Observers: Economic motives behind riots
Observers: Economic motives behind riots
JAKARTA (JP): Observers agreed on Monday that unrest and
hatred of Chinese-Indonesians was rooted in economic gaps rather
than racial and religious differences.
The observers also told a seminar on assimilation that
violations in business ethics by some Chinese-Indonesians, and
the privileges accorded them by Soeharto's New Order regime, were
the dominant factors in social disputes between the community and
indigenous Indonesians.
According to a National Institute of Sciences' senior
researcher, Thee Kian Wie, "It's huge economic gaps, not
religious, ethnic and cultural differences, that have been behind
the disputes."
"Although there are very wealthy native Indonesians and very
poor Chinese-Indonesians, the latter community is, in general,
living in better conditions than the first," he said.
The Indonesian Indigenous Businessmen Association's chairman,
Suryo B. Sulistiyo, said the gap existed because of nontechnical
factors such as collusion, corruption and nepotistic practices in
business.
"It's the domination of the Chinese-Indonesians in business
that is the root of the disputes," Suryo said at the seminar,
which was opened by the Ministry of Defense secretary-general Lt.
Gen. Soeyono. "No disputes would have occurred had there been
equal distribution in economics."
A. B. Susanto, a Chinese-Indonesian consultant on human
resources development, agreed that violations of business ethics
by a few Chinese-Indonesian entrepreneurs were behind the
strained relation between the two communities.
Politician Ridwan Saidi said the Chinese-Indonesians' "black"
political record added to the hatred among the indigenous people.
"The activities of some Chinese-Indonesians affiliated with
the (now-banned) Indonesian Communist Party in the early 1960s
had brought negative impacts on the whole Chinese-Indonesian
community, which are still felt now," said Ridwan, who now chairs
the New Masjumi Party.
Junus Jahja, who chairs the Institute for Research on
Assimilation, suggested that Chinese-Indonesians improve their
relations with their native brethren.
"It will be wonderful if every Chinese-Indonesian can have at
least 10 close indigenous Indonesian friends," he told seminar
participants.
Junus, however, said people should not dismiss the success of
years of effort to assimilate six million Chinese-Indonesians.
"If compared with Chinese-Malaysians, almost all of the
Chinese-Indonesians can speak and write Bahasa Indonesia," he
said.
"Only a small number of young Chinese-Indonesians now still
have strong orientation for their homeland China, while most are
Indonesia-oriented," he said. (imn)