Support grows for ethnic Chinese minister

JAKARTA (JP): Support is growing for calls for the next president to include a Chinese-Indonesian in his cabinet as recognition that the ethnic group is a valued part of the nation.

Observers say that to have a Chinese-Indonesian minister would also serve as a gesture that the government is sincere in its pledge to treat all ethnic groups equally.

Well-known property tycoon Enggartiasto Lukita and constitutional law expert Yusril Ihza Mahendra said it "should be no problem" for the next government to fulfill the hope.

They agreed that to have a Chinese-Indonesian cabinet minister would be possible if real capability, rather than political loyalty, was the president's main consideration in choosing his aides.

Under the country's political system, it is the president's prerogative to choose the cabinet ministers.

"At the moment, when the state is facing a critical future, aptitude and integrity should be the basic considerations in selecting cabinet members," Enggartiasto, himself of Chinese descent and a member of the People's Consultative Assembly, said yesterday.

The idea comes amid the mounting calls for the next president to create a clean government with the cabinet lineup consisting of capable, honest and visionary figures who can save Indonesia from sinking in the economic crisis.

Economist Kwik Kian Gie, renowned for his independent analyses on current affairs, has been most widely mentioned as a potential figure from the ethnic Chinese community.

But his political affiliation to the "opposition" Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) is seen as reducing his chances.

Reliable sources said yesterday that executives of the dominant Golkar faction were considering proposing three Chinese business tycoons to the new president for cabinet places: Anthony Salim, James T. Riyadi and Enggartiasto.

Enggartiasto said he was not very sure if now, when anti- Chinese sentiment was felt to be on the rise across the country -- as was obvious in recent riots targeting their properties -- was the right time for a Chinese-Indonesian to sit in the cabinet.

Asked if he was interested in a cabinet post, he said: "I have never dreamed of becoming a minister. Naming cabinet ministers is the president's prerogative."

Yusril and Enggartiasto were of the opinion that most ethnic Chinese figures' sense of nationalism was beyond doubt.

"Capability combined with a strong sense of nationalism would make one a good cabinet minister," Yusril said Wednesday.

People of the Chinese descent are officially said to make up only about 3.5 percent of Indonesia's 202 million population but they dominate the economy.

People from the ethnic group were kept away from politics after the government severed diplomatic ties with Beijing in 1965 after charging the Chinese of involvement in the attempted coup blamed on the Indonesian Communist Party.

Their access to public schools and companies have been somewhat limited, making them concentrate their activities in the private business sector.

President Sukarno recruited several Chinese ethnic figures as his aides, including Oei Tjoe Tat as a state minister and Moh. Ali as a health minister.

Golkar Secretary-General Ary Mardjono was somewhat reluctant to comment on the proposal. He said that even though they were not represented in the cabinet, the Chinese community could have their aspirations channeled through the existing systems.

Syamsudin Haris, a researcher at the National Institute of Sciences, was quoted by Jawa Pos newspaper as saying recently that having a Chinese presence would make the next cabinet "ideal".

"It's high time for the government to end the political isolation of ethnic Chinese people," he said. "We have banned them from politics and this made them the economic animals.

"Now that they have become a powerful economic group, we put the blame for all economic problems on them. This is unfair and should be ended," he said. (pan/imn)