May 1998 tragedy brought Surakartans together

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Wed, 05/17/2006 12:35 PM

Blontank Poer, The Jakarta Post, Surakarta

Teenagers were busy in front of computers in an Internet kiosk in the Central Java town of Surakarta. Some were playing games or chatting with friends, while others were looking into the procedures to apply for permanent residence in Australia.

""Most of them wanted to know how to become permanent residents there since they felt Surakarta was unsafe,"" recalled Hananto, the former manager of Solonet Internet kiosk, of the time following the May 1998 tragedy when hundreds of houses and business premises belonging to Chinese-Indonesians were looted and torched by angry people.

The tragedy left bitter memories and many people moved to Bali and abroad, mostly to Australia and Singapore.

But the city was quick to bounce back. It took only three years for people to return to the town, the place where they were born and grew up, and since then both the locals and Chinese-Indonesians have worked together to get the city back on its feet again.

""The May tragedy taught us a lesson so the bloody incident does not deserve to be commemorated in a special event,"" head of Surakarta Community Association, a group of Chinese-Indonesians in the city, Martono, told The Jakarta Post.

He said the tragedy touched Chinese-Indonesians in the city, as at least 16,000 people were left jobless and the economy was devastated.

""Many of us were awoken by the tragedy and many started their businesses over again,"" said the man who is in the business of building materials.

Soon, buildings that were once blackened by fire were transformed into new business sites.

Since the tragedy, at least six new shopping malls have been built all over the city. A super-block that will combine shopping mall, hotel and office complex is ready to be built with a total investment of more than Rp 1.8 trillion.

Martono said most of the new businesses were built by local investors, with the exception of one belonging to businesspeople outside the city.

He said one of important factors behind the city's speedy economic recovery was a common awareness to ensure security.

""The May 1998 tragedy made everyone suffer not only the Chinese-Indonesians. This common feeling was the new ground for recovery,"" said Ricky, director of PT Solo Jala Buana, an Internet service provider Indo.Net Solo.

He said that without the assurance of security, it would be impossible for the economy and people's welfare to improve.

He said that following the May tragedy, communication had improved. Many Chinese-Indonesians, for instance, were involved in social work together with Muslims although they were mostly Christians. A breaking of the fast event held by Chinese-Indonesians last year was attended by at least 5,000 Muslims.

Both Martono and Ricky observed a shared spirit to avoid racial tensions.

During the legislative and presidential elections in 2004, as well as during direct election of Surakarta's mayor last year, no clashes were reported amid rumors of racial conflict.

""People realized that the rumors were spread by a third party who didn't want peace,"" Martono said.

Ricky blamed this on former president Soeharto's politics that segregated locals and non-locals for his own interests. ""If there's no discrimination, there will be no racial conflict,"" he said.

Interfaith activist and Muslim cleric Muhammad Dian Nafi said good relations between the locals and the Chinese-Indonesians in the city were due to dialog.

Many forums, he said, were held to shift from focusing on emotions to discussion. ""This allowed Surakarta residents to learn of the conflict's many dimensions and focus on building the city together,"" he said.

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