Racial unrest: Results of political and cultural alienation

By Amir Sidharta

JAKARTA (JP): Last month's massive riots saw thousands of buildings damaged or burned by looters and hundreds of people killed, injured, raped or sexually harassed. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, Chinese-Indonesians were the targets of most of this violence.

Observers argue that the riots were a result of the Soeharto regime's racially discriminatory policies, which included the exclusion of Chinese-Indonesians from the public sector so they could only be active in business.

One observer, Pratiwo, notes that the New Order issued many documents, including proof of citizenship papers (SBKRI) and name change documents, aimed at alienating Chinese-Indonesians.

The government prohibited displays of Chinese culture and set up this ethnic group to be the scapegoat for its failures in the country's development.

Christianto Wibisono, of the Indonesian Business Data Center, noted in the Suara Pembaruan daily that Chinese-Indonesians were not merely "economic animals" who had no stake in the history of the nation's struggle.

As a number of people have pointed out, he said that the ethnic Chinese had played a key role since the inception of the nation. Four out of 62 members of the Council for the Preparation of Indonesian Independence were individuals of Chinese descent.

In essence, the political alienation of Chinese-Indonesians has caused the public to perceive the ethnic Chinese in terms of stereotypes maintained with the help of the government. Many Indonesians judge ethnic Chinese as a group, not individually by their character. As a consequence, Chinese-Indonesians continue to be judged by the color of their skin.

Furthermore, Chinese culture has been maimed throughout the New Order's rule. The use of Chinese characters in publications has been banned. The teaching of Chinese languages has been monitored with tremendous suspicion. To take one symbolic example, the use of the word klenteng for a Chinese temple has even been prohibited. Chinese beliefs are categorized under Buddhism, and therefore the Chinese temple has to be called wihara.

Rituals and festivals that include Chinese cultural elements have been prohibited in many areas. In the past, the ethnic Chinese and pribumi (indigenous Indonesians) performed barongsay dances together.

Evolution

Some of the Chinese potehi wayang performances have been performed by indigenous Javanese, and watched by a predominantly pribumi audience. Now, however, it is increasingly hard to find elements of Chinese culture enjoyed together by both Chinese and pribumi alike.

While talking about barongsay performances in villages near Cirebon, ethnomusicologist Endo Suanda explained that "in its evolution, there is no longer a clear differentiation about whether this form of art is Chinese or local."

Suanda envisioned that participative socio-cultural activities would enhance a collective social experience. According to him, it is likely that the intensification of these socio-cultural events would decrease social tension and the social gap that exists between races.

Early this month, Suanda and artist Herry Dim conceived the staging of a performance of Sundanese arts by artists of Chinese descent and a barongsay dance by Cirebon artists at the Festival Ganesha in Bandung. According to Suanda, the performances' main goal was to promote a multicultural perception and appreciation of culture through democracy.

This event was informally linked to the Solidaritas Nusa Bangsa work group of the Indonesian Youth Committee Against Racial Discrimination and was meant to promote the organization's activities.

The festival also featured performances derived from Madurese folk dances performed by the Cempaka group, which is composed of eight dancers of Chinese descent. In addition, Sundanese classical music was performed by a group led by Tan Deseng and Aida Liem.

Of course, the festival was not enough to mend the broken cultural ties of Chinese-Indonesians and the pribumi.

It was indeed only a beginning, and more efforts to create a conducive environment for the coexistence of diverse cultures should and will appear in the future.

The promotion of cultural diversity within communities initially may seem to create tension among ethnic groups. But in the long run, it will actually foster a better understanding among different cultures.

Suanda also presented a cultural oration in the festival. He stated: "In the last few decades, we have been overly dominated by a belief in governmental hegemony for the sake of national development. We seem to believe that there is a 'standard' culture which has universal values to gauge the advancement of our national culture, and that there is a myth of 'identity'.

"This 'standard' culture refers to the development of uniform values (through institutions, the bureaucracy and academic teachings), while our 'identity' pushes us toward narrow- mindedness about 'original' versus 'non-original' and 'indigenous' versus 'nonindigenous'."

Since before the 17th century, urban centers throughout the Indonesian archipelago have been places of tremendous ethnic diversity. People in Indonesia have for centuries learned how to live with what Americans have only recently coined as multiculturalism.

Much can be learned from the history of our urban communities, particularly in Kota, which is one of the areas in Jakarta that was severely hit by the recent riots.

There, ironically, many ethnic groups have lived together in the same neighborhoods and built diverse communities for centuries.

By the 18th century, Kota saw the mingling of Buginese, Balinese, Ambonese, Javanese and Malay residents together with Chinese, Moorish Portuguese, Indian and European communities.

Trade between Batavia (the name of Jakarta under Dutch rule) and many of Asia's most prominent ports was very well established at the time, adding to the diversity of the city. The area continues to be ethnically diverse to this day. Unfortunately, somewhere along the line, it seems that its history has been forgotten and ignored.

Multicultural understanding among Indonesia's communities should be fostered once again. As we gear ourselves toward becoming a truly democratic nation, perhaps it is time to start developing community museums, where we would not only learn about ethnic diversity but, more importantly, also about democracy.