Riot in Ujungpandang

Riot in Ujungpandang

The race riots which rocked Ujungpandang in September seemed
to die away in the media with barely a whimper. Even now though,
gangs of youths still harass Chinese shop owners, threatening to
wreck shops if money is not handed over. Even in Ujungpandang,
this news is met with little concern by most people.

And yet the facts are that a tragic murder of a young girl, by
a mentally unstable man who was, in fact half Makassar, became an
excuse for indigenous Indonesians to destroy businesses and homes
of ethnic Chinese. That the first incident has no logical
connection to the latter's destructiveness seems to concern no
one. Hordes of people -- many university students -- proceeded to
throw rocks through windows of businesses and homes, and burn
buildings and cars while police stood by and only watched. A mob
destroyed the oldest Chinese temple in town, tearing it apart
with their hands. Rumors of bigger demonstrations and greater
violence were quelled once local authorities finally tightened
security, apparently only after being embarrassed by open
criticism from Jakarta.

Perhaps the most appalling aspect of all of this is that the
general opinion of indigenous Indonesians seems to be that the
ethnic Chinese somehow "had it coming to them". They regret that
looting took place, but not that people's livelihoods were
destroyed, since after all, they were Chinese. Even a
correspondent of The Jakarta Post, in an interview with the BBC,
attributed the problems to the fact that "the Chinese weren't
well integrated into the Indonesian community", and that to
become integrated, the Chinese would have to "bring more
indigenous Indonesians into the business community". This
attitude implies that the Chinese are somehow responsible for a
dearth of indigenous Indonesians in the business community.

At the risk of pointing out the obvious, there is nothing
stopping indigenous Indonesians from going into business, which
can be attested to by the fact that many wealthy businesspeople
are indigenous Indonesians. At the same time many barriers are
put in the way of ethnic Chinese to becoming successful in
business. Among others, such barriers include the need for a
"real" Indonesian business partner, and the huge amounts of
"protection" money they must pay to the police. In spite of this,
some manage to earn a lot of money, and it is true that, like the
indigenous Indonesians, some also display their wealth in an
ostentatious manner. How this gives people the right to smash and
vandalize property, on the basis of race only, is baffling.

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