Parties urged to end discrimination

Parties urged to end discrimination

Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Leaders of Chinese Indonesian organizations said on Friday that
the ethnic community here would only vote for political parties
that consistently fight against any forms of discrimination.

Chairman of the Chinese Indonesians Union (INTI) Edy Lembong
and chairman of the Chinese Indonesians Community Hertanto Surya
said that some 16 million voters of Chinese-descent across the
country would seek an end to widespread discriminative practices.

"We will support parties that promote an end to
discrimination, not just discrimination against Chinese but all
kinds of discrimination," Edy told a discussion here.

He said Chinese Indonesians were heterogeneous and had their
own political affiliations.

Unlike other Indonesian citizens, Chinese Indonesians have to
produce a certificate of their Indonesian citizenship, otherwise
they will be considered foreigners, Edy said.

Currently, there are three political parties set up to
accommodate Chinese Indonesians: The Indonesian Tionghoa Party
(Partindo), the Tionghoa Reform Party, and the Bhinneka Party.

But most Chinese Indonesians prefer supporting the well known
political parties.

Another speaker at the discussion, Lius Sungkarisma, the
executive leader of the Tionghoa Reform Party, said he
established the political party, not to contest the elections,
but to educate Chinese Indonesians on politics.

Chinese Indonesians were isolated from politics during the 32-
year rule of Soeharto. Many Chinese Indonesian businesspeople got
special treatment from Soeharto at a high cost, namely the hatred
of many native Indonesians.

He said that since Youth Oath Day in 1928, Chinese Indonesians
had promoted nationalism among Indonesian people.

Lius said that following the downfall of Soeharto in 1998,
there had been more space for Chinese Indonesians to express
their political views.

He acknowledged that in past elections most Chinese
Indonesians had voted for political parties on the basis of
ensuring their safety.

According to him, the political awareness of Chinese
Indonesians would help improve democracy because they would be
critical of the performance of the existing parties.