Two-way conspiracy
Two-way conspiracy
Having read Rahayu Ratnaningsih's two-part article entitled
"It's time for Chinese-Indonesians to wake up" (Oct. 8 and Oct. 9),
I would like to make a few comments.
In the first article, Rahayu suggested that Indonesian people
today are not indigenous. I strongly disagree with this. I will
point out a few examples of evolution of indigenous societies, as
seen from a historical perspective.
The term indigenous is usually linked to a group of people
characterized by a uniquely developed set of values, ideologies
and cultures in a specific area. In Bali, for example, we can
find Balinese who have maintained the Hindu religion and
established an intricate irrigation system called subak. And in
Aceh, we see the Acehnese as devout Moslems. Both the Balinese
and Acehnese have perfected their own cultures, different from
each other, for generations. So there is a spatial organization
of human settlement pertaining to the perception of indigenous.
By and large, a whole world of indigenous societies in
Indonesia encompass large and small, Moslems, Hindus, Buddhists,
Christians, animists, wet rice growers, swidden cultivators,
traders, tribal people and kin-groups. However, they share common
historical experiences, artistic traditions and religious
assumptions, albeit, each has its own integrity, distinct
cultural tradition defined and enforced by its own language.
During the Dutch colonial period, it was the Chinese who
economically benefited from the colonial government. So were they
during the New Order era. Despite their supremacy economically,
the Chinese have never really cared about the life of the
indigenous people. The conspiracy between the indigenous elite
and the Chinese to dominate the economy and politics has been the
characteristic of the New Order.
The Chinese have become pariahs in politics and paragons in
the economy, while the indigenous elite have become paragons in
politics and pariahs in the economy. To make a good balance they
protect each other, like patron and client. The Chinese become
patrons in economics and clients in politics. The May riots and
rapes of Chinese-Indonesians were signs that our society was fed
up with this balance.
Total reform has not resulted in concrete measures against
various malpractices. Even though our society can be transformed
again to seize opportunities in facing the next millennium, this
movement can transmit to another set back -- the military
controls the government under the concept of being the savior of
the nation.
HAFIANSYAH MEGE
Jakarta