Seminar urges equal chance for all groups

JAKARTA (JP): Efforts to reduce the dominance of Indonesia's ethnic Chinese over the country's commercial activities should be accompanied by measures that allow all ethnic groups to enter any field of activity, says a leading figure in the campaign to assimilate minorities.

Kristoforus Sindhunatha said in a seminar yesterday that all ethnic groups in Indonesia should be allowed to contribute to national development, in all fields, irrespective of race.

"Certain ethnic groups should not be isolated in playing just one specific field, particularly the economic field," said Sindhunatha, who heads the Bakom-PKB, a government-sponsored agency for promoting social integration between ethnic groups and the indigenous people.

In his speech opening a two-day seminar entitled "Reflections on and Projections Regarding Nation- and Character-Building in Indonesia", he said the domination of the economic sector by ethnic Chinese should be reduced to avoid unnecessary resentment.

Bakom-PKB was established in 1977 to help foster nationalism in the Chinese, Indians, Arabs and other non-indigenous groups.

Included on Bakom-PKB's executive and advisory board are such luminaries as Harry Tjan Silalahi and Jusuf Wanandi, legislator Sukowalujo Mintorahardjo and prominent businessmen Soedono Salim, William Soeryadjaya and Aburizal Bakrie.

Speaking of the various accomplishments since Indonesia's independence 50 years ago, Sindhunatha said the nation was now faced with the task of redistributing the fruits of development.

"Of all the challenges we face, the one which needs priority is equal distribution of the fruits of development," he said, adding that the need to restructure society and the way people think are even more fundamental.

He warned that the control and conglomeration of the economy by the minority Chinese group was a source of racial tension.

"Since colonial times, the role in business, and lately in industry, has been mainly taken by the ethnic Chinese which has now expanded into a giant conglomeration of economic activity," Sindhunatha said.

The ethnic Chinese here are renown for their entrepreneurial ability and widely perceived as having control of and reaping enormous benefits from the country's economy.

"It is now time to transform it (the balance) because it has become a source of suspicion along with unwanted racial and religious resentment," Sindhunatha explained.

While calling for more non-Chinese participation in the business sector, Sindhunatha suggested that all ethnic groups be given greater access to various aspects of statehood. "All ethnic elements must be able to play a role in all fields of life: economic, political, cultural, security and defense," he said.

Every field of activity must embrace and assimilate as many ethnic groups as possible.

Laws

Meanwhile, noted human rights lawyer Todung Mulya Lubis yesterday lauded the role of an ethnic Chinese lawyer, the late Yap Thiam Hien, for his tireless efforts in campaigning for human rights in Indonesia.

Mulya recounted Yap's efforts to defend the rights of the accused and said that many of the principles he fought for, such as the presumption of innocence, legal aid and due process of law, which were not recognized before, have now been incorporated into the Criminal Code.

Despite being ethnic Chinese and a devout Christian, Yap relentlessly defended those who were considered both Communist and Islamic fundamentalists, Mulya recalled.

One case in point was Yap's defense of communist leader Soebandrio during the military court hearings following the abortive 1965 communist coup.

"He (Yap) was not Irianese or East Timorese, but he readily defended their culture. He was not a Moslem but he defended Islamic leaders in many courts," Todung said. (mds)