C

hinese New Year celebrations in Indonesia are among the most politicized in the world. Farmers in ancient China would be aghast to learn that their celebration of life in welcoming the spring - before it spread to Japan, Korea and Vietnam - could ever be banned in a country.

Never mind that the traces of acculturation abound in Indonesia, from food like lontong (cooked rice wrapped in coconut leaves) Cap Go Meh to tanjidor traditional music orchestra, to cite a few examples. The euphoria of the Chinese-Indonesian community that greeted the freedom to celebrate it publicly in 2000 was understandable following a cultural hiatus of more than three decades.

Culture, it turns out, is difficult to kill. Simply put, it is a return to the "normal" past when the New Year had been celebrated for centuries in this archipelago not only by Chinese Indonesians but by almost all Indonesians.

Ten years after the late president Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid allowed the community to celebrate it openly in public, it is time to look at the New Year with new eyes.

The Chinese-Indonesian community stopped celebrating the Lunar New Year in public in 1967 following the issuance of a law to that effect. The government believed that Chinese-Indonesians had supported the September 1965 communist coup d'*tat. Unfortunately, no explanation has come forth from the government about the true reasons behind the coup, nor whether the allegation was right or false.

We are fond of deceiving ourselves that past mistakes will not carry weight into the future only to be rudely awakened by explosive episodes. The 1998 massive and bloody riots that brought Soeharto down had a strong anti-Chinese sentiment. The protest against the performance of barongsai (lion dance) and liong (dragon dance) in West Kalimantan capital of Pontianak in 2008 is another reminder that the anti-Chinese sentiment remained alive and kicking.

It is with this kind of concern that we would like to join our Chinese-Indonesian brothers in celebrating the New Year. The Chinese problem stays and cannot be wiped out with a decision of cultural freedom. The Chinese-Indonesian community will remain a convenient scapegoat whenever a trouble is brewing. A ceremony in tribute to Gus Dur in Jakarta this week reflects a yearning on the part of the community for a leader who could truly accept them.

It is difficult to wipe out the image that the Chinese-Indonesian community is rich though statistically there are more poor Chinese-Indonesians than rich ones.

The problem is exacerbated by a seemingly conscious effort to ignore the contributions made by the community toward nation founding and building. The community actively joined their Indonesian brothers in fighting for their freedom and to search for their nationhood.