Chinese Indonesians: Remembering, Distorting, Forgetting

4. Portrait of the Chinese in Post-Soeharto Indonesia

PORTRAIT OF THE CHINESE 95 4 Portrait of the Chinese in PostSoeharto Indonesia Arief Budiman INTRODUCTION On Saturday, 8 March 2003 about 200 members of two paramilitary gangs demonstrated outside Tempo weekly magazine’s office in Pegangsaan, Jakarta. A number of them, escorted by police, entered the building and met with some of the editors. Later, they went to the local police station and continued the meeting. Both in the Tempo office and the police station the leaders of these gangs harassed and physically attacked a number of the Tempo editorial staff. This took place in front of the police but the police did not intervene (Jakarta Post, 2003a,b; Tempo Interaktif, 2003a). One gang belonged to the Artha Graha Group (a business company owned by Chinese konglomerat1 Tomy Winata) and the other was the Banteng Muda Indonesia (Young Wild Bulls of Indonesia), a paramilitary organization associated with PDI-P (Partai Demokrasi Indonesia — Perjuangan or the Indonesian Democratic Party — Struggle).2 A few days before the attack, Tempo had written a story in its 3 March edition, indicating that Artha Graha Group might be implicated in a fire which had broken out the previous month at the huge textile market in Tanah Abang, Jakarta. Prior to the fire, Artha Graha, according to Tempo, had signed a contract to renovate this market. In its article, Tempo reported rumours about the possible involvement of the Artha Graha Group in the fire, together with Tomy’s rebuttal (Jakarta Post, 2003b). Tomy has since successfully sued Tempo, claiming damages for calling him a “big scavenger ” (Jakarta Post, 2003a,d). The brutal attack resulted in popular anger directed at Tomy Winata. However, fuelled by a latent anti-Chinese sentiment, this soon transformed into anger at all ethnic Chinese. People felt that Winata’s actions 96 ARIEF BUDIMAN were “typical Chinese” behaviour, especially for Chinese businessmen. They felt that the Chinese “always” bribed state officials, particularly the police and the military. A considerable amount of commentary about the event was published on the Internet, including inflammatory antiChinese remarks. Fortunately, before this anger became uncontrollable, community leaders issued statements that many Chinese were “decent”, and “not like Winata” (Gus Dur 2003; Tempo Interaktif, 2003b; Jakarta Post, 2003a). For example, former President and Muslim leader, Abdurrahman Wahid (commonly known as “Gus Dur”), commented: I am anxious and concerned to see the development of the current war against premanisme (gangsterism). If [people] are not careful , it could develop into inter-ethnic prejudice. Because our community habitually makes generalisations and [things get] out of proportion. This could incite much conflict in our community. (Gus Dur 2003)3 It is not clear whether it was just because of these warnings that the situation remained calm. As will be discussed below, it is also possible that the pribumi (indigenous Indonesian) perception of the Chinese and the self-perception of the ethnic Chinese themselves have changed since the political reformation began in 1998. THE PRIBUMI PERCEPTION OF THE CHINESE The May 1998 riots in Jakarta and Solo — during which many Chinese houses were looted and a number of Chinese were killed and raped — were very dramatic events in Chinese Indonesian history (Heryanto 1999, pp. 299–334; Coppel 2002b, pp. 17–18; Purdey, this volume). They led to changes in a number of areas. One striking episode, which appeared on television, showed a Chinese man crying like a child after losing his wife and two daughters during the anti-Chinese riots in 1998. They had all burnt to death inside his house. While crying, he told the audience what happened, asking what was his sin that led him to suffer this ordeal. He said he was not a Chinese anymore — his “eyes were not slanted”, he could not speak Chinese, he was poor, and he joined the Hansip (community security guard).4 This led to many viewers feeling guilty for assuming that all Chinese were rich, materialistic, greedy, and exploitative. Since the riots, some nonChinese have begun to realize that there are many kinds of Chinese: rich, PORTRAIT OF THE CHINESE 97 poor, business tycoons, workers, small traders, and unemployed. Some Chinese make money and become rich; some others remain poor, discriminated against, and exploited. The Chinese are not perceived in the same one-dimensional way that they were before the riots. THE CHANGING SELF-PERCEPTION OF THE CHINESE It is not only the pribumi who have changed their perception of the...