
handle the crisis.

"We can't go back to the old paradigm. What we need to do is
to build the country based on social and economic justice,"
Dillon told The Jakarta Post.

Both Dillon and Pande said that if the two words were
maintained in the decree it would have a negative impact on the
country, not only economically but also politically.

"People may interpret the words in the decree according to
their interests. It will effect government policies," said
Dillon.

In addition, Dillon said that it could prevent direct foreign
investment from entering the country.

"Who wants to invest in the country where the democratic
process is not functioning?" Dillon remarked.