One man's trauma testifies to sad experiences of many
JAKARTA (JP): "Our sweat had not fully dried after almost 10 years of hard work when our small drug store was looted and burned by rioters," Chinese-Indonesian Anton, not his real name, recalled grimly.
His shop, selling a variety of local and Chinese medicines and herbs on Jl. Raya Ciledug in South Jakarta, was transformed into a charred building in a matter of hours after mobs forcibly opened its rolling doors, cleared the contents and set it on fire in the afternoon of May 13.
"The mobs even took away the bucket and spoons of my little children," Anton told The Jakarta Post last weekend.
He said he and his wife built the business -- valued at some Rp 200 million (US$15,500) -- after many years on the bread line.
"It's our only property. And now, it's gone just like that, in front of my eyes," said Anton, a former salesman at Indofood Sukses Makmur.
The only untouched property of the two-children family, who live with relatives on a housing complex near their damaged shop, is a Kijang minivan.
"Just in case we're forced to leave this country, we'll sell that car to obtain passports and visas for me and my family," Anton said.
His father and grandfather also experienced similarly tough experiences.
"The shop of my grandfather, who was selling daily goods in a small village called Desa Bangun in North Sumatra was looted and burned in an anti-Chinese riot in 1947," he said.
During another outbreak of racist unrest, in 1990, his father's shop in the North Sumatra town of Pematang Siantar, which also sold basic items, was set on fire.
Anton's wife, who accompanied him during the interview, continuously massaged her sweating hands nervously.
Anton and his wife, who grew up in Pemanatang Siantar, have no idea what to do now.
"I spend most of the time at home now. To be honest, I'm still in a deeply traumatic state.
"Worst of all, most of the people on the streets outside there still see us, people with the slanting eyes, as if we have committed big sins against them, and for that they are ready to kill us," he said.
"Ugh... I find that our lives are absolutely worthless nowadays," Anton said.
Hard days
Like most businessmen whose property was attacked during the May 13 -- May 15 riots, Anton's family is still suffering from the great shock.
Their sleep is mostly colored by repeated nightmares: the fire that gutted their shop, the cheerful mobs looting their merchandise and the sea of people, screaming "burn, burn, burn".
"Even the ticking of the clock on the wall has woken me abruptly in the middle of the night and left me in fear," said Anton's wife.
The housewife also finds it impossible to block out the screams of the people trapped in the nearby four-story Ciledug Plaza department store, which was also set on fire by the mobs that day.
"Every few minutes, the helpless screams ring in my ears and I can't stop them," she said.
A few minutes before the interview, a group of junior high school students, resplendent in painted uniforms, faces and hair, passed through the housing complex carrying stones, belts and sticks in their hands.
The students, who had just celebrated their graduation day, were apparently ready for a brawl.
While passing through the complex, they shouted anti-Chinese remarks.
"You Chinese people have done nothing for this country. Now come out from your hiding places," screamed one of the students under the watchful eyes of the local residents.
Earlier in the day, Anton's 10-year-old daughter, Sinta (not her real name) hurriedly came back from school and asked her mother: "Mother, are the people going to kill all Chinese- Indonesian families like us?"
Anton's wife could only hug her eldest daughter without giving any explanation.
The girl said she read a lot of graffiti painted on buildings on the way to her school, almost all of which was anti-Chinese, such as "Kill the Chinese" or "Kick the Chinese out".
"How could you explain such things to a little girl like her?" asked the mother.
"God, I have no tears left," she whispered.
A day earlier, Anton cleaned up a painted "BMC" sign left by an unidentified person on their house's front fence.
"I don't know anything about the sign but my neighbors told me to quickly remove it because the letters stand for Basmi Milik Cina (Destroy Chinese Property)," he said.
Similar signs can still be found on several houses and buildings believed to be owned by Chinese-Indonesians in certain areas of the city.
Since the riots erupted, Anton has displayed in front of his house a Moslem prayer mat and banners written in Arabic. He borrowed them from his neighbors.
"We have no other option," he said.
He, however, hopes that the country will still be able to protect the lives of the Chinese-Indonesians.
"This is also our country. We were all born and grew up here," Anton said.
Data from the Coordinating Body for National Unity (Bakom PKB) reveals that 1,286 Chinese-Indonesians have reported to the agency as being victims of the recent riots.
Some of the helpless victims were raped and molested by the mobs, chairwoman Roesita Noer told reporters yesterday.
"Bakom PKB, therefore, urges ABRI (the Armed Forces) to give security guarantees to the Chinese-Indonesians," she said. (bsr)