The danger of stereotyping

The article Ethnic Chinese at fault for riots by Masli Arman, which appeared in this newspaper yesterday, really shocked me. He hinted that he did not wish his article to be followed by a polemic, but I believe if one is not open to exchanges of views, one should not publish anything at all.

Pak Masli, have you ever heard the word "stereotyping"?

Here, in Jakarta, we're quite familiar with the term Padang Bengkok (the unscrupulous Padang people). Naturally, this term would have never come into existence if there had not been so many crooks among the Padang people -- or more appropriately, the Minangkabau -- that Jakartans have crossed paths with. However, is it justifiable then to think that because the term exists every Minangkabau is bengkok? You know very well that for every crooked Minangkabau there are hundreds, maybe thousands of honest Minangkabau. As two people who come from West Sumatra, both of us do not want to become victims of the Padang Bengkok stereotyping, do we, Pak?

Stereotyping is dangerous, for it simply disguises the fact that humans are humans. There are good people and there are bad people everywhere, regardless of whether they are Minangkabau, Acehnese or Chinese. I don't know what has caused the obvious grudge you have against the Chinese, but in your article you stereotype the Indonesian, Singaporean and Malaysian Chinese as arrogant, etc. so excessively that you seem to have forgotten that there are also good, humble and kindhearted Chinese. Pak Masli, if all Chinese-Indonesians are as bad as you say they are, how come I have so many Chinese friends who are like my own brothers and sisters? And how come I've been able to build such a happy marriage with a wonderful woman of Chinese descent?

Racial tension is one of Soeharto's most deplorable legacies, Pak. It has evolved into a very complex and multidimensional mess, and one of the reasons it has been so difficult to untangle is our very strong tendency to stereotype. I agree that there are some Chinese-Indonesians who are arrogant, who look down on pribumi. But, don't you understand that they look down on other Chinese-Indonesians, too? One of my Chinese gurus told me many years ago how some Chinese people from the Pluit area made fun of him, thinking that he didn't understand Mandarin. He actually did. They looked down on him because he lived in a garage.

And don't you know that a lot of Chinese-Indonesians also find the way these other Chinese show off their wealth and treat their servants totally obnoxious? John and Siska, my very close friends for more than 20 years, furiously called their neighbor Cina Loleng for having locked a servant inside his house while vacationing abroad. Both John and Siska themselves are Chinese, and they organized their RT to free the food-deprived maid from her confinement.

Just like the Minangkabau, the Batak and the Javanese, there are also magnanimous Chinese, too. We simply must not generalize, let alone nurture prejudices based on stereotyping. The riots were caused, among others, by our people's failure to avoid stereotyping.

And, by the way, toward the end of your article you talk about the financial assistance that you extended to your Chinese friend. It reminds me of my late brother who told me that, if our right hand gives out something to help others, even our left hand need not know about it. Hasn't anybody told you that?

Nonetheless, I think we all should thank you for the article, because at least we know now that stereotyping does happen even among our educated people.

ZATNI ARBI

Jakarta