PDI-P faction slams govt for racist policies

PDI-P faction slams govt for racist policies

Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Departing from its usual passivity, the Indonesian Democratic
Party of Struggle (PDI-P) faction at the House of Representatives
criticized the government of President Megawati Soekarnoputri on
Thursday for failing to put an end to racial discrimination.

The faction said numerous discriminatory practices, especially
against Indonesians of Chinese descent, continued to be committed
and condoned by state officials at all levels.

"There is no excuse; the government of Megawati must stop all
kinds of discrimination," PDI-P faction member Sukowaluyo
Mintorahardjo said.

The criticism comes as the Constitutional Court reinstated the
civil rights of former Indonesian Communist Party members earlier
this week, which consequently sparked calls for an end to all
discriminatory policies against them.

Megawati chairs the PDI-P, which is aiming for majority votes
in the April general election for a chance to contest the July
presidential election. Megawati is the only presidential
candidate put forth by the PDI-P, which has yet to nominate her
running mate.

Many parties have been wooing the Chinese-Indonesian
electorate, who account for 4 percent of the 216 million-strong
population.

Sukowaluyo said many officials had maintained discriminatory
practices by requiring Chinese-Indonesians to produce Indonesian
citizenship certificates, known as the SBKRI, for all
administrative processes.

The practice stems from the now defunct 1978 decree issued by
the Minister of Justice that required Chinese-Indonesians to
submit their SBKRI when applying for ID cards or passports.

The decree was revoked through a 1996 presidential decree,
which also annulled all other discriminatory regulations against
Chinese-Indonesians. A presidential instruction was issued in
1998 as operational regulation of the decree.

Article 4 of the 1996 presidential decree says that ID cards,
family certificates or birth certificates can be used instead of
the SBKRI.

Eight years after the revocation, however, discriminative
practices prevail, Sukowaluyo said.

"I believe the discriminative practices are retained for
under-the-table money," Sukowaluyo said.

PDI-P legislator Dwi, however, jumped to the defense of
Megawati, saying that her government had been doing its best to
stop racial discrimination.

"All that we can do is to improve control over discriminatory
practices. The government must take punitive measures against
those who violate the regulations," she said.

Responding to speculations that the criticism was simply aimed
at winning the hearts of Chinese-Indonesians during election
year, fellow legislator Didi said his faction had been studying
the issue for some time.

"We made the statement today because we needed time to study
this issue," he said.

The PDI-P faction also announced its hotline at 5756161 for
the public to report any discriminatory practices they
experience. They are also welcome to file a report at the
faction's office, Room 525 at the House.

The faction also called on other factions to resume discussion
of the draft revision of the Citizenship Law, which would provide
a strong legal basis to end discrimination.