Superiority complex

The current debate concerning a recent article by Arief Budiman (The Jakarta Post, April 19, 1996) really evolves around two basic issues: the rights and obligations of the indigenous versus non-indigenous peoples, and the question of dual loyalty of the non-indigenous community towards their country of citizenship and country of origin.

As I wrote on April 23, 1996, it is not so easy to obtain the loyalty of the non-indigenous population even when the cultural traditions of their ancestral homeland have been allowed to develop. For instance, I remember late in the 1960s when the prime minister of Malaysia strongly reprimanded and publicly questioned the loyalty of Kuala Lumpur's Tamil language newspaper, Tamil Nesan, for printing pages and pages of news for a few days in connection with the death of the prime minister of the Indian state Tamil Nadu. Another example happened many years later, when during a badminton match between a Malaysian side and a visiting national team of China, I saw that many of the Malaysian Chinese spectators sitting around me were wildly supporting the Chinese team even though there were some Malaysian Chinese players on the Malaysian team.

The issue of dual loyalty, potentially harmful though it is, has often been aggravated by an arrogant and superior attitude on the part of the Chinese, especially when they think they are successful or powerful. For instance, the terrible communal riots in Kuala Lumpur on May 13, 1969, which I partly witnessed and which shook Malaysia to its foundation, were certainly caused by the outrageous and uncalled for provocations by thousands of Chinese who thought they had made substantial gains in a recent general election.

Similarly, the shocking riots that took place in Purwakarta, West Java in November last year were caused by the arrogant and superior attitude of a Chinese shopkeeper. I just wonder whether Arief Budiman is aware that Bill Hayden, a former governor general of Australia who he quoted so approvingly, also denounced the Chinese for harboring a cultural superiority complex.

The question of dual loyalty, while undesirable enough in times of peace, can become a serious destabilizing factor during wars or in the threat of war, It is a historically established fact that the Tamils of Sri Lanka have frequently acted as a fifth column by aiding invading Tamils from South India. During World War II, many Japanese Americans were imprisoned for collaboration with the Japanese government, while hundreds of thousands Soviet citizens of German descent were forcibly transported to Siberia to prevent them from assisting the invading Nazi army.

I am not at all suggesting that the Indonesian Chinese will necessarily act in the same way as the Tamils, Japanese and Germans in the not unlikely event of a Chinese attack, but it is absolutely imperative the government forestall such eventualities.

I think the government's policy on the acculturation and assimilation of the Indonesian Chinese is the best and only sensible solution. Indonesia is endowed with a rich cultural heritage with which the Chinese could identify themselves. Being a pragmatic people, the Chinese should be able to cast off any misleading superiority complex they might have and gain for themselves a welcome niche in Indonesian society. After all, as the saying goes: "When in Rome, do as the Romans do."

I do not wish to engage myself in any further discussion on the subject, except perhaps if Arief Budiman, the person who started the controversy, should deign to respond.

MASLI ARMAN

Jakarta