To be extraordinary is the norm for Mely G. Tan

By I. Christianto

JAKARTA (JP): Being extraordinary is the norm for sociologist Mely Giok Lan Tan, most especially when she is the only Indonesian contributor in books and articles featuring other prominent writers from around the world.

Many times she is the only speaker from Indonesia, or even Asia for that matter, in international seminars.

The book, Gender and the Academic Experience: Berkeley Women Sociologists (edited by Kathryn P. Meadow Orlans and Ruth A. Wallace, University of Nebraska Press, 1994) showcases Mely's career as a sociologist.

Mely, who was born 70 years ago, holds a M.A. in sociology from Cornell University and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.

She is now the chairperson of the Research Institute Center at the Atma Jaya Catholic University a lecturer at the Institute of Police Sciences.

She used to be a senior researcher at the Indonesian Institute of Science.

As a sociologist, Mely says that she focuses on three areas in her research and writing: Chinese living in Indonesia and other Southeast Asian countries, societal development and women and empowerment.

"In a way, it wasn't my decision to become a researcher and sociologist. I didn't study science in high school so I couldn't go into medicine or engineering like most Chinese-Indonesians living in Indonesia back in those days. This is what my siblings did."

She studied Sinology at the School of Letters at the University of Indonesia because she was not interested in economy or the law.

"This was also to show that I am different," she said.

Later, she got a fellowship to study sociology at Cornell University, and then another fellowship from Cornell University, Berkeley, to study sociology there.

Mely, who has written a lot about Chinese-Indonesians, said that the problems of ethnicity in Indonesia are not only related to the ethnic Chinese but to all other ethnic groups as well.

"There are horizontal ethnic problems, like the Dayak-Madura in West Kalimantan, and vertical problems (between an ethnic group and the state) like those occurring in Aceh and Papua."

She said that it was still very hard for the ethnic Chinese to become fully integrated into Indonesian society.

"You just can't clap with one hand. You need two. If you want harmony between disparate ethnic groups, it should come from all sides, equally. You can't expect cooperation from one group if the others do not cooperate also."

She said that during Soeharto's regime people talked about persatuan (unification) and kesatuan (unity), but never discussed the reality or the implications of being an ethnically diversified society.

President Abdurrahman Wahid (Gus Dur) has, however, gotten the ball rolling by prohibiting government agencies from discriminating against Indonesians because of their ethnicity or religious beliefs.

"We know that Gus Dur is sympathetic to the plight of Chinese- Indonesians. He has stated many times that one's belief should not be regulated by the government. One's faith is between you and God. He reiterated not long ago that it was not up to the government to decide what people should believe. So his actions to revoke all measures, laws and regulations discriminating against Chinese-Indonesians or any other group for that matter is in line with his belief in pluralism."

Not enough

Earlier this year, shortly before the Chinese New Year, Gus Dur revoked Presidential Decree No. 14/1967 used as the legal basis to repress Chinese cultural expression.

"I think it really isn't sufficient to lift just one regulation, though. As much as I respect Gus Dur, I feel that I must say this and, hopefully, encourage him to go further in his reforms. Unfortunately, there's a collective feeling of euphoria among ethnic Chinese because of the abolishment of this one regulation, which worries me," said Mely.

"There are many more regulations that should be revoked. For instance, even though in 1996 there was already a regulation stipulating Chinese-Indonesians only needed to show their birth certificates and ID cards when applying for passports -- or any other documents or permits -- in reality they still have to show their citizenship and name changing documents ...

This isn't just or fair. All citizens should be treated the same, in accordance with the principal of equality before the law."

She was aware that regulations considered discriminatory against the ethnic Chinese were made during the old regime because of the Soeharto policy of assimilation.

"All these regulations were enacted supposedly in the interest of promoting and accelerating the assimilation of Chinese- Indonesians. According to the government, assimilation means the eventual disappearance of the Chinese Indonesians as a cultural group."

"That's why they always focused on the expression of Chinese culture. They closed down the Chinese schools. Why? Because if there are no Chinese-language schools there is no systematic way to sustain the culture. If you loose the language you lose the culture, it's as simple as that," she said.

She added that the idea was to force the ethnic Chinese to abandon their Chinese heritage.

The regime believed that by doing so this would help the ethnic Chinese be accepted more easily into the larger society.

The policy was, however, riddled with ambiguity.

On the one hand, the government wanted assimilation, but on the other hand they created discriminatory regulations as a direct consequence of this.

Thus, what inevitably happened was that Chinese Indonesians became milk cows faced with a life of prejudice and extortion.

There is a stereotype among the people that Chinese Indonesians are wealthy, while they are estimated to be no more than 3 or 4 percent of the total population.

True, they play a very fundamental role in the economy -- some say that the Chinese control about 70 percent of the national economy --- but not to the extent that has been claimed by the pundits.

"I need to emphasize that it's in the private sector and not in the national economy that they wield the most influence," Mely said.

She added that the statement -- that Chinese-Indonesians control 70 percent of the national economy -- was clearly dreamt up for political purposes.

In the end, of course, it is a ridiculous assumption, not to mention an insult to Indonesia's economy in general.

After all, the national economy consists of state-enterprises, the private sector and cooperatives.

The state-enterprises are in fact still the strongest -- at least before the crisis -- powerhouses in terms of assets and volume.

Mely, who remains single, has received two medals for her long years of service -- more than 30 in total -- at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences.

For her role as a lecturer at the Institution of Police Sciences, she received yet another award from the National Police.

In 1998, she was informed by the State Secretariat that the then president B.J. Habibie has put her on the list to receive the Mahaputra award. She declined and sent a letter to Habibie to explain why.

In her opinion, "You must have done an extraordinary service to the entire nation to earn that award. So far my work has been in research and for that I already received Bintang Jasa award in 1995."

Asked about retirement, Mely said, "I I do work with my brain and brain work never retires. In fact, like so many other parts of the human body, with your brain, if you don't use it, you loose it."