Narrow-minded attitude
Any doubts I previously harbored regarding the source of racial bigotry were certainly brought to light in the July 30 article published by The Jakarta Post and penned by Mr. Masli Arman.
I was born in Indonesia in 1947 to poor immigrants of Chinese ethnicity who lived in Sumatra prior to the forming of this great nation. I would at this time like to remind Mr. Arman that prior to Aug. 17, 1945, Indonesia as a nation did not exist. I have been Indonesian for 51 years. Some, at most, have been Indonesian for two years more than I. I have lived here all my life. I went to local schools and was raised with my classmates. I learned to speak languages by becoming a tour guide and escorting visitors through the scenic marvels of North Sumatra. Our family was never in a position to offer anything more than a roof over my head, a mat to sleep on and a meal at the end of the day.
It is with great indignity that I read comments by the likes of Mr. Arman and accept his twisted view of reality. This "racially derived arrogant attitude and superiority complex" that Mr. Arman refers to was perhaps conjured one morning while looking in the mirror. How can someone who abandons his country to seek education elsewhere, then takes that education and applies it not here, but in several countries, begin to even suggest that he shares the social values of the nation he claims to be an indigenous person of.
By his own admission, "Since obtaining my undergraduate and post graduate degrees from an Australian university in the 1950s, I worked until recently for a number of large mining and oil companies in several countries" he felt himself better than his nation of birth could provide. Where have you been the past 40 years Mr. Arman? And furthermore, where, in the formative years of this nation, did anybody receive the funds to afford overseas education for their children? Perhaps what we have here is the root source of the corruption, collusion and nepotism that has caused such great harm to the social, political and economic fabric of our nation.
What I read here is a classic case of someone looking for a scapegoat. By his own estimates, 30 percent of the ethnic Chinese "are either indifferent to or reject the idea of assimilation". That's 30 percent of six million or 1.8 million people, less than 1 percent of the nation's total. This sounds more to me like chronic paranoia if Mr. Arman can place the cause of social unrest on that sector of the population. What was he studying in Australia?
I would like to remind Mr. Arman that with the exception of the Orang Asli (the indigenous) we are all immigrants. If there is assimilation or greater sensitivity that needs to be demonstrated by anyone, why not start with yourself. Where else in the civilized world are people labeled as second-class citizens at birth, not because of the country they are born in, but simply because of their ancestors' origins? Or perhaps in Mr. Arman's near lifetime absence from Indonesia he is unaware that children of ethnic Chinese receive identity cards beginning with the number 2, subject to discrimination for the rest of their lives.
I certainly hope, Mr. Arman, that these views you so boldly publicize are yours and yours alone and not coming from the would-be leader of the Indonesian Neo Nazi party. If I may quote you one more time, "As for the minority who may still persist in refusing to assimilate and continue with their superior attitude, I would suggest that they relinquish their Indonesian citizenship and live elsewhere," might I suggest Mr. Arman, that you relinquish your Indonesian citizenship, take your narrow-minded, chauvinistic, bigoted superior attitude and go back to Australia. I hear Pauline Hanson is looking for supporters.
ANDREAS F. LIMIN
Medan, North Sumatra