Reminiscence of A Chinese-Indonesian Look-alike

Berly Martawardaya | December 2nd, 2009

It was totally unexpected.

I was just finishing an afternoon prayer in the mosque nearby Faculty of Economics at the University of Brawijaya. The meeting in the mountainous city of East Java brings together cool heads of Economics and Development students all over Indonesia together. We were on the verge of establishing a national organization for Economics and Development students.

Students in this major are proud for their fellow alumni and lecturers as they are known as a driving force in national and regional planning agencies as well as expert members of most of welfare and economic related policy committees. And some of them become top executives or lawmakers. Moreover, TV shows and newspapers are not complete without economic section.

Considering the enormity of tasks in setting up development plans, which usually fall into alumni of 70+ public universities in Indonesia with Economics major, with ten percent of them doing most of the heavy lifting, it is imperative that during studentship period that we get to know each other to build networks early on.

Little did I know that at I was bumping into a different kind of wall soon after.

A group of female students from Andalas University in West Sumatra, based in Padang the hometown of my tribe, looked at me curiously and braced themselves to ask a question. One of them said, “What are you doing in a mosque?”

I told them that I had just finished praying and she responded, ”Oh, I didn’t thought that you are Moslem since you look like a Chinese.”

I defended myself by explaining that I have a mixed blood of Padangnese from West Sumatra and Sundanese West Java, both of which have reputation of fair skin, then it is natural that my skin is even fairer than most Indonesian people.

They smiled to me and afterward the group’s behavior was growing warmer toward me. Having good-looking girls behaving nice is not usually a circumstance that makes me complain. But it did have me wondering.

Two strands occurred in my minds. First, why they changed behavior. Second, why I felt the strong urge to ‘defend’ myself.

I have an impeccable credential as a pribumi, translated literally into son of the earth, Indonesian. As I mentioned before, my parents are both from Indonesian tribes with no traceable of intermarriage with western or far east blood. Not only I am a Moslem but a leader of local chapter of Islamic Association of University Student (HMI), which has the largest number of student in the world among student associations in a single country. I even have, albeit weak, acquaintances with leaders of revivalist and progressive Islamic movements in the country.

Not that I have prejudices or bad experiences with minority in Indonesia. Some of my fondest childhood memories were during my three-year stay in Riau Island near Singapore where many of the inhabitants were Chinese descent.

Every time I saw a red envelope, it reminds of me of a well-kept tradition in Chinese New Year where children in a neighborhood will be given angpao, money in such envelope. Until now, I still count kwe tiaw (Chinese flat noodle) with seafood sauce as one of my favorite meals. And yes, I developed close friendship with a Chinese boy of my age whose photo still adorns my album and my mother still sometimes proudly shows to visitors of our house.

So why I have the need to differentiate myself and my identify that I am not one of “them”?

As much as having progressive and nationalistic parents could have impact, I could not escape influences of the media and community. I am still a product of my generation.

In a way, it’s not totally the mistake of Chinese Indonesians. The Dutch colonial system that lasted more than three centuries in some areas of Java created a hierarchy of population. They and other European descendants were at the top of pyramid with all the power and perks that ensued while the pribumi were placed at the bottom of the vertical stratifications.

A few pribumis with royal blood or special circumstances could get Dutch education and even went all the way to study in Holland, but they retained little illusion that the barrier could go away longer than a flicker of moments. But there was also the second layer.

As the Netherlands was very far away from Indonesia and the state of sea transportation at the time was far from convenient, their number was too small for an effective power over economic and political matter in the archipelago. While they hold close to political power, the economic side was not held to close to the chest and many of trading activities were given up. Of course some of the spoil would reach them eventually.

Arab and Chinese descendants were classified as the second layer of population class. This arrangement had added benefits by making the pribumi saw that the Dutch was not the only group higher in hierarchy thus making their position even weaker.

The Arab had an advantage with having similar religious and cultural backgrounds with most of Indonesian population. With intermarriage often occurred, Arabian descendants had been accepted as a part of Indonesian diverse richness.

While there have been heroic cases of Chinese Indonesian fight against the Dutch colonial system, the main impression is how the group was privileged over suffering of pribumi Indonesia. Furthermore, Christianity was brought by Dutch and Portuguese to Indonesian archipelago and is still seen with suspicion of being external agents and less than fully loyal to Indonesia.

Some historians said that female Chinese prevented their males to convert to Islam for fear of the husband taking a second, a third or fourth wives that are allowed in mainstream Islam. Anyhow, the low percentage of Moslems in Chinese Indonesians made the group a triple minority in terms of ethnic, religion, and wealth.

Being suspected as part of coup movement to oust Sukarno, the first president of Indonesia, certainly wasn’t helpful to the cause of integration. Chinese schools and newspapers were banned, and people who were using Chinese names were forced to adopt proper Indonesian names.

During the New Order under Suharto, the marginalization of Chinese Indonesians reached a new height. One would be very hard pressed to find one member in government office or military. Chinese Indonesians were ghetto-ized into businesses activities which fed into vicious cycles of resentment as the group grew richer. The riots of May 1998 were the culmination of that resentment. The harrowing stories of the incident will forever be kept in the conscience of Indonesians.

But it was not without any upside.

The president after the 1999 election was Gus Dur, who was a strong civil society leader and an avid defender of minorities. Chinese newspapers and daily news in Mandarin on a major national TV station and Chinese culture flourished again under his administration, while the next president did nothing to stem the tide.

Now the Chinese New Year is again a festivity of sight and sound. Who can forget barongsai dance with two persons in a dragon costume doing acrobatic feats, once you have seen them? Now I am happy that my children will not be barred from such amazing sight.

In retrospect, I wish I had echoed Collin Powell when he endorsed Obama for president over John McCain in the eve of 2009 election. I would have said, “What if I am a Chinese Indonesian? Is there something wrong with being a Chinese Indonesian in this country?”

I expect that there will be time, not very far from now, when the question will meet a resounding no by all Indonesians. An individual should not be judged by the color of skin, religion, and racial heritage or wealth, but by the content of character and contribution to common good.[]