W. Kalimantan home to a potpouri of Chinese-Indonesians

By Edi Petebang

PONTIANAK (JP): "God creates, God looks after," said Lao Seng, a 50-year-old iced fruit-cocktail drink vendor. This principle ensures him and his family a harmonious life. He maintains that right from the womb, ethnic Chinese have been taught to work hard. Later on, if this hard work does not bear fruit, they have to take it as their fate.

Lao Seng, one of many ethnic Chinese in West Kalimantan, is resigned to his fate but never yields to despair. Middle-aged, he still has to sell his drinks to feed his family. Seng's eldest child, a daughter, is already married, so he is responsible only for his five other children: three daughters and two sons. His second child has completed junior high school, while the youngest one is just four years old. His wife is a full-time housewife.

Every day, pushing his cart around the roads here, he makes a net income of Rp 10,000. He is very thrifty and spends the money to cover regular living expenses: daily needs, taxes, electricity bills and so forth. "I save part of my daily earnings to pay school fees," he said.

Part of his earnings also goes on maintaining his 8 meter by 6 meter home -- with a wooden floor and walls and corrugated iron roofing -- in the suburb of Siantan Hulu, or on his vending cart.

People like Seng acutely feel the pinch of the economic crisis. He said that his earnings have been declining. Sometimes, he said, he earns a mere Rp 5,000 a day.

Lao Seng is not alone. Many ethnic Chinese in West Kalimantan live barely within their means. In mid-July, 1998, Singkawang was shocked by a report that a father and his four children, helplessly thrown into the abyss of economic despair, drank insecticide to bring an end to their lives. They died piteously in a dilapidated shack at the edge of a rented piece of farmland in Roban village, four kilometers from Singkawang.

Relatives of the deceased said that the family lived from hand to mouth. The father worked as a farm laborer and earned just enough to feed the family. Though living in dire financial straits, the father was uncomplaining. He never even contacted richer relatives for help. He fully submitted himself to fate.

This suicide has opened people's eyes that it is not right to identify ethnic Chinese with material wealth. The father and his four sons found themselves helpless against the pressure of economic difficulties and opted to end their lives.

Historically, the social, economic and political condition of ethnic Chinese in West Kalimantan is different from that in other provinces, particularly Java. In Java, ethnic Chinese are generally found in the medium-class and up, while here they are, on average, found in the medium-class and down. Some, of course, are very rich and have become so prominent in their richness that it seems as if all ethnic Chinese were well-off.

Ethnic Chinese here have a specific history and they usually consider themselves indigenous to this land. The first immigrants from China arrived here in 1292 AD. Obviously, the present ethnic Chinese have lost contact with their ancestors on mainland China. That is why assimilation is not quite a problem to the ethnic Chinese here. Mixed marriages involving ethnic Chinese and Dayaks or Melayu (West Kalimantan's indigenous people) are quite commonplace.

When riots, followed by looting and rapes, broke out in Jakarta and Surakarta in May, many ethnic Chinese took flight to West Kalimantan. Likewise, when rumors were rampant that similar riots would occur in early August, before the Aug. 17 independence celebrations, a host of ethnic Chinese made this province their place of safety. One can easily find on the roads in this region various automobiles bearing B (Jakarta) number plates.

Ethnic Chinese here are involved in all levels of life. Not all of them are merchants or businesspeople. Many can easily be found selling snacks, meatball soup and ices and drinks from food carts. Many others earn a living as miners, fishermen and land tillers or doing some other manual labor.

Singkawang is dubbed "a Chinese town" because ethnic Chinese form the majority. In 1993, ethnic Chinese made up 70 percent (about 50,000) of the Singkawang population of 85,100.

In Singkawang, they earn a living not only in economic sectors but also politics. Many become civil servants, members of the Armed Forces and even local legislators. There are also others who earn money as sex workers or becak (pedicab) drivers.

Ethnic Chinese earning a living by selling some kind of produce, or simply growing papaya and aloe, can also be found in Siantan Hulu and Siantan Tengah, in the Pontianak municipality.

In Siantan Hulu there are many school-aged ethnic Chinese children who are unable to go to school because they must earn money to help support their families. Usually, these children ride their bikes selling vegetables that their parents grow. Many are so poor they don't even wear sandals.

It is clear, then, that in West Kalimantan, ethnic Chinese are not identified with material wealth. They are just like other Indonesian citizens: some are rich and some are poor; some are happy, others are not. However, the ethnic Chinese here shoulder a greater burden because of the additional psychological pressure that they are not "real" Indonesian citizens. When dealing with the government, they have to go through complicated bureaucracy. In fact, it is wrong to blame them for Indonesia's economic collapse. If they have some wealth, it must be the result of years, or even generations, of hard work.

One thing may distinguish ethnic Chinese from other ethnic groups: there are no ethnic Chinese beggars in Pontianak. The ethnic Chinese are hard workers. Right from the womb, it has been instilled upon them that if they wish to have enough food and clothing, they must work hard -- this is the principle that they adhere to.

The writer is executive editor of Kalimantan Review, published by Pontianak Dayakology Institute.