Riots bring home Ciputra's ethnicity

JAKARTA (JP): Born in Manado, North Sulawesi, and a resident of Indonesia all his life, business tycoon Ciputra said his ethnic Chinese ancestry was never brought home to him until the bloody riots erupted in May.

Anxiety over being considered "indigenous", he said, had not mattered to him.

In church or on the golf field he mixed with all types of people and issues of ethnicity did not cross his mind.

But the riots, in which the ethnic Chinese were a featured target, flung to the forefront the simmering strains which many had either forgotten or conveniently put on the back burner of issues.

Recounting his experience during a seminar held by the Institute for Social and Economic Research, Education and Information (LP3ES) here yesterday, Ciputra said the precarious situation hit home when he was informed that one of his employees had been attacked.

He said on the morning of May 13, a Taiwan-born Chinese- American employee of his Ciputra Hotel in Grogol, West Jakarta, was dragged out of his car and assaulted.

"He was beaten up and his car was torched although he had screamed out that he was an American citizen.

"It was not until that very riot happened that I realized, that I became aware, of being of Chinese descent," Ciputra admitted.

More than 1,200 died and thousands of buildings were burned or looted during the riots. Activists have also come forward with claims that at least 168 women, mostly ethnic Chinese, were raped or sexually assaulted.

Although Chinese-Indonesians make up a small portion of the population, they are widely perceived as dominating the economy.

The ferocity of events and fallout from the unrest, which has seen many nonindigenous entrepreneurs flee to safer shores or remain hesitant to reopen their businesses due to fears of renewed violence, have created a climate of fear.

Nonindigenous entrepreneurs are also wary that there may be an attempt to push them out of the commercial sector. President B.J. Habibie himself stated that indigenous businesspeople could take over their role if they failed to resume the distribution network.

Ciputra claimed that before attending the seminar he received three telephone calls which revived his trauma from May.

He said an official of a Jakarta university informed him that about 400 female ethnic Chinese-Indonesian students had asked for a leave of absence from their studies this semester because of the "fear of being raped".

Ciputra said two Indonesian businessmen -- one of Chinese descent, the other Indian -- had also called and expressed worry of being forcibly "pushed aside" from their business of distributing goods and replaced by cooperatives.

"They were worried that nonindigenous-run distribution businesses would soon be broken up," said the Ciputra Group chairman.

He hoped the government's move to promote cooperatives would be done in a correct manner and without discrimination.

"I will really deplore it if potential groups capable of participating in the country's development are cast out. It will be a big loss for this nation.

"This whole indigenous, nonindigenous issue is really just a number two issue. The most important thing is that the state ensures all citizens are treated equally before the law."

He qualified the statement by saying "it's natural to give one particular group more attention, but it must not be done at the expense of another group".

Ciputra acknowledged the government's plan to push forward cooperatives was a noble idea but it would take time.

He chose the metaphor of a troubled ship caught in a raging storm to describe the predicament of the country's economy.

"Be careful of replacing the captain, maintain the crew. Instead of replacing all the crew, replace only the bad ones.

"It will be disastrous if you replace the whole crew, especially with an unexperienced crew. They have to be trained ashore first."

With startling candor, Ciputra, 67, admitted he may also bear responsibility for the ethnic Chinese-dominated economy.

"As a tycoon, I admit that I have been wrong. Why didn't I have a sharper vision about that? Let's work together to ensure that it will never happen again."

He argued that in the future the nation must not preoccupy itself with indigenous-nonindigenous issues if it wanted to compete in a shrinking world.

"Children in the future are children of globalization... The way of doing businesses will be globalization ways.

"Our ways, our tactics should be based on the philosophy of loving our country, Indonesia, but our ways of business should be ways of globalization," he said. (aan)