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)