A Chinese dragon dance is a rare show of ethnic pride for Chinese-Indonesians

June 3, 1999
Web posted at: 11:01 p.m. EDT (0301 GMT)

From Jakarta Bureau Chief Maria Ressa

JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN) -- Often a target of discrimination and attacks in Indonesia, ethnic Chinese citizens have in the past been understandably reluctant to express their ethnic pride.

While they make up less than 5 percent of Indonesia's more than 200 million people, Chinese-Indonesians are said to own nearly 70 percent of the country's private wealth. The disparity has long fueled anti-Chinese feelings, which broke into racial violence last year.

But Chinese-Indonesians have banded together to form their own race-based political parties to compete in next week's parliamentary election, including the National Democratic Party, or PND.

A recent PND campaign rally featured a Chinese dragon dance. One party supporter, Ong Pieter Wangsa, defiantly gave a reporter his Chinese name -- a bold move in a country where all Chinese-Indonesians were ordered to change their names nearly three decades ago.

"We lost hope. Our women were raped, our homes destroyed, our people burned," Ong said.

Ong was referring to the violence and looting that took place last year as the authoritarian rule of President Suharto disintegrated. Chinese-Indonesians were particular targets of the violence, and the government estimates that 100,000 have fled the country since Suharto resigned.

But much has changed in the past year. One of the first acts of the new president, B.J. Habibie, was to walk through the ruins of Jakarta's Chinatown, urging ethnic Chinese to stay in the country. He also recently repealed several discriminatory laws, including a ban on the use of the Chinese language.

And the opening up of the political system in the post-Suharto era has led to explosion of political pluralism that has made the Chinese parties possible. Forty-eight parties are competing in the election, and many target particular religious or racial groups.

PND member Surya Sakim's store was burned and he was kidnapped during the recent political unrest. But he said now is the time to take a stand.

"Everyone's afraid, but we need to tell the world," he said. "We should not be victims."

Still, decades of fear are hard to erase. Not everyone at the PND rally is quite so willing to advertise the ethnic leanings of the party. One man, who said he was not of Chinese descent, explained that the dragon was only "here to make things lively."

Many Chinese-Indonesians are also hedging their bets. All five of the major political parties have admitted that part of their funding comes from the ethnic Chinese community.

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