Behind the RI's division with ethnic Chinese

Mario Rustan ,  Bandung   |  Fri, 05/16/2008 12:48 PM  |  Opinion

I'd like to thank Jennie S. Bev for her article (Tuesday, May 8) and Rizal Iwan on his report on May 1998 (Sunday, May 11). The May 1998 incident led me on a personal quest during my university years -- a quest that forced me to try to understand my ethnicity and citizenship, Indonesian literature and the history of hatred and racism.

I was in high school at the time and unfortunately I do not remember much. I remembered concerns for security in my school and in Bandung, which were related to the economic crisis and the reformasi movement. I must have read about the Trisakti shooting and a riot in Jakarta in the newspaper, but I'm at a complete blank as to what was on television. I heard about Soeharto's resignation when I came home from school -- at the time I was more worried about my mathematics. Some teachers voiced their fears about security, but honestly, at the time I felt more under threat for my religious rather than ethnic status.

The May 1998 events would shape my Chinese-Indonesian identity for years to come. It was around then I realized some people did not see me as an Indonesian; and my genetic makeup -- half Chinese, quarter Sundanese and quarter Javanese -- was not very common. But I don't remember discussing this with my classmates who were mostly Chinese. We feared persecution for being Christians, not Chinese.

I remember the FIFA World Cup in 1998, and how it held Indonesia in thrall. People forgot about the hunger and the riots and watched Ronaldo and Zidane. I remember hearing reports of Chinese Indonesians moving to Bali or overseas, which many media outlets and politicians branded "unpatriotic", "cowardly" and "selfish".

The next month my family visited my sister in Australia, and it seemed she had a better understanding of the events than we did. But I only remember Ronaldo collapsing on July 17, 1998, and France demolishing Brazil 3-0. When I came back to Jakarta, I did not feel any impending danger.

For me, the significance of May 1998 was in its role in shaping the identity of Chinese Indonesians in the early 2000s. Reformasi strode on relentlessly, with the publication of books and articles related to political freedom, to hopes of a better Indonesia, and to Chinese Indonesians waking up to a new identity. I grew fascinated with the writings of Seno Gumira Ajidarma, who put a special emphasis on May 1998.

When I studied international relations and politics, subjects on Indonesia tended to focus on the Chinese minority. I devoted my curiosity to try to understand why the events of May 1998 occurred. Why were Chinese Indonesians disliked by so many? Who was behind the riots? Why didn't Indonesians talk about it? Why were there mass rapes? And why do some people still insist there were no anti-Chinese riots and rapes at all?

There are two schools of thought on who instigated the riots (not only in Jakarta but also in Surakarta). The first, championed by Ajidarma and Father Sandyawan, said it was planned by elements within the military and the government. These "provocateurs" incited the rioters to violence, sent in non-local rioters, provided fuel and bats, and told them where to go.

But opinion is divided on the motive. Was it to divert people's anger away from Soeharto? Was it an attempted coup? Was it racism disguised as a political riot?

The second theory, proposed by American law scholar Amy Chua and Australian political scientist Jemma Purdey, claims the events were the natural results of economic frustration and ethnic hatred, rather than a conspiracy. This theory does not discount the possible involvement of political actors behind the riots, but emphasizes the latent danger of a mob mentality. The mass rapes were the first such incidents in the long history of anti-Chinese sentiment in Southeast Asia, but also occurred in the former Yugoslavia and Africa at around the same period.

Still under the guise of reformasi, I tried interviewing Indonesian students in Melbourne on their memories of May 1998. It failed. People had either forgotten, or were too young to understand or did not want to talk about it at all. As I said earlier, even I forgot the details.

Still looking for answers to why the May 1998 events took place, I examined other cases of ethnic hatred, such as the Holocaust, Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s, Malaysia's 1969 riots and Indonesian history.

When I was left Australia, I contacted Chinese Indonesian businesses and found out many of them had fled Indonesia in 1998. They did not have to explain why, and I did not have the heart to ask. Back in Indonesia, I was surprised to see how the famous Benny & Mice comic strip saw the May 1998 events -- to them it was the logical conclusion to Chinese Indonesians' economic dominance and the people's frustration in the wake of the economic crisis.

The Chinese Indonesians were caricatured in old-fashioned pigtails and mandarin dress and held up as cowards who fled the country after the fall of Soeharto and the eve of the 1999 election -- which benefited poorer Jakartans as well as the domestic servants of the Chinese Indonesians who could now enjoy cable TV from the comforts of a couch.

Some time later, I adopted the words of Swedish historian Sven Lindqvist -- we already know enough. What we need is the courage to make a conclusion. I have made my conclusion, and while it is comforting to have ended my personal quest, it gives little comfort to be identified as an Indonesian. But I understood why there was an anti-Chinese riot in Lhasa, Tibet, on March 13, 2008.

The writer holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honors) in Politics from La Trobe University, Australia. He can be reached at mariorustan@gmail.com

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