Discrimination Against Indonesian Chinese Intro

In Indonesia in April, 1994, what began as a labor protest in Medan quickly escalated into riots against the businesses of ethnic Chinese Indonesians (Hicks & Mackie, 1994, p. 46). Hicks and Mackie argue that this protest and the recent surge of ethnic Chinese capital investment have raised serious questions about the future of the Chinese throughout Southeast Asia. These questions are not new ones, however; they have been asked ever since the Chinese first began immigrating to Indonesia in the seventeenth century.

The questions raised by the recent events in Indonesia revolve around the level of assimilation and integration of the ethnic Chinese in Southeast Asia. Generally, two responses are common. First, the more extreme elements in Indonesian society accuse the Chinese of an unwillingness to assimilate (Hicks & Mackie, 1994, p. 46). However, the other side, which includes the ethnic Chinese themselves, regard the ethnic Chinese as willing and loyal citizens of their countries of residence, not China.

Suspicion and hostility toward Chinese settlers in Southeast Asia is an age-old tradition (Hicks & Mackie, 1994, p. 50). During the region's colonial rule, the Dutch and other Europeans sat atop the social scale, native Indonesians stood at the bottom, and "foreign Orientals" such as Chinese, Indians, and Arabs were in the middle (Ching, 1993, p. 33). History documents occasional massacres of whole commun

. . .
political organizations of alien Chinese were forbidden, Chinese festivals could only be celebrated "inconspicuously," and Chinese business capital was carefully regulated (van der Kroef, 1971, p. 238). Even "Indonesianization" of names and way of life among Chinese was strongly encouraged. Forms and Policies of Discrimination: 1980s - Present The 1980s represented a turning point in the treatment of ethnic Chinese in Indonesia only because it represented a shift in governmental policy in how to contain and regulate their economic influence. In the 1980s, the Suharto government furthered its attempt to ensure the assimilation of ethnic Chinese into the local community by enacting new regulations designed to expedite the naturalization of persons with Chinese citizenship (Seekins, 1993, p. 123). The policy succeeded, and by 1992 only about 6 percent, or 300,000, of the five million Chinese Indonesians were acknowledged by the People's Republic of China as being Chinese citizens. Furthermore, to demonstrate its commitment to their assimilation, the director general of immigration announced regulations in June 1992 that allowed Chinese immigrants who had lived illegally in Indonesia for decades to receive entry permits and
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
Indonesia Seekins, Wanandi--both Catholics, Suharto Government, Prasetya Mulya, China Chinese, Hicks Mackie, Economic Review, Indonesia Heryanto, Chinese Ching, Southeast Asia, ethnic chinese, economic review, chinese business, eastern economic, eastern economic review, hicks mackie, der kroef 1971, der kroef, van der, seekins 1993, kroef 1971, van der kroef, mackie 1994, hicks mackie 1994, budiman 1994 21,
Approximate Word count = 3139
Approximate Pages = 13 (250 words per page)