The new leaders of the bustling city of Jakarta, newly inaugurated Governor Anies Baswedan and his Deputy Governor Sandiaga Salahuddin Uno, wasted no time on their debut at City Hall, Central Jakarta, on Tuesday morning as they met hundreds of subordinates before opening entrepreneurial workshops at the Jakarta Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (UMKM) Agency.

However, Anies’ controversial comment on the pribumi (native people) in a speech after his inauguration remained the focus of attention all day. The speech, which was pre-written but improvised on stage following the inauguration on Monday evening, caused a great deal of controversy among city residents and rights groups.

While highlighting his stand on pluralism by inserting proverbs from local ethnic groups, such as the Acehnese, Batak and Madura people, Anies sparked heated debate, particularly on social media, over his use of the word pribumi — a term used to describe native Indonesians.

“In other places, colonialism might feel far away but to Jakartans, colonialism is in front of their eyes and felt daily,” said the governor, who is of Arab descent. His grandfather Abdurrahman Baswedan, was one of Indonesia’s freedom fighters and established Persatoean Arab Indonesia (PAI).

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

The term pribumi was originally coined as part of a three-tiered racial classification during the Dutch colonial era, which placed native Indonesians below European and “foreign oriental” races, such as the Chinese, Arabs and Indians.

The term was abused to spread hatred against Chinese-Indonesians during the May 1998 riots, which took at least 1,217 lives, left 91 injured and in which 31 people disappeared. The tragedy also caused trauma to many people because of the many reported rapes of Chinese-Indonesian women.

Because of the issue, the use of pribumi by government officials was banned through Presidential Instruction No. 26/ 1998 on ending the use of the terms pribumi and non-pribumi, issued by then president BJ Habibie.

Anies defended himself on Tuesday saying he used the word pribumi in the context of previous years when the country was colonized by the Dutch.

However, many social media users alleged Anies, once known as a moderate Muslim, used pribumi to single out Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Punama, his predecessor and opponent in this year’s gubernatorial election, which was marred by increased sectarian tensions.

Ahok is a Christian of Chinese descent, and during his term in office he was subject to fierce criticism from hard-line Muslim groups, whose opposition often focused on his policy of evicting slum dwellers as part of the city’s river-revitalization program.

Anies, a former Paramadina University rector, who allied with conservative Muslim groups to earn his ticket in the gubernatorial election, beat Ahok by securing 58 percent of the vote in the second round of the election in April.

However, the speech did not only attract criticism from social media users, as various prominent rights organizations also claimed the remark contravened the spirit of tolerance and diversity, long proclaimed as Indonesian values.

The Setara Institute said the speech seemed to confirm assumptions that Anies had exploited sectarian issues to win the gubernatorial position.

“Anies’ statement is not only outside the ethical standards of the leader of a melting-pot province but also builds new segregation based on race,” said Setara head Hendardi in a statement.

Instead of emphasizing ethnic and racial differences, Anies should seek to create emotional healing for Jakarta residents who had been divided by identity politics, he added.

Criticism also came from LBH Jakarta, which stated that the use of pribumi in Anies’ speech could exacerbate divisions between communities.

His choice of the word was counterproductive to efforts to maintain tolerance and diversity, said LBH lawyer Alldo Fellix Januardy. He added that it also violated the spirit of ending racial and ethnicity discrimination as stipulated in the 2008 Elimination of Race and Ethnic Discrimination Law, as well as in the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination as ratified under a 1999 law.

He called on Anies to retract the statement and publicly apologize.

Amnesty International Indonesia said Anies’ speech could further divide the residents of Jakarta “who have been recovering from the wounds caused by an election dominated by sectarian sentiments.”

“Terms like pribumi and non-pribumi should no longer have any space in public discourse,” said Usman Hamid, Amnesty’s executive director.

Popular

Indonesia one step from Olympics after beating South Korea

Opposition weakens as rivals pledge support for Prabowo

Golden generation