A teach-in on the Indonesian crisis in San Francisco
San Francisco
August 1, 1998
Over 1,200 people today packed a middle school auditorium in the Marina
disctrict of San Francisco in a teach-in on the Indonesian crisis.
The Mayor of San Francisco, WIllie Brown, appeared, and made the point that
San Franciscans have a moral obligation as citizens of the world to promote
racial harmony and ask that there be an impartial, investigative body to
probe the riots and the perpetrators behind them.
Brown, former speaker of the California State Assembly, and the most
powerful African-American urban official, noted the unique role of San
Francisco as a diverse city of a majority of racial minorities, which has a
history of involvement in foreign affairs, including the anti-apartheid
movement in South Africa in support of Nelson Mandela against the racist
white supremacist regime.
Brown is one of three Bay Area mayors, including Henry Chan Manayan of
Milpitas and Michael Chan of Cupertino, the latter of Silicon Valley, who
have a joined a chorus of American city mayors, condemning the atrocities in
Indonesia.
The teach-in, organized by ICANET (Indonesian Chinese American Network), and
sponsored by a San Francisco councilman, Leland Yee, one of two
Chinese-American elected councilmen in America's largest enclave of
Chinese-Americans, was dramatized by the personal accounts of the Jakarta
riots by three Indonesians of Chinese descent, who spoke anonymously behind
a screen, to protect them from potential retaliation by the dark forces
within the Indonesian government.
Medea Benjamin, the founder of Global Exchange, a human rights organization
which has waged a campaign against human rights abuses by the Suharto
regime, pointed out a pattern of brutalization by the elite Indonesian
military committed against East Timorese, Acenese, and ethnic Chinese
Indonesians, all minorities in Indonesia.
She accused the U.S. government of being complicit in continuing to train,
and support the Indonesian military, despite overwhleming evidence that
troops have been responsible for human rights abuses. She also pointed out
that the Habibie regime is fundamentally a Suharto regime behind the scene.
"The ethnic Chinese Indonesians are being used as scapegoats for the
corruption, plundering of Indonesia by Suharto and his cronies. The
overwelming majority of Chinese, even though there may be a tiny selected
few who are Suharto cronies, is not the cause of Indonesia's problem. It is
the system of corruption perpetuated by Suharto and his cronies." said
Media.
John Oei, spokeperson of ICANET, personally recounted how his uncle was
assasinated by the Indonesian military simply for exercising his right to
express political views. Oei said the violence and rapes of Chinese
Indonesian women and children continue in Indonesia as he spoke and cited a
report from Bandung as an illustration.
Oei emotionally challenged the audience to ask: "What kind of evil person
would rape an innocent 9-year old in front her parents and commit such
heinous acts? Who would encourage and tolerate that?"
Another ICANET leader, Yen Chou Lee, talked about institutional racism in
Indonesia where Indonesians of Chinese descent were treated as second-class
citizens, forced to shed their Chinese names, locked out from participation
in the ranks of the government and the military, selectively targeted for
unequal treatment in the public colleges and universities, forcing many no
choice but to struggle and go abroad.
Lee criticized the distortion and half-truth floated by the western media
that simplistically sweeps all Chinese as rich, and that "they constitute 3
per cent of Indonesia's population and control 70 per cent of Indonesia's
wealth."
While only a tiny minority of Indonesia's 8 million Indonesians of Chinese
descent are rich tycoons, and some of whom were in cahoots with Suharto and
now with Habibie, the rest are just your average shopkeeper to the dirt
poor, like the rest of the Indonesian population. Lee said that rich pribimi
Indonesians, including Suharto, who amassed billions worth in assets, were
accorded differential treatment.
Edward Liu, an attorney and one of the spokespersons of Huaren
(www.huaren.org), the borderless internet webhub which has rallied ethnic
Chinese overseas in support of Indonesia's Chinese minorities, called
President Habibie to task for being complicit in a de facto "ethnic
cleansing" of Chinese influence in the cultural, economic and social fabric
of Indonesia.
Liu condemned the racist remarks of Habibie to the foreign press that paints
the Chinese as the problem, the victimizers, rather than the victims of the
riots. In particular, Liu noted that leaders of the Golkar party, the ruling
party of Habibie, have not only not been sympathetic to the victims of the
riots, but have talked about "confiscating" assets of Chinese Indonesians
who have exited the country in fear.
"Chinese Indonesians have a right to belong to Indonesia. They have a right
to be full citizens, not second class citizens. They have a right to be
protected by their own government and their own military and their own
police, without paying for protection and doubly victimized by extortion and
racist remarks by their president and his party." Liu said.
Liu, in a highly impassioned speech, thanked pribumis of conscience who risk
their lives to protect the Chinese Indonesians.
"I have never met Father Sandiawan Sumardi. I am deeply gratified that this
compassionate man and other pribumi human rights advocates have risked their
own safety and lives in support of the victims. They are my brothers and
sisters. On the other hand, I have seen other Chinese Indonesians, who were
at one time cronies of Suharto, now have ingratiated themselves with Habibie
in the same rotten system of corruption, cronyism and nepotism.These are not
my brothers and sisters."
On the Huaren efforts, Liu noted that the outpouring of outrage and support
for Chinese Indonesians from the Chinese Diaspora have been overwhleming.
From Southeast Asia to North America, from Australia, New Zealand to Europe,
from cities and towns all across the globe where there are ethnic Chinese,
action groups are being formed to protest the atrocities in Indonesia.
Liu recounted how Mauritius, a tiny nation of 2.1 million people, with
35,000 ethnic Chinese, have accessed the Huaren website and expressed their
support for the Chinese Indonesians.
"Chinese Indonesians have a right to be good Indonesians. They have a right
to be Chinese culturally too. They have a right, as I do, as a Chinese
American of Filipino backrgound to be proud of my ties. I am proud to be a
Chinese. I am also proud to be a Filipino. I am also proud to be a San
Franciscan and an American. What is wrong with that?" Liu exhorted.
The event was well-organized by ICANET, with hundreds of Indonesians of
Chinese descent across three generations all volunteering to direct traffic
and parking, provide food and refreshments and teach-in literature, and
provide technical support, including translations.
Chinese-Americans in the audience were extremely impressed by the spirit of
cooperation, unity, and solidarity by the Chinese Indonesian community in
the San Francisco Bay Area. There is an estimated 13,000 to 15,000
Indonesians in the San Francisco Bay area, most of whom are of Chinese
descent and resettled here because of ethnic Chinese persecution in
Indonesia.
The San Francisco Bay Area has a population of 6.5 million inhabitants, of
which over 400,000 are ethnic Chinese. This region of California is one of
the most racially-diverse area in the world, with over 45 languages spoken
in its public schools by immigrants from all over the world.
Asian immigrants, including many Chinese professionals and Indian software
engineers, constitute 40 per cent of the work force in the new cutting-edge
technology of Silicon Valley. California is a magnet for talented skills,
including from Chinese professionals from Southeast Asia and elsewhere in
the Diaspora.
After today's teach-in, a full schedule of activities and action are being
planned in the San Francisco Bay Area, including a demonstration before the
Indonesian consulate on August 7, and a candlelight vigil at Union Sqaure on
Aug 15, 1998.