Sent by : Edo
The terrible prosecution to Chinese race in Indonesia have been carried
out since late 19th century when the Chinese business district- Pasar
Tanah Abang was totally destroyed and a lot of Chinese people was
murdered. After the economy in Batavia collapsed following this
incident, the Dutch Government took stern measures to restore security
for Chinese community, and requested the fled Chinese businessmen to
rerun the economy at Tanah Abang - Batavia.
After the cooling down period in early 20th century, the prosecution
toward Chinese race restarted in 1963 in Bandung and continued to other
area in Java island.
The most violent one was the recent May 13-15 attack where looting,
raping, burning and killings were carried out in a mass and systematic
way.
The sad thing to see the reaction of majority of Indigenous moslem
Indonesian think that they are not to be blamed or in other words they
are correct in what they have done.
The government reaction are mixed with the leading opinion from
President Habibie as saying:"It was about justice", and not about racial
problem.
I am extremely sad to see this because most of them do not want to admit
it was absolutely wrong thing to do for whatever reasons. We need
justice and we believe that everyone has to reap for what he has sown.
Time will prove this either now, later or in distance future.No one can
escape from this law.
The terror to Chinese Indonesian still continue with the latest report
on raping to one student girl of Tarumanegara Uninversity last July 2,
1998. The three rapers intentionally ruin her genital with massive
object that the girls required two operations to remove her womb.The
report was given by Father Sandyawan in a Seminar at the University of
Santa Dharma last July 8, 1998.
Why do this prosecution to Chinese and also Christian happen again and
again in Indonesia?.
In our analysis the root causes of the problem are three folds:
The wrong concept of teaching within the moslem Indigenous that the
non- moslem is
"Kafir" or non- believers. The non- believers are thus to be
eliminated.
The Indigenous are envy to see the fact that most of Chinese
Indonesia ( whom are non- moslem) becoming relatively wealthier
regardless of how these Chinese should go through hardship and
humiliation to succeed.
The wrong concept have been taught over time so that the negative
thinking will be stored in their subconscious mind. Combined with the
blinded envy toward Chinese supremacy on Indonesian economy, the
situation is potentially explosive.
Few Chinese businessmen were doing their business in an unethical way
( like Eddy Tanzil etc).The scandals have always been exaggerately
exposed in mass communication through print and electronics media.
The emphasis is ussually on negative conotation of "the suspect's
Chinese names". Under distinct domination of Chinese businesses in
Indonesia the scandals have created strong negative sentiment among the
Indigenous which often generalize for all Chinese.
Those factors have created envy and deep hatred in most Indigenous
moslem.
We can see from the day to day life that small indigenous moslem Kids
often make fool of Chinese in an offensive words. How could these kids
know about hatred?. They know from either the teaching of their parent,
relatives, friends or society.
In contrary, the envy and hatred towards Chinese do not exist in Eastern
part of Indonesia where society is predominantly non-moslem ( either
Hindu or Christian ).
The potential explosive hatred was exploited and organized by the
Mastermind within the political elite to prosecute the Chinese last May
for their own objectives.
What is the prospect for Chinese in Indonesia?
The anti Chinese sentiment will remain until the foreseeable future due
to the above root causes.The other reasons as claimed by the Indonesians
are only the cause and effect events and also excuses for their
justification.
Furthermore there is no law enforcement in Indonesia. This built a
precedent to the evil people that it is allright to repeat what they did
as there is no penalty from the Government. As the result the looting
continue and and now it is targeted further to plantations, shrimp
farmings, consumers and commodity goods during transportation and
containers of exported goods.
The number of apparel containers looted on the way from Bandung to
Jakarta port so far has reached 165.
What will be the trend of Government Policy in Indonesia?
With the high uncertainty in current political turmoil, the Government
will likely to issue populist regulations to further restrict the
Chinese businesses in order to gain public support. We can see this from
the Government statements.
In my opinion the Huaren in the world should unite and support the
Chinese in Indonesia with actions among others:
To promote justice to the International world.
To support the victims thru non profit organizations.
To establish more solid business network among Huaren in Indonesia
and the world.
The benfit is actually more for Indonesian if the Chinese people are
genuinely accepted to build the country.We will see the history later.