Stability crucial to capital inflow: Tedy

Stability crucial to capital inflow: Tedy

JAKARTA (JP): A retired Indonesian Military officer who is a
prominent member of the ethnic Chinese-Indonesian community said
on Friday that Chinese-Indonesians were reluctant to bring back
their overseas investments until security conditions in the
country had stabilized.

Chairman of the Chinese-Indonesian Association Brig. Gen.
(ret) Tedy Yusuf said the new government could not necessarily
provide better security conditions, because riots continued to
break out across the country.

"Why should we run businesses here if the country is prone to
riots and people take a chance to loot our belongings?" said
Tedy, who served 37 years in the military.

"Chinese-Indonesians overseas wish to open businesses here if
the government provides them with both political and security
guarantees."

He said some Chinese-Indonesian businesspeople preferred to
suspend their activities in Indonesia, despite the emergence of
the new democratic government.

Security conditions have become a major concern for ethnic
Chinese-Indonesians, who have long been targeted in riots. Some
ethnic Chinese-Indonesian women were reported to be sexually
assaulted when riots broke out in Jakarta and several other towns
in the lead-up to the fall of then president Soeharto in May last
year.

After the devastating riots, thousands of Chinese-Indonesians
fled the country along with their capital. Months after the
violence, some of them preferred to stay abroad and parked their
funds in Singapore and elsewhere.

In his recent visit to Singapore, President Abdurrahman Wahid
expressed guarded optimism that the overseas capital would flow
back to Indonesia.

Tedy also complained that in the reform era, some ethnic
Chinese-Indonesians continued to suffer from discrimination.

"To apply for passports we have to go through different
procedures from those mandatory for indigenous people," Tedy
said.

Prominent Chinese-Indonesian Siti Hartati Murdaya supported
Tedy's view.

"Even now, there are some parties that think that the ethnic
Chinese should be restricted in every aspect of life, especially
in the economic field," she said.

Siti cited the regulation which lifts the prohibition against
the staging of the barongsai (traditional Chinese lion dance),
saying the move had met with opposition from many parties.
Performances of the dance have occurred more frequently in the
past one year.

Hartati, who is also a People's Consultative Assembly member,
noted that the ethnic Chinese have the potential to bring the
business real sector back to life.

"As part of Indonesia, they have an obligation to play their
roles in helping the country's condition recover," she said.

She said that the Chinese-Indonesian community was a national
asset, which, if given an equal chance, would help the country
develop. (04)