Indonesian Emnity Toward the Ethnic Chinese

Indonesia is a multiethnic society, but this does not mean the different ethnic groups live together amicably. The chinese constitute the largest ethnic minority in Indonesia, and they face great problems of discrimination and prejudice in part because of their historic role in the society. The Chinese had economic advantages during the period of Dutch rule, allowing them to gain a virtual monopoly of internal trade and small industry:

While a majority of the Chinese were laborers, working in tin mines and other foreign-owned enterprises, a minority owned the rice mills, the pawnshops, the small retain stores and the batik factories, and they were the ones who incurred Indonesian resentment (Mintz, 1961, 120).

This attitude has persisted and even been strengthened form time to time, and recently there had been a number of incidents showing that enmity on the part of the Indonesian majority is still directed at the Chinese in their midst. The discussion which follows will present both historical and current evidence of discrimination and prejudice.

The long history of enmity toward the ethnic Chinese has accustomed too many people in Indonesia to seeing the ethnic Chinese as different and as the enemy, when they are not. Many ethnic Chinese have sought a cooling off period by leaving the country until after the elections, and what must happen is that the government addresses the problem directly and puts a stop

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ad its own distinctive characteristics, some of which were accentuated overseas before they arrived in Indonesia, and one of the main contrasts among Indonesian Chinese in the 1990s could be seen in the differences between the peranakan (nativeborn Chinese with some Indonesian ancestry) and totok (fullblooded Chinese, usually foreign born). While the distinctiveness and social significance of this division varies considerably in different parts of the archipelago, ties to the Chinese homeland were more distant among the peranakan community, and there was also stronger evidence of Indonesian influence in this community. Unlike the more strictly maledominated totok Chinese, peranakan families recognized descent based on both female and male lines, were more likely to have converted to Christianity, and were more likely to have assimilated in other ways to the norms of Indonesian culture. They often spoke Bahasa Indonesia as their first language, and some even converted to Islam. In the early 1990s, totok considered themselves to be the keepers of Chinese cultural ideals and maintained their traditions through household shrines, reverence for ancestors, and private language instruction in Chinese schools. They are highly orie

Category: Foreign - I