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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