February 13, 1999
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| February 13, 1999 | atimes.com | |
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| Southeast Asia Chinese Indonesians cautiously await New Year By Samsudin Berlian JAKARTA - Ethnic Chinese across Asia are preparing for Lunar New Year festivities, but Chinese Indonesiansare watching its approach with mixed feelings of hope and dread. This New Year, which begins on February 16, was to be thefirst one Chinese Indonesians could celebrate freely, now thatSuharto, whose government had clamped down on public displays ofChinese festivities, is no longer president. In fact, the traditional Chinese dragon dance, for so longtaboo in Indonesia, was staged during a huge party gathering inJakarta on January 31. But the fear generated by last year's riots directed againstethnic Chinese, including the rapes of Chinese women andgirls, have kept the community in a state of tension. And since then, subsequent riots across the country havecontinued to target ethnic Chinese, many of whom areChristians. Some of their homes have been attacked. Some groups ofpeople even attacked pig farms on the outskirts of Jakarta lastweek - pigs are unclean animals in Islam. Many ethnic Chinese have found little comfort in contradictorystatements by government officials, the armed forces, leaders ofpolitical parties, and civic organisations. Some leaders, such as Amien Rais, the increasingly popularchair of the National Mandate Party (PAN), have been wooing theethnic Chinese. Amien has promised to stop all discrimination againstthem if he gains power. Widely seen as a presidential aspirant, hepromised to include the Chinese in his Cabinet. Many ethnic Chinese, however, remain wary and say that Amiendid not always appear to be tolerant of ethnic Chinese andChristians. However, there is no shortage of politicians, like a leader of theMoon and Star Party, who in a recent interview with ''Newsweek''magazine blamed Christian Chinese as the source of all evil in thecountry. The blanket of uncertainty has prompted some ethnic Chinese whohave the means to stay out of the country. Some middle-class Chinese visit Singapore, or send only theirfamilies so they can take care of business at home, such as one man identified as Hendra. Asked if he would like to migrate, Hendra said it was tooexpensive for him. ''I missed the chance to benefit from KKN,'' hesaid jokingly, referring to Indonesian acronym for corruption,cronyism, and nepotism. ''And now I am stuck here." This year's Lunar New Year has almost no meaning for him - notonly because of the uncertainty he feels about his family's fatein Indonesia. ''As a Christian I should say after 30 years of culturalkilling, I never really celebrated the New Year. Usually we spendNew Year's eve with extended families and prepared a lot of'angpao' (new money in red envelopes) for the kids. That's all." He mused: ''I've never even seen the famous dragon dancelive." Apart from Chinese Indonesians who are Buddhists and go totemples for prayers and New Year rituals, this year should evenbe more inconspicuous than before because the ethnic Chinesewill keep a low profile. Doing so is not new to Chinese Indonesians, who have longtreated the New Year more as a private family affair ratherthan public cultural activity. For most Chinese Indonesians, the period at most means newoutfits, house ''spring cleaning'', family dinners, visits to thetemple and family elders and, to the delight of the children,crisp paper money in red, good luck envelopes. There are no big parties, and certainly no public holidays. Susi, a middle-level manager, plans to celebrate as usual with her extended family in her parents' hometown inSukabumi, West Java, where not long ago anti-Chinese riots werereported in parts of the city. Sukabumi was one of the few places in Indonesia where untilrecently ethnic Chinese communities were able to keep somedistinct cultural traditions. But even there, Susi does not expectbig celebrations. One thing especially worries her. ''There is a dilemma. Evenwithout going to excesses, Buddhist Chinese have to buy chicken,meat, fruits, and a lot of other things, to pray. When the pricesgo up, they will be blamed and there may be a reprisal,'' sheexplained. ''But imagine, if they do not buy things? People who alreadyprepared for the shopping rush and find that they could not selltheir merchandise will get angry. Guess who will have to take theblame?'' she added. Earlier last month, some Chinese groups tried to avertpotential trouble during the New Year by urging the ethnic Chineseto celebrate it on January 16, to coincide with the Id al-Fitr,the largest holidays for Indonesian Muslims. But the idea was killed with a public announcement by a Buddistorganization when the controversy that arose from it threatened tocause more chaos. Still, like their counterparts elsewhere in the region, ethnicChinese geomancers have been giving their assessments of what liesahead in the Year of the Rabbit. However, none of them ventured to say what the plight of theIndonesian Chinese would be. (Inter Press Service) | |||||||||
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