Assimilasionist Laws and

Right to Development: Chinese-

Indonesian Experience Under

Soeharto's New Order (1965-1998)

by Calvin Michel Sidjaya (Massey University, New Zealand)

Supervised by DR. Sharon McLennan (Massey University, New Zealand)

for DevNet Conference at Otago University, New Zealand 28 November 2014

for feedback, comments, and discussions, please reach me through my email:

calvin.sidjaya.1@uni.massey.ac.nz

Chinese-Indonesian People

• Migrated from South China since early 15th century

• By 2010 the population is about 2.8 million people (1,2% of population)

• Stereotyped as middle class with higher education, income with political passiveness. Mostly work in private sector

The Shi (施) Family in Makassar, Indonesia.

Source: Personal Collection

Modern Indonesia History

Before 1600s:

Muslim States

1600s-1949:

VOC, Dutch

East Indies

1942-1945:

Japanese

Occupation

1945/1949-now

Indonesia

Chinese-Indonesian in Dutch East Indies (until 1949)

Colonial Structure in Dutch East Indies (Taylor ,1983; Cribb, 1994; Govaars, 2005)

Chinese Indonesian in Old Order (1945-1965)

•Citizenship problem: Few hundred thousands Chinese-Indonesians repatriated to

Mainland China. Indonesia and China signed dual national treaty with PRC

• Some restrictions on Economy, but Chinese culture and language were not forbidden

• Chinese Indonesians were active in politic

President Soekarno

(1901-1970)

Sino-Indonesia dual nationality treaty (1955)

Chinese Indonesian in New Order (1965-1998)

• Chinese-Indonesians were suspected as supporter of communist.

• Soeharto issues various assimilationist laws, targeted three pillars of Chinese

society: Chinese culture, Chinese language and Chinese organisation. But allowed

freedom in economy sector.

• Chinese-Indonesians lost their Chinese Citizenship during this period.

President Soeharto

(1921-2008)

中国

文

化

中

文中

国

企

业

$$ $$

$$

$

Post New Order (1998-Now)

•On 13 May 1998, massive riots

occurred in Jakarta. Many Chinese-

Indonesians became target of

violence (murder, rape)

•May 1998 violence gave a wake-

up call to Chinese-Indonesians of

their ‘foreign’ identity

•Various international laws were

ratified, old laws were revoked

•Chinese-Indonesians started to

participate in local politic although

the number is still small

Students occupied Indonesia's parliement

building at Jakarta (1998)

Theoretical Framework: Rights to Development

Rights to development: human rights are part of development

Theoretical Framework: Assimilation as a 'development' policy on Chinese-Indonesian context

When you are well educated, have better income, but have no political or cultural

rights: are you 'DEVELOPED'?

Methodology

• Literature review, document analysis and online questionnaire.

• The researcher has collected and analyzed at least 20 assimilationist laws in Indonesia

• An online questionaire was dispatched (from 8 Augustus to 14 September 2014). About 60 respondents answered the questionaire. May only represent a snapshot of urban classes.

Assimilation Laws Under Soeharto's New Order (1965-1998)

Laws targeting Chinese-Indonesians based on sectors (Winarta,

2008; Suhandinata, 2009; Suryadinata,1976 )

Research Findings

Majority of the respondents (76%)

think theassimilationist laws have violated their

rights

About 53% of respondents preferred to live in aChinese-Indonesian

neighborhood

Supportinginterethnic marriage but

probably prefer to have aChinese-Indonesian partner.

Majority speak Bahasa Indonesia as first

language,very few speak

Chinese.

Prefer to be identified as ‘Indonesian’ instead

of ‘Chinese-Indonesians

Mostly are middle class with upper tier incomes and

assets

Results• Cultural Rights: Most of the respondents felt

that the assimilationist laws have violated their rights as many of Chinese cultural practices were minimized during the New Order. Assimilationist policies have contributed to cultural alienation.

• Political Rights: The respondents feel they are marginalized in local politics but are reluctant to participate.

• Economic Rights: The respondents are generally middle class with higher income tiers and educations.

Critical thoughts and Applicability

Should assimilation be outlawed? Extreme multiculturalism and

unassimilated migrants can be harmful too.

Assimilation as a development policy

Assimilation can be tool to enable migrants to access market if it's inclusive and

promote peaceful coexistence of multiple identities. This can be vary from one

country to another.

Conclusion

• Chinese-Indonesians are not satisfied with their state of 'development' as human being as the assimilation laws restricted political, and cultural rights of Chinese Indonesians.

• Assimilation on the case study of Chinese-Indonesians are major cause of human rights violations but should not be generalized. Different minority has different problem.

• A balance between assimilation and multiculturalism is important.

ReferencesAbiad, N. (2008). Sharia, Muslim states and international human rights treaty obligations: A comparative study.

Alkire, S. (2002). Dimensions of human development. World development, 30(2), 181-205.

Anand, S., & Sen, A. (1994). Human development index: methodology and measurement. Human Development Occasional Papers

(1992-2007)(HDOCPA-1994-02).

Ananta, A., & Arifin, E. N. Bakhtiar. 2008.'Chinese Indonesians in Indonesia and the Province of Riau Archipelago: A Demographic

Analysis'. Ethnic Chinese in contemporary Indonesia. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies and Chinese Heritage

Centre.

Bashir, B. (2008). Accommodating historically oppressed social groups: Deliberative democracy and the politics of reconciliation.

Berg, B. (2007). Qualitative research methods for the social sciences: USA: Pearson.

Braithwaite, J., Braithwaite, V., Cookson, M., & Dunn, L. (2010). Anomie and violence: Non-truth and reconciliation in Indonesian

peacebuilding: ANU E Press.

Chimni, B. (2008). The Sen conception of development and contemporary international law discourse: Some parallels. The Law

and Development Review, 1(1), 3-22.

Constitution of The People's Republic Of China (2004).

Christie, K., & Roy, D. (2001). The politics of human rights in East Asia: Pluto Pr.

Cornwall, A., & Nyamu-Musembi, C. (2004). Putting the ‘rights-based approach’to development into perspective. Third World

Quarterly, 25(8), 1415-1437.

Cowen, M., & Shenton, R. (1995). The invention of development. Power of development, 27-43.

Cribb, R. B., & Cribb, R. (1994). The late colonial state in Indonesia: political and economic foundations of the Netherlands Indies,

1880-1942.

Dawis, A. (2009). The Chinese of Indonesia and their search for identity: The relationship between collective memory and the

media.

ReferencesDhiman, O. (2011). Understanding Human Rights.

Dieleman, M., Koning, J., & Post, P. (2010). Chinese Indonesians and Regime Change (Vol. 4): Brill.

Ferber, A. L. (1999). The Construction of Race, Gender, and Class in White Supremacist Discourse. Race, Gender & Class, 67-89.

Frederick, W. H. (2012). The killing of Dutch and Eurasians in Indonesia's national revolution (1945–49): a ‘brief genocide’reconsidered. Journal of Genocide Research, 14(3-4), 359-380.

Frediani, A. A. (2007). Amartya Sen, the World Bank, and the redress of urban poverty: A Brazilian case study. Journal of Human Development, 8(1), 133-152.

Furnivall, J. S. (2010). Netherlands India: A study of plural economy.

Govaars-Tjia, M. T. N. (2005). Dutch colonial education: the Chinese experience in Indonesia, 1900-1942.

Gready, P., & Ensor, J. (2005). Reinventing development?: translating rights-based approaches from theory into practice.

Gubser, M. (2012). The Presentist Bias: Ahistoricism, Equity, and International Development in the 1970s. The Journal of Development Studies, 48(12), 1799-1812.

i Berdún, M. M. G., Guibernau, M., & Rex, J. (2010). The ethnicity reader: Nationalism, multiculturalism and migration.

Iadicola, P. (1981). Desegregation: The Assimilation of a Minority Population. Sociological Focus, 14(3), 193-206.

Indrawati, S. M. (2002). Indonesian economic recovery process and the role of government. Journal of Asian Economics, 13(5), 577-596.

Kymlicka, W. (1995). Multicultural citizenship: a theory of liberal rights.

Lan, T. J. (2009). Chinese-Indonesians in local politics: a review essay. Kyoto Review of South East Asia.

Lee, K. C. (2013). Golden Dragon and Purple Phoenix: The Chinese and Their Multi-ethnic Descendants in Southeast Asia: World Scientific.

Lim, H., & Mead, D. (2011). Chinese in Indonesia: A Background Study. SIL International.

Marangos, J. (2012). The Post Keynesian retort to" After the Washington Consensus". Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, 34(4), 583-610.

Marks, S. (2004). Human Right to Development: Between Rhetoric and Reality, The. Harv. Hum. Rts. J., 17, 137.

May, S. (2011). Language Rights: The “Cinderella” Human Right. Journal of Human Rights, 10(3), 265-289.

O'Brien, P. (1975). Destruction and Creation of Development Alternatives. Economic and Political Weekly, 1166-1172.

ReferencesO'Leary, Z. (2004). The essential guide to doing research: Sage.

O'manique, J. (1992). Human Rights and Development. Human Rights Quarterly, 14, 78.

Perruchoud, R. (2004). International migration law: Glossary on migration.

Pogge, T. W. M. (2008). World poverty and human rights.

Post, T. J. (2011, May 21). Lawmaker refuses to apologize for controversial statement The Jakarta Post. Retrieved from http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/05/21/lawmaker-refuses-apologize-controversial-statement.html

Rafferty, E. (1984). Languages of the Chinese of Java-An Historical Review. Journal of Asian Studies, 43(2), 247-272.

Rosenthal, E. (1998, August 18

). Beijing Students and Women, Defying Ban, Protest Anti-Chinese Violence in Indonesia, New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/1998/08/18/world/beijing-students-women-defying-ban-protest-anti-chinese-violence-indonesia.html

Rubio-Marín, R. (2003). Language rights: Exploring the competing rationales. In W. Kymlicka, & A. Patten (Eds.), Language Rights and Political Theory (pp. 52--73): Oup Oxford.

Sen, A. (1999). Development as freedom.

Sen, A. (2006). Development as Freedom: An India Perspective. Indian Journal of Industrial Relations, 157-169.

Shell-Duncan, B., & Hernlund, Y. (2000). Female" circumcision" in Africa: Culture, Controversy, and Change.

Silverman, D. (2013). Doing qualitative research: A practical handbook.

Stewart, F. (1989). Basic needs strategies, human rights, and the right to development. Human Rights Quarterly, 11, 347.

Suhandinata, J. (2009). Indonesian Chinese descent in Indonesia's economy and political stability.

Suryadinata, L. (2008). Ethnic Chinese in Contemporary Indonesia: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.

Tong, C. K. (2010). Identity and Ethnic Relations in Southeast Asia: Springer.

Tracy, S. J. (2012). Qualitative research methods: Collecting evidence, crafting analysis, communicating impact: John Wiley & Sons.

Tulpule, B. (1996). Redefining Development: An Alternative Paradigm. Economic and Political Weekly, 2991-2996.

Uvin, P. (2007). From the right to development to the rights-based approach: how ‘human rights’ entered development. Development in Practice, 17(4-5), 597-606.

Vizard, P. (2005). The contributions of Professor Amartya Sen in the field of human rights.

Vltchek, A. C., Noam. (2012). Archipelago of Fear. London: Pluto Press.

Whelan, D. J. (2010). Indivisible Human Rights. A History, Philadelphia.

Willmott, D. E. (2009). The national status of the Chinese in Indonesia 1900-1958: Equinox Publishing.