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Earlier, MPR speaker and also PAN chairman Amien Rais said the term pribumi was outdated and must be avoided.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Noted economists Pande Radja Silalahi and H.S. Dillon said that a decree containing such two outdated words would only tear the country apart while at present we needed to join hands to handle the crisis.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.