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ERASE RACIAL DISCRIMINATION, XENOPHOBIA, AND RELATED
INTOLERANCE IN INDONESIA
Joint Statement of Indonesia NGOs Forum
The history of racism coincides with the economic exploitation
through slavery. It all began when the rulers felt the need of
cheap and loyal labour.
This slavery developed towards conquest of one country by
another, conquered people would then become slave labours for the
conquerors.
In the 16th century slave commerce began to flourish. Those
slaves were imported from Africa to England or America. The
slave-traders spread the notion that the slaves were from an
inferior class and deserved their fate.
Although the slave trade has been declared illegal, the
exploitation persists.
So, come around a new racialist practice, with the advent of
imperialism. This racialist did not just hover around old issues
but gave forth other racialist policies such as Nazism, developed
by Hitler in Germany, and the advent of a special form of
imperialism in South Africa, the Apartheid.
In Indonesia, racism began its development in the 16th century
with the introduction of European colonialism. Indonesians, at
the time totally alien from such racial differentiation, were
transformed totally by policies and racial system introduced by
European colonialists. To preserve their privileged position,
they invented a devide-et-impera system by granting special right
towards certain groups, in this case especially Tionghoa.
Nevertheless, racism employed by colonial rulers was in fact
intended towards the whole-conquered nation.
At present, Indonesia had been freed from the colonialism, but
racism is still practiced in Indonesia by the New Order
government. Using laws inherited by its colonial predecessor, New
Order succeeded in reproducing racialist and segregationist
policies as much as possible, in order to defend its privilged
position.
Policies of the New Order thus far have clearly been based on
racialist doctrines. It is marked by the passing of racialist
legislations, giving forth segregation of citizens based on
ethnical, racial, religious, descendancy and other issues. These
in turn gave rise to differentiation between groups in society.
These legislations thus gave rise to prejudices, suspicions,
among peoples, which in turn manifested itself in extremes such
as racial conflicts.
These conflicts assumes many forms, such as expulsion of
people considered "outsiders"; such as what happened in
Buton, Bugis and Ambon; acts which provoked racial riots in
aforementioned places; not to mention other riots such as the
ones in West Kalimantan; May 1998 Riot in Jakarta; Solo; Medan;
and other places. The State, the one responsible for protection
of its subjects, especially minorities, has neglected its duty;
whereas in spheres it's not supposed to intervere, it meddles
heavy handedly by means of racialist legislations. Although Wahid
presidency has renounced one of those racialist legislations
(i.e. Presidential Decree no. 14/1967) through Presidential
Decree no. 6/2000, the act doesn’t have any significance
what so ever as an attempt of solving racial discrimination in
this country. Precisely because the state wouldn’t grant any
security whatsoever for its citizens from racially discriminating
acts.
The fall of Soeharto's formal power, and the ascent of
Abdurrahman Wahid, doesn’t otomatically end to the problem
of racism in Indonesia. This is the easiest thing to understand
given that the fall of Soeharto from his presidency didn’t
involve the fall of his racialist New Order system, given the
immense power still possesed by New Order people in the present
parliament, TNI/Polri and state bureaucracy. Besides, Wahid
government has inherited the racialist and segregationist New
Order system deeply rooted after 32 years. This is apparent by
the persistance of New Order racialist legislations. Currently
there are at least 62 racialist legislations still in effect. The
sheer number of racialist and religious violence in this country
has shown how deeply rooted is the racial and religious
prejudices among Indonesians. Thus, it's not an exaggeration when
we claim that racism has its grip not only on the state
apparatus, but also among the people themselves.
Racism has become a culture of this nation.
Racism, xenophobia, and related intolerance are not
exclusively Indonesian, but also proliferate in other parts of
the world. No wonder that all countries in the United Nation
specially devised an agenda to fight all forms of racial
discrimination. This can be seen clearly from important
intenational documents such as:
Universal Declaration of Human Rights 10th December 1948,
articles 1 and 2;
Cairo Declaration 5th August 1990, articles 1(a) and 1(b);
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, articles
2(1), 4(1), 20(2), 24(1), 26;
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights, article 2(2);
International Convention Elimination of All Forms of Racial
Discrimination 1966;
ILO Convention No. 111 on Discrimination, article 1(a);
Convention Against Discrimination in Education, article 1(1);
Convention of the Rights of Children, article 2;
Declaration on Race and Racial Prejudices, articles 1, 2, 9;
and also collection of principles of protection for every
person in any custody or prison.
After three decades since 1973, the struggle waged by the UN
to erase racial discrimination, xenophobia and other intolerances
based on racial, religious and other issues seemingly inadequate
to completely eradicate all racialist practices and policies
throughout the world. This abolition of discrimination in all
spheres must be completely supported and warranted by governments
of all countries under UN's banner. So that the process to
abolish all discrimination based on race, ethnics, religion,
gender or political convictions and ideology can be made hasten.
Therefore, Indonesian government, whose country has long been
a member of the UN must come to realize, as soon as possible,
that the discrimination and prejudices that proliferate
throughout the country must be given serious considerations, and
solved in the most democratic manner.
The right to religious conviction and rituals is one of the
basic rights of all people, which must be recognized irrespective
to the choice of religion or belief. Therefore, everybody is
entitled the right to choose his or her own religion
(International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, article
18).
Restraints put by Indonesian government by means of only
recognizing five religion, namely Islam, Catholic, Protestant,
Hindu and Budha, has effectively curb any potential development
of all religion outside the official ones. The legislation has
brought forth-discriminatory actions against diciples of all
religions whose fate was not fortunate enough to be legalized by
the state.
Under the protectorate of the legislations, the frequent ban
on attempt to erect worshipping temples or other holy places of
certain religions or faiths is a common feature in Indonesia.
Just recall the ban to erect Konghucu temples; the difficulties
in obtaining permissions to erect any worshipping place.
The illegality suffered by Konghucu faith makes difficult for
its disciples to carry out its rituals. The illegality also has
impacts on their civil rights, whereby their marriage cannot be
registered in Civil Registration. Whereas adults without conduct
all marriage, in principles, any discrimination based on
nationality, citizenship or religion (Universal Declaration of
Human Rights, article 16).
Racial and religious discrimination is also conducted against
the disciples of the so-called Beliefs in The One and Only God,
which is many. The coercion to embrace any one of the officially
recognized religions proliferates. For instance against
Kaharingan faith, which is categorized as Hindu, whereas there
are many differences between the two. This, in effect, has
coerced its disciple to convert into religions officially
recognized by the government. The state, notwithstanding the
diversity ini ethnicity and nations within Indonesia, frequently
neglected the needs of indigenous people regarding their social,
cultural and economical rights. High prejudices between ethinics
are getting from bad to worse. The prejudices surfaced more
clearly, provoked by frictions in sosio-cultural spheres, which
in turn gave rise to conflicts and riots? The racialist policies,
which gave rise to those prejudices, also have impacts in
ethnicity life, especially in minority ethnics. They have no room
for socialization among the society, and being barred from
appreciating their own culture.
The state also fails to give appropiate accomodation for the
diversity of cultures. In the social life, a barrier has been
erected to segregate between ethnics. Therefore, it happens also
in respect to their religions. Their religions are curbed because
they are not one of the five officially recognized by the
government.
The sixth article of the Convention on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights declares that every state must recognize the
right of every person of acquiring a life by means of their
freely chosen or accepted occupation.
Therefore the division of labour must not be based on
ethnicity, race, nationality, colur, sex, political opinion,
social or religious belief of the aforementioned person (ILO
Convention no. 111), but based on their capability and free
choice.
As happened thus far, there are frequent discriminatory
actions in occupation based on ethnics, race or religious
beliefs. The division of labour based on ethnicity inevitably
produces discriminatory wages. The ownership of the industries
also perpetuates the discriminating habit. This we undoubtedly
need to abolish, the state must need to reconsider its role in
this matter.
The state must also open up that occupation formerly closed
for certain ethnics, for instance, the civil service for
Tionghoa.
Unreasonable and exaggerated hatred and fear against
everything considered "foreign", which include against
persons, goods or opinions; is a specialized form of racism known
as xenophobia. The newly elected self-autonomy has every
probability of bringing forth the rise of regional egotism; and,
thus, practices and policies based on ethnics, race, religious
beliefs or colour, provided the government ignores the problems
of racial and ethnic and religious prejudices still rooted within
our society. Regional autonomy without anti-racist policies will
only worsen the already seething racial, ethnic, and religious
conflicts everywhere.
The civil service recruitment systems, either in public or
private companies, must be carried out in full transparency. It
frequently happens that nepotism based on ethnicity, race and
religion plays an enormous role in such recruitments.
The government must hasten to give an end to all
discriminatory bureaucracy. For instance, the population of Tegal
Alur, most of whom are Tionghoa, are denied the legal documents
such as ID Cards, Birth Certificates, Marriage Certificate;
Household Registration Cards and the likes, and thus their
citizenship rights. They have difficulties in conducting
marriage, education or occupation. Formally, there is no
restriction, but in practice, the processes are so complicated
and expensive they effectively provide a barrier to such
documents. Many among them were compelled to renounce their own
religious belief in order to get hold of any document. The
bureaucracy must not be based on ethnicity, race or one's
religious conviction, but on state responsibility to service its
citizenship.
One significant means of propagating racism is the military,
institutionally or as individuals. The military has been deeply
involved in racialist practices throughout Indonesia. The
involvement of TNI in the social-political sphere making use of
racialist issues has frequently occurred. The Paraku case, which
left 42,000 Tionghoa dead, carried out by provoking ethnical
sentiments between the Dayaks and the Tionghoas; is one of the
instances of racialist practices they carry out to preserve their
privileged position in social and political sphere. Other
instances are the racial riots, the so-called 10th Mei Movement
in Western Java 1963; 13-15 May 1998 in Jakarta; ethnic and
religious riots in Molluccas until now have claimed hundreds of
thousand lives; racial riot in Pekalongan 5th January 2000, and
many more. The military has been proved to be involved in those
instances, at least passively, by neglecting its duty to protect
the people. The military involvement in racialist practices can
also be seen in the closure of Tionghoa temples and schools,
including Baperki School; even confiscation of their houses,
between 1965-1970. The military also played a crucial role in
crushing every attempt at Konghucu religious rituals or
festivals.
Institutionally, the military, through its intelligence
network in BAKIN (The Special Body for State Intelligence) has
succeeded in effectively controls every activity of Tionghoas.
This was carried out by means of a puppet body dubbed BKMC
(Coordinating Body for Chinese Problems). This has proved beyond
any doubt that the state is guilty for bulding racial prejudices
and maintaining full control over the Tionghoa population.
Discrimination also occurs in everyday life in it relation to
social relationship with the minorities such as gay and lesbians.
The state in principles must protect every person regardless
their race, ethnic, religious belief or sex from discriminatory
actions.
The presence of trans-sexual people, who are minorities at
present, is a very common thing and happens in many other
countries. Their sexuality does not discount them from being an
integral part of the citizenship. Thus, teir rights to
participate in social, cultural and political rights must also be
recognized regardless of their sexuality.
The state undoubtedly must recognize every rights of every
minority in relation of their sexual orientation. The state must
eliminate every problem, which hinder them their rights solely
because of their gender. For instance, no woman may become
president; and the wages received by woman workers are lower than
those received by their male counterparts.
Education, as an effective means for character development
should only aspire to the fullest development of human
personalities, dignity, and reinforcement of respect towards
human rights. We are so concerned that the quality of educations
in Indonesia has not been able to cope with fundamental problems
under its juridiction, the education circle seemingly has not
incoporated the demand to cope with latest change, such as
potential conflict which would manifest itself in many form
(ethnic, religion, race, etc.). The educational institutions must
be able to be the vanguard towards new times through: the use of
multi-cultural curriculum, elimination of all barriers to
education suffered thus far by great majority of the people (such
as the the obligatory birth certificate); development of
anti-discriminatory education system (such as through balanced
composition of students' cultural background; preferred access
for underdeveloped groups (such as indigenous peoples, the poor).
Ever since the independence day, the problems of citizenry
have not been resolved satisfactorily. This is the effect of the
inconstitency in the law regarding these very problems. An
instance is what happened to the population of Tegal Alur caused
by ambiguity of the rules, inconsistencies in their practices,
and corruption among the officials. In Tegal Alur area there are
106 people up till this moment not being able to get hold of any
citizenship documents, whereas these people has participated
(read: forced to participate) several times in the elections.
These documents are essentials for everyday needs, such as
permission to open shops, work, and travel; in case of accidents,
health insurance, school, etc.; and it is the duty of the public
service to provide such documents for the people.
As the effect of poor economic conditions and the free fight
system that prevails, added by the lack of opportunity for
economic betterments, there appears a phenomenon of migrant
workers, workers crossing the boundaries of states. They are very
vulenerable to racialism because they are not citizens; they
suffer from discrimination, the lack of supervision and
protection from their own government.
The important issue in regards of the indigenous people is the
official recognition of their presence. The recognition must also
be implemented in practice in effect to: recognition of
indigenous ethnic in certain areas; recognition of their land
ownership, cultures and rituals they believe in. It's important
to empower them towards equality of opportunity in economic,
political and cultural spheres without annihilating their
cultural base. In reality, their lands were confiscated in the
name of development; a coercion to embrace one of the five
religion officially recognized by the government; a prohibition
to carry out their rituals without permission from government
officials.
The effects of globalization make it difficult for the
developing countries to assert their own voice, under the
pressure of expansion, and thus exploitation, of foreign capitals
this also affects Indonesia. Through the of the free market
supported by high-end technology and sciences, the developed
countries guarantees their supremacy over the developing
countries.
This implicates that resouces from the latter will flow
unrelenttlessly toward the first.
One of the important means to propagate racism, xenophobia,
and intolerance is the mass media, both printed and electronic.
In practice, after the freedom of press was granted following the
fall of Soeharto the mass media have been moulded to become
effective machinery to intensify racial and religious conflicts.
Media has provided the fuel for the seething rage already
contained within the society. Media has also become an effective
propaganda machine to build racial, ethnic, religious or
political and ideological hatred. In the reformation era,
ironically, the media has become uncontrollable and have been
turned away from the needs of reformation itself.
Recommendations:
- Realizing that racism is one of the crimes against
humanity affecting a large sector of social, political,
economic and cultural lifes;
- Condemning any policy of racism and segregation, and all
practices of racial violence, direct or indirect;
- Demanding abolition of all state intervention in the
sphere of religious beliefs of all citizens;
- Urging the state (the government and the parliament
alike) to recant all legislations containing
discrimination based on race, ethnic, religious beliefs,
gender, and political or ideological convictions;
- Urging the state to pass legislations on safeguarding the
rights of all working peoples;
- Urging the state to pass legislations of
anti-discrimination based on race and religious beliefs,
which penalize heavily any action involving racial,
religious, ethnical and other discriminations;
- Demanding the state to open any access in political,
economic, civil, and cultural spheres for minority and
indigenous peoples;
- Urging the state to fully recognize all civil, political,
economic and cultural rights of indigenous peoples;
- Urging the state to recognize and practice plurality of
religions and diversities of indigenous peoples,
- Urging the state to ratify the ILO Convention no. 169 and
ICCP Conventions;
- Urging the state to guarantee that its bureaucracy does
not impelement any dubious practices in every spheres,
especially in the sphere of citizenry, which can cause
removal of citizenship status of any person;
- Urging the state bureaucracy to halt any coercion towards
formal and informal school toward embracing certain
religions;
- Urging the state to ratify the international conventions
on migrant workers;
- Urging the state to guarantee freedom to practice
religions, especially for minorities;
- Urging the state to conduct campaigns to promote
pluralism and against xenophobia and intolerance amongst
the people;
- Urging the state and security apparattus to uncover and
bring to justice all past racial and religious violence;
- Urgin the state to include the anti-discrimination
education in its nasional curriculum;
- Urging the state to nullify the Dual Function of the
Military and disband Coordinating Body for Chinese
Problem (BKMC);
- Urging the state to strife for economic equality; and
conduct affirmative actions in the fields of occupation
and education to uphold the principles of justice and
equality;
- Appealing to owners and editors of mass media to realize
their role in promoting pluralism and anti-racism, to
promote peace journalism, and to avoid publishing as far
as possible bare facts that could in any way provoke
discriminatory sentiments;
- Appealing to all citizens to boycott mass media that
promote racism, xenophobia and intolerance;
- Appealing all elements in society to go hand in hand
against every form of racial, ethnic, religious and
gender discrimination;
- Requesting special rapporteur from the United Nation to
investigate the racial riot in Jakarta, May 13-15, 1998.
Jakarta, 16 Februari 2001
- Committee Anti Racism in Indonesia, Australia;
- Forum Anti Rassismus in Indonesien e.V, Jerman;
- Forum for Human Rights, Bandung;
- Gaya Nusantara, Surabaya;
- HAM Nusantara, Medan;
- International Commission for Religion and Peace, Jakarta;
- Institut Studi Persatuan Etnis dan Ras, Surabaya;
- Institut Dayakologi, Kalimantan Barat;
- Interfide, Yogyakarta;
- Kepercayaan terhadap Kebatinan Perjalanan, Jakarta;
- Komnas Perempuan, Jakarta;
- Lembaga Studi Pers Pembangunan, Jakarta;
- Majelis Tinggi Agama Konghucu, Jakarta;
- Perhimpunan Indonesia Keturunan Tionghoa Jakarta,
Jakarta;
- Perhimpunan Kebangsaan Anti Diskriminasi, Surabaya;
- Perserikatan Solidaritas Perempuan, Jakarta;
- Solidaritas Nusa Bangsa, Jakarta;
- Solidaritas Nusa Bangsa Medan, Medan;
- Watch Indonesia, Jakarta.
Posted on 2001-08-10
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