“We, the pribumi [indigenous people] have been conquered before. Now we have become independent. It’s time for us to be the hosts in our own land.”

The phenomenal speech by Anies Baswedan at his inauguration as Jakarta governor on Oct. 16 quickly went viral and caused controversy. He seemed ignorant of historical and scientific research by the Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology that all Indonesians are actually immigrants. But he denied he had said anything racist, saying his speech should be seen in the context of colonial history.

Some analysts said this speech was designed to smooth the pace toward his campaign for president in 2019. Whatever the motivation, we have seen the domino or spiral effect in the very short term.

The Gerakan Bangga Pribumi (Proud of Indigenous Peoples) march for example, on Oct. 22, highlighted the dichotomy between pribumi and non-pribumi, terms that were banned in Presidential Instruction No. 26/1998 following the deadly riots that year.

In a video posted on YouTube, supporters of the movement, are seen trying to associate non-pribumi with “Aseng ” (Chinese).

One of the supporters, the scholar, Sri Bintang Pamungkas, said, “The immigrants, Caucasians, Indians, Chinese, are non-indigenous. The original natives were us, we, who then proclaimed the 1928 Youth Pledge. […] There was no Indian, no Chinese, no Arab.”

Perhaps he forgot there were Chinese directly involved in the 1928 Youth Pledge: Sie Kok Liong, who provided the venue in Central Jakarta, and also Kwee Thiam Hong, a member of Jong Sumatra (Sumatra Youth), who then invited his friends Ong Kay Sing, Liauw Tjoan Hok and Tjio Djin Kwie. History also notes that five years after the 1928 Youth Pledge, several Arab youth in the Dutch East Indies swore their homeland was Indonesia.

Popular

RI, Australia strengthen partnership on taxing crypto assets

Analysis: Indonesia denies normalization with Israel to enter OECD

Citroen to produce electric cars in Indonesia