Who discriminates against whom?
Who discriminates against whom?
The Lunar New Year has been celebrated in a festive way
everywhere and Indonesians of Chinese descent have rediscovered
their ethnic identity. The broadcast and print media, too, have
underscored this reality. But this has not yet satisfied
everyone.
Frans Hendra Winarta, as reported by Ibukota daily, has
complained about a regulation that requires Chinese-Indonesians
to possess citizenship certificates, which has not yet been
abolished. Meanwhile, the political elite have always made
antidiscrimination issues a political commodity, particularly on
the eve of general elections.
The same daily also reported a meeting between the Chinese
community and top executives of the Indonesian Democratic Party
of Struggle (PDI-P). Thamrin Amal Tomagola, a sociologist from
the University of Indonesia, described this meeting as a positive
move to reconcile "the group controlling economic resources" (the
ethnic Chinese) and "the group with political power" (the
indigenous Indonesians).
In his view, discrimination will prevail as a logical
consequence of the monopoly of strategic resources by one group.
The initial step to deal with discrimination is to introduce a
structural change in discriminative legislation and
redistribution of economic and political resources. Social and
cultural issues will be solved only after structural issues are
addressed.
For example, the exclusive housing of the Chinese community
will pose no problem if the indigenous group can afford to buy
the same housing following redistribution of economic resources.
On the other hand, Chinese-Indonesians will gain proper access to
political institutions to voice their aspirations.
Therefore, both groups are actually practicing discrimination
in terms of the resources under control. The government has a
very important role in the discrimination through political and
economic policies. Lingering discriminative practices will only
create tension between the groups in our society.
H. JUNUS JAHJA
Jakarta