Remembering/Forgetting the May Riots: Architecture, Violence, and the Making of "Chinese Cultures" in Post-1998 Jakarta

"Serbu . . . serbu . . . serbu" [attack] the massa [crowds] shouted. Thus, hundreds of people spontaneously moved to the shops. Windows and blockades were destroyed, and the looting began. The massa suddenly became crazy. After the goods were in their hands, the buildings and the occupants were set on fire. Girls were raped. The wave of massa ransacked the whole city, but the Glodok area suffered the most. The festival ended in pain. So many materials are lost. Immeasurable are the pains that have been inscribed in the mind and feelings of the victims. Torn are the feelings of many of the children of the nation. This is just a small part of the story of the tragedy that took place on 13 and 14 May. Really! Those two days were the dreadful history that will never be forgotten for the rest of our lives, not until the end of the world. Three years have passed. But is there any "justice"? No! All the investigations have ended in nothing. The promise to search for the masterminds has never been conducted. There seems to be an attempt to forget the tragedy of May. This is certainly not what the victims wanted, but they do not have any power to bring justice. Indeed, the tragedy of May cannot be illustrated through kata-kata [words].

Fajar, "Tangisan Mei Itu Mulai Dilupakan"
[The tears of the May riots have begun to be forgotten]

For five years now, Indonesia has celebrated the May 1998 demonstration (known as reformasi) as a triumph of courage if not of democracy in the nation. To the amazement of the Indonesian people, the authoritarian and repressive regime of Suharto was toppled by a bold group of students together with a provisional, loosely connected "coalition" made up of frustrated middle-class families, calculating military figures, opportunistic ministers and bureaucrats, street hoodlums, and the urban poor. Yet, in spite of such stirring success and solidarity, for many others the May reformasi remains a forgotten tragedy. Riots, which took place over thirty-five hours and in approximately fifty locations throughout metropolitan Jakarta, involved the state's security apparatus as it sought to create a basis for the declaration of martial law as a "final" strategy for saving the collapsing regime. Thousands were killed in the ensuing disorder—including hundreds of poor looters trapped in ransacked lots—and hundreds of women and girls were gang-raped and tortured in these riots. This violence was directed, both systematically and spontaneously, at Indonesians of ethnic Chinese descent, whom many (including segments of the Suharto regime) deemed responsible for the nation's problems. The burning and plundering of Chinese property, as well as the gang rapes of ethnic Chinese women, were carried out by certain military groups and ordinary Indonesians who were transformed into a violent mob, often at the incitement of the Suharto army itself. ¹

The targeting of Indonesian Chinese has been attributed to the strength of their economy, the weakness of their political position, and the sense that Indonesian Chinese are not Indonesian enough—though few citizens would think of driving them out of the country entirely. ² The Chinese, simultaneously admired and disliked by the Indonesians, have been a frequent target of rioting. Indeed, anti-Chinese riots have taken place since the formation of Indonesian nationalism in the early twentieth century under Dutch colonial rule, and perhaps even before. ³ Over time, they have become a familiar phenomenon, so familiar that the reason(s) for anti-Chinese riots have never been clear even to those participating. ⁴

However familiar anti-Chinese riots may have been to Indonesians, the gang rapes of ethnic Chinese women in May 1998 were without precedent and went well beyond the recognizable framework of violence created by the long history of anti-Chinese activities. ⁵ The gang rapes introduced new, more extreme...