Thirty-year-old Yenni (not her real name) was forced to have an abortion after her extended family refused to accept her marriage to Budi (not his real name), a Muslim of the same age from a Javanese family.

“My family said I had to marry a man of Chinese descent to continue the family business. The man my family rejected did not come from a business family and practiced a different religion,” she said.

Although she has been blessed with two children from a marriage to a man her parents ended up choosing for her, she is now filing for a divorce.

A sociologist from Airlangga University in Surabaya, Bagong Suyanto, explained that relations between people of Chinese descent and other ethnicities in Indonesia were on the mend since the Reform period and the elimination of a number of rules applying to citizenship.

However, while laws had relaxed, he noted, discrimination still permeated society on a personal level.

“Society is entering a period of transition after living for decades under old rules, especially those made during the New Order regime that compartmentalized people into different religious groups and classes.
Society has only gradually come to know real pluralism under Gus Dur’s leadership,” he said.

A union between a Hadramaut (Arabian) descendant and a Javanese would be easier than a marriage between a Javanese and a Chinese, he went on.

“A union between a Hadramaut descendant living in Java and a Javanese is easier because both parties follow the same religion. Hadramaut names are also sometimes used as a Javanese names, like Mohammad.”

Many Chinese descendants married other ethnicities between the 16th and 19th century, following the arrival of Admiral Cheng Ho on the North coast of Java. Totokers (traders, migrants of Chinese descent who came to do business in Indonesia) married local women, bringing in a new culture and icons such as potehi (wooden puppets), kebaya encim (Chinese blouses) and new local dialects.

Human mirror: A collection of Potehi dolls are arranged in a box before the performance.
Under the Dutch colonial government, people were categorized into three groups, namely Europeans, indigenous people and Eastern foreigners (Timur Asing), which at the time meant Arabs and Chinese. Not only did this encourage racist practices, but also competition between people from different classes.

Liem Sian Yu, a businessman of Chinese descent, built a luxury complex in Lawang, East Java, to show people from Chinese descent could be just as successful as Europeans. The building, now called the Niagara Hotel, has become a cultural conservation site in the town of Lawang, East Java.

Racist practices were also encouraged under the Sukarno government with the passing of Presidential Regulation No. 10 of 1959, prohibiting small businesses from being owned by foreigners at the village level. In practice, the ban only applied to ethnic Chinese as a result of anti-Chinese political developments in 1956.

Discriminatory practices persisted under the Soeharto regime. Under the 1977 Instruction of the Minister of Domestic Affairs No. X 01, Indonesian citizens of foreign descent were still required to show proof of citizenship.

The situation started to change under President Abdurrahman “Gus Dur” Wahid, who in 2001 declared Chinese New Year a public holiday and recognized the followers of Confucius.

Under President Megawati Soekarnoputri’s administration, citizenship issues spread to the sports arena.
National badminton player Thomas Hendrawan, who won the national trophy five times, was rejected by officials because he couldn’t prove his Indonesian citizenship. The 1977 controversial instruction was finally removed after July 2006, when the House of Representatives approved a new Citizenship Law.

Ustadz Hariyono Ong, who oversees the Takmir Cheng Hoo Mosque, argued that humans, by nature, were inclined to differentiate between various groups.

“But differences can be evened out through religion, as the construction of the Muhammad Cheng Hoo Mosque in Surabaya shows. It is expected to become a symbol of harmony and peace in the Muslim community, especially for Muslims of Chinese ethnicity,” he said.

The Muhammad Cheng Hoo Mosque, built with pagodas, was opened in May 2001 and is known as the first mosque in Indonesia to use a Muslim Chinese name.

The room used by the priest to lead the prayer is deliberately shaped to look like a church door, promoting a message of peace, love and harmony, and show that Islam recognizes and respects the existence of the Prophet Isa (or Jesus) as the messenger of God.

“The real meaning for Islam and the community of Chinese descent is to love one another and live in peace, show mutual respect and not interfere with the beliefs of others. Whatever our religion, we are still brothers because we are God’s creatures,” said Hariyono.


— Photos by Indra Harsaputra