Why Are We Different?

 

          Discrimination against Chinese-Indonesian has existed for many years. This caused

Chinese- Indonesians to be oppressed and have no freedom since 1740. over the past 80 years, Chinese-

Indonesian have experienced an identity crisis, unacceptable discrimination to both the Chinese and the

native Indonesians. Many Chinese-Indonesian feel that they are not part of the Indonesian state

because of the bad stigma created by society against Chinese-Indonesian. This certainly has

affected my family's personal life from how we get along with Indonesians native people and

how we do business with them.

          Ethnic Chinese are often considered as foreigners in Indonesia. This has affected my

family and me. Mostly we have gotten bad treatment from the environment around us such as verbal

violence and even physical treatment like when we are enjoying the scenery in the village,

many people pay attention to us and sometimes they call us Chinese spit. Therefore, this make

us afraid and has created a negative stigma against the natives Indonesian. Therefore,there is a gap

between Chinese-Indonesian and the native Indonesians. Chinese-Indonesians tend to gather

together with other ethnic Chinese in places like school activities, work, or even social life. My family

usually hang together with fellow ethnic Chinese because they know what it’s like to be in the

minority and they already consider each other as family. My family also has friends from local

Indonesians but not many because of the gap between us.

          Suharto resigned as president of Indonesia on 21 May 1998 following the collapse of support

for his three-decade-long presidency. The resignation followed severe economic and political

crises over the previous six to twelve months. the situation affected my family and they had to

hide so as not to be killed at that time because the conditions were so chaotic. My family had to

return to their hometown and shut down their business for several months due to ethnic

Chinese massacre. After that incident, our family went bankrupt and had to start the business

from scratch. Unstable conditions forced my family to take refuge in my grandmother's house

for some time. As a result of this incident, my parents were severely traumatized by losing all

their hard-earned businesses. Since that incident, the situation is no longer the same and our

family moved to safer city and started a new business from the beginning.

          The effect of the event from the 1740s and the 1998 still lingers today. The

government created the law to prevent these type of reoccurring. However, the

discrimination toward Chinese-Indonesian still existed until now. For example, There are a lot

of Chinese-Indonesians being discriminated indirectly in the various fields from the politics to

workplace. My father graduated from college with a law degree and he does not want to work

as a lawyer because it’s too risky, so he changed his job as a businessman. My father realized

that working for the government as a Chinese-Indonesians is a bad idea because we are still a

hated minority. According to my father, being a businessman is a safer job and far from conflict.

That is why my father chose that job.

          Discrimination against Chinese-Indonesian still exists until now. Discrimination against

Chinese Indonesians will always exist until now, depending on how we react to it. However,

Chinese Indonesians will always be part of the Indonesian state. I strongly believe that all

human have the same right no matter where they come from.