Respecting other religions

Around the time of the Lunar New Year or Imlek, television stations aired a number of Chinese-themed programs and serials, and the print media published articles on Chinese dress, food, etc. To top it off, the government has announced that Imlek will be a national holiday.

This clearly indicates that indigenous Indonesians have never been against the Chinese and that their culture has long been considered to enrich the local culture.

Only during the New Order regime, the government banned everything related to their culture and religion. However, strangely enough, the same government gave ethnic Chinese special treatment in the business sector, thereby creating tycoons and unfair monopolies.

During today's warm relations between Indonesians and ethnic Chinese, it disturbs me to read some reports in the local media, which are a sharp contradiction, such as Sogo department store in Jakarta and the Ramayana department store in Tangerang imposing a ban on their Muslim employees wearing head scarves.

The ownership of both stores is probably not 100 percent Chinese, but the public perceives them as belonging to ethnic Chinese.

I am further shocked by the ban on elementary Muslim students from wearing head scarves in Singapore, where the population is predominantly Chinese. Based on this kind of attitude by the Chinese, I wouldn't blame some Indonesians for regarding them as intolerant of other cultures and religions.

If the Chinese would like their culture and religion to be recognized by others, then they should start respecting the culture and religions of others first. Referring to the aforementioned case taking place in Indonesia, if they can be so restrictive with the followers of the majority religion, I wonder what they will do to those embracing minority religions.

PUTU YASA

Jakarta