Stop being Chinese?

Mr. Sri Pamoedjo Rahardjo, in Searching for real racial unity (June 11 and June 12) believes that affirmative actions by the government would help so-called indigenous Indonesians improve their status vis-a-vis Chinese-Indonesians.

Maybe. Maybe not. As far as I understand it, officially, it is the Chinese-Indonesians, with all the extra administrative burdens, limitations and discriminations, who are the second- class citizens.

Then how about the "racial" violent tensions among those diverse ethnic groups liberally termed "indigenous" Indonesians, as seen in Ambon and Sambas and other places? Should the poorer "indigenous" Dayak enjoy affirmative actions vis-a-vis the immigrant Madurese?

Anyway, with certain fine tuning, his idea borrowed from Dr. Mahathir might just work. And his other idea, that "it is imperative that racial differences be understood by all members of society", is certainly noble and worth pursuing.

Most of what Mr. Pamoedjo said apart from that, however, was a heap of confusion. He criticized the failure of the Chinese- Indonesians to "assimilate" with the host culture. He accused the male peranakan (half-bred) Chinese of "maintaining strictly their Chinese cultural heritage".

While assimilation means the merging of cultural traits from previously distinct cultural groups, he either ignored or is ignorant of the fact that in practice, to ask, or to force, the Chinese-Indonesians to assimilate is to demand them to let go of their distinctness and adopt a dominant culture; that is, to stop being Chinese-Indonesians. I wonder if he would demand the same from the myriad of cultural minorities across the archipelago?

Then Mr. Pamoedjo touched on the issue of Chinese tycoons. Before anybody accused me of defending them, let me state here clearly that I'd like to see Soeharto and all his cronies be brought to trial for their economic crimes. (Other kinds of crime, too. But, that's another story).

Mr. Pamoedjo did not differentiate between "clean" and "contaminated" businesspeople. He did not even try to differentiate between the few, very few cronies, and the millions of Chinese-Indonesians who have nothing to do with the power elite. He also failed to mention the richest family in the country, who is not of Chinese descent. He failed to mention all the non-Chinese cronies with no less of ill-begotten wealth in their pockets. He failed to mention the former and current (non- Chinese) government dignitaries and officials who no doubt also have laid their dirty claws on the pie.

The fact is, Chinese or no Chinese, people are prone to the destructive disease called greed. To single out the Chinese- Indonesians in this is a simple act of racism.

As a last word, I hope, if a version of the affirmative action takes place in the future, the government will remember the Chinese maid who every day washed and ironed the clothes of the little Malay-Indonesian boy who later become the famous poet Soetardji Calzoum Bachri.

SAMSUDIN

Jakarta