Riot survivors overcome trauma and help others

Agnes Winarti ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Wed, 05/14/2008 10:32 AM  |  City

Survivors of the May 1998 riots are finding their own ways to come out of the dark past in the absence of any explanation or recognition of the tragedy on the part of authorities.

When Herlina Lin and her family rushed through a narrow alley near their home on the night of the riots, people on the sidewalks pointed at her: "She is Chinese. She is Chinese."

"My tears were streaming down. I felt like there would be no tomorrow for me when I heard people talking," said Herlina while holding back tears.

A 22-year-old at the time, she felt as if she was a complete stranger in her own land. "I did not feel like I was in Indonesia at all, let alone Jakarta," said Herlina.

Herlina grew up in Pontianak, West Kalimantan, but her family moved to Jakarta when she was 10 years old.

The first time she ever heard the word Cina (Chinese) was from strangers in the capital.

Back in Pontianak, Chinese-Indonesians accounted for a large proportion of the city's population.

"I was brought up in a family that made friends with non-Chinese as well as Chinese. Ethnic difference has never been an issue," she said.

On the night of May 14, Herlina, her mother, her sister, her sister's baby and a nurse decided to leave their house in Pondok Kopi, East Jakarta. They stayed at a house of a non-Chinese neighbor in the same neighborhood.

"In the morning, from TV, we learned that looting had taken place in Tangerang. At the end of the day, we heard looting had begun at the nearby Hero Department Store in Pondok Kopi."

Her family lived in a two-story shop-house, selling electronics appliances like a few other Chinese-Indonesians in the neighborhood.

"All of us hung a sajadah (Muslim prayer mat) on our door."

Two days later, Herlina and her elder sister gathered courage to go to their house. It had been severely ransacked but some looters, mostly women, still lingered there, sifting through whatever remained.

"They knew we were the houseowners, and they kept on anyway. Some of them even discussed among themselves, which stuff for whom."

Herlina said they managed to save most of their books.

The house was left empty for the first two years after the riot.

"During that period I was very sensitive to the sound of iron gates and rolling doors being opened. Whenever I heard it, I would stay awake for the rest of the night."

Herlina said that one of the looters was a thug that still hangs around in the neighborhood today.

"I saw him just two days ago," said Herlina.

She has never confronted him but she was certain he was one of the looters of her home 10 years ago, she said.

"It's the past now. There's no other way but the fact that life must go on."

The experience helped her develop a deeper interest in helping others dealing with traumatic experiences due to domestic violence, natural disasters and others, she said.

Herlina currently works as the head of psychologists at the Post-Trauma Stress Recovery Clinic at Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital, Central Jakarta.

Herlina said the experience helped her become stronger; she never avoided talking about her experience.

"I am coping with the experience by exposing myself to the memory."

However, she doubted the government would ever create any resolution to the tragedy.

The only official report was made by the National Commission for Human Rights. It said during May 12 to 25, 1998, there were a total of 1,188 people killed and over 5,000 buildings burned, damaged or looted.

"It's already been 10 years. I have little hope there will ever be clarity about it," Herlina said. "I am one of those people who has become apathetic about whether it will ever be resolved."

Ruminah, 51, whose son Gunawan went missing on the day of the riot in Klender, East Jakarta, said she still held high hopes for a government resolution.

"If the government has the heart and the willingness to resolve it, they can. The problem is: Are they willing? The victims and the evidence are already there."

Ruminah still runs her hair salon at home, which was wrecked by looters in the riots. She said she overcame her depression over the loss of her son by trying to remember good memories of him.

"He was always such a funny child, despite his low IQ. He was very helpful in my hair shop, making customers feel at home with his antics."

Gunawan was Ruminah's third child of five. He and his seven friends never returned after leaving home to watch the rampage at the former Klender Plaza.

Ruminah is now the chairwoman of the Forum of May 1998 Riots Victim Families.

"As long as I still have my health, I will never tire demanding the government say who was responsible for the riot," she said.

In January, the Constitutional Court ordered the government to set up an ad hoc court to process a series of atrocities during 1998 to 1999, including the May 1998 riot, the Trisakti shooting, the 1998 Semanggi I and the 1999 Semanggi II incidents.

The court would take investigations from the National Commission on Human Rights and the Attorney General's Office (AGO) into consideration.

However, the court first had to be established with a recommendation from the House of Representatives.

On April 2, 2008, as the House had yet to issue the recommendation, the AGO returned reports filed by the rights body and refused to formally investigate the cases.

The House said it could not issue the recommendation before the AGO submitted complete investigation reports on the cases.

Copyright © 2008 The Jakarta Post - PT Bina Media Tenggara. All Rights Reserved.