Putting racial reconciliation on the agenda

Putting racial reconciliation on the agenda

By Johannes Nugroho

SURABAYA (JP): The inauguration of the seventh Development
Cabinet by President Soeharto was preceded by an enthusiastic if
slightly self-controlled period of name dropping for the cabinet
lineup. Amien Rais, an unofficial candidate for the presidency,
expounded the possibility of Indonesians of Chinese descent being
admitted into the cabinet. The idea was followed up by the press
and dismissed by the United Development Party (PPP) before
abruptly fizzling out.

"The President is a native Indonesian", proclaims Article 6 of
the 1945 Constitution. In a globalized world in which people's
mobility and pluralism are evident, the term native, even the
Indonesian word asli, has evolved in meaning and usage. For
example, an Indonesian citizen could be of Chinese descent but
born in Jakarta and having always resided here, thus making him
or her a native of Jakarta.

On the other hand, Article 26, which reiterates: "Those who
hold Indonesian citizenship are native Indonesians and
naturalized subjects by law", provides an indisputable
interpretation of the term native in Article 6. To be specific, a
stereotypical native Indonesian is a Malay-Indonesian-Mongolian
who is, according to an encyclopedia, "spread throughout
Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Madagascar and Taiwan with
distinctive features such as a brown complexion, narrow face,
non-Mongolic eyes and thick lips."

The above descriptions only encompass the natives of Sumatra,
Java, Borneo and Sulawesi. What, then, is to become of people
from Irian Jaya and East and West Timor? They are, technically
speaking, "Australomelanesids". The question remains: What
constitutes a native Indonesian?

What is more, in our global village, interracial marriages are
becoming more common. Indonesians today consist of the Malay-
Indonesian-Mongolians, Central and Archaic Mongolians (Chinese-
Indonesians who originated from China and others from northern
Asian countries), Armenian-, Iranian- and Mediterranean-
Caucasians (Arab-Indonesians), the Indic-Caucasians (Indian-
Indonesians), the Caucasian-Mongolians (Eurasians) and the list
goes on.

Hence, embarking on the fact that Indonesia is a multiracial
and pluralistic society, it is within reason to assume the racial
insinuation of Article 6 in the Constitution. The fact that the
document on which this nation is based oozes racial innuendoes is
potentially calamitous. The extreme interpretation of the article
could even legitimize the persecution of those excluded from the
native rank. Worst of all, the article perpetually banishes the
idea of total equality among Indonesians and is subconsciously
divisive.

The article establishes a political pseudodogma that a
naturalized Indonesian or even an Indonesian-born citizen of
foreign extraction is untrustworthy of the highest office in the
land. Correlatively, so far as politics are concerned, the
nonnatives are inferior to the natives. It conveys a subliminal
you'll-never-be-one-of-us message to the nonnatives and could
arguably compromise their sense of belonging.

Political discrimination against a particular group in society
is suggestive of the same prejudiced existing social psyche. In
countries such as the United States, Britain and Australia, women
were denied the right to vote until the 1910s, when the
suffragette movement began. The political disempowerment then
reflected the prejudice against women as nonequals of men.
Similarly, Russia's anti-Semitic Josef Stalin went on a crusade
to purge Russian Jews from any remotely strategic positions in
the 1940s.

On a different note, the Australian Constitution, which was
drafted in 1901, contained a racist article barring the native
Aborigines from voting. The article was later annulled by a 1967
referendum with an overwhelming majority. While racism against
Aborigines still exists in parts of the Australian society, the
1967 referendum mirrored the society's "reformed" attitude toward
Aborigines, which was translated into political recognition.

Comparatively, the 1945 Constitution was drafted by the
founding fathers of this nation, who fought tooth and nail
against colonial forces to gain independence. Indonesia was a
nation born in reaction to three centuries of foreign
subordination. The anticolonial psyche in the attempt at
eliminating the possibility of being ruled again by foreigners
was understandable.

However, the era of colonialism has passed and the nonnatives
of this country are no longer foreigners. These people have
chosen to live in Indonesia, speak Indonesian and even adopt
Indonesian names. Is it in the best interest of national unity,
as well as justice, that the political discrimination goes on?

Or is it indicative of more prevalent sociopolitical
undercurrents against the nonnatives? Recent mass riots in
several towns in Java and East Nusa Tenggara came as a
culmination of scapegoating which stems from the long-suppressed
racial sentiments. Shops and residents owned by Chinese-
Indonesians were looted and set on fire. The scene was
reminiscent of the scapegoating of Jews in Germany following
Germany's defeat in World War 1.

Even the euphemistic way in which Chinese-Indonesians are
referred to speaks of an underlying pathological Sinophobia
numerous Indonesians still suffer from. The term WNI Keturunan
(Indonesian citizens of extraction) is ridiculously vague. The
question is of what extraction? The subconscious elimination of
the word Chinese alludes to the self-censorship and discomfort
many Indonesians have in saying the word.

Irrefutably, the existing ethnical unease is by large a mutual
derivative. Chinese-Indonesians are as much to blame in
perpetuating myths and legends about themselves. Some Chinese-
Indonesians, out of a minority syndrome, confabulate their own
superiority complex towards the natives. Thus, racial curtains
have been drawn all over the land.

As we move toward the third millennium, the ethnical ripples
have become uglier and more frequent. These ripples will become
tidal waves threatening to drown us if we refuse to do something
about them. It is high time we ceased pretending that we do not
have a racial problem. The first step to facing any problem is
admitting it.

A recent proposal by the director of the Jawa Pos daily
newspaper, Dahlan Iskan, of a holiday exchange program for
Chinese-Indonesian children and their native counterparts is a
commendable problem-solving strategy. The strength of Iskan's
proposal is its emphasis on the younger generation. Eradicating
long-held prejudices and misconceptions among the older
generation is arguably more difficult than teaching the younger
generation to develop respect and tolerance for differences while
retaining their own identity.

Another way of facilitating ethnical reconciliation is the
enactment of a school-quota system. All the country's schools,
around which live racially mixed groups, will have to implement a
quota in admitting students into their schools. Chinese-dominated
private schools will also be required to grant scholarships to
native students in order to meet their quota. Alternatively,
there could be a student-exchange program through which nonnative
students spend a period of six months attending predominantly
native schools and vice versa.

On the legal front, the first step towards national
reconciliation will arguably be manifested in the abolition of
Article 6 of the 1945 Constitution by a referendum. The impact of
such erasure of the racist and perhaps xenophobic part of the
constitution will only be symbolic.

Racial reconciliation is, alas, a complicated and sometimes
turbulent process. Predictably, it will not change the Indonesian
political map. Presumably, it is more unlikely than likely for an
Indonesian Alberto Fujimori to rise to power. Nevertheless, it
will be the parameter of this nation's maturity, enlightenment,
pluralistic harmony and readiness to embrace the 21st century.
Liberty, egelite, fraternity; we cannot have the last without the
middle.

Window: Irrefutably, the existing ethnical unease is by large a
mutual derivative. Chinese-Indonesians are as much to blame in
perpetuating myths and legends about themselves.