Discrimination against Chinese Indonesians

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recruited help from local collaborator police of all ethnicities to recruit Javanese girls, with one account accusing Chinese recruiters of tricking a Javanese regent into sending good Javanese girls into prostitution for the Japanese in May 1942. The Japanese also lied to the Javanese telling them that their girls would become waitresses and actresses when recruiting them. The Japanese brought Javanese women as comfort women prostitutes to Kupang in Timor while in East Timor the Japanese took local women in Dili. In Bali, the Japanese sexually harassed Balinese women when they came and started forcing Balinese women into brothels for prostitution, with Balinese men and Chinese men used as recruiters for the Balinese women. All of the brothels in Bali were staffed by Balinese women. In brothels in Kalimantan, native Indonesian women made up 80% of the prostitutes. Javanese girls and local girls were used in a Japanese brothel in Ambon in Batu Gantung. European Dutch women were overrepresented in documents on Dutch East Indies comfort women which didn't reflect the actual reality because the Dutch did not care about native Indonesian women being victimised by Japan, refusing to prosecute cases against them since Indonesia was not a UN member at the time. Javanese comfort women who were taken by Japanese to islands outside Java were treated differently depending on whether they stayed on those islands or returned to Java. Since Javanese society was sexually permissive and they kept it secret from other Javanese, the Javanese women who returned to Java fared better, but the Javanese women who stayed on the islands like Buru were treated harsher by their hosts since they locals in Buru were more patriarchal. The Japanese murdered Christians and forced girls into prostitution in Timor and Sumba, desecrating sacred vessels and vestments in churches and using the churches as brothels. Javanese girls were brought as prostitutes by the Japanese to Flores and Buru. Eurasians, Indians, Chinese, Dutch, Menadonese, Bataks, Bugis, Dayaks, Javanese, Arabs and Malays were arrested and massacred in the Mandor affair.

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attack Chinese. However, when the Japanese troops landed and seized control of Java from the Dutch, to people's surprise, the Japanese forced the native Indonesians to stop looting and attacking Chinese and warned the Indonesians they would not tolerate anti-Chinese violence in Java. The Japanese viewed the Chinese in Java and their economic power specifically as important and vital to Japanese war effort so they did not physically harm the Chinese of Java with no execution or torture of Chinese taking place unlike in other places. There was no violent confrontation between Japanese and Chinese on Java, unlike in British Malaya. The Japanese also allowed Chinese of Java in the Federation of Overseas-Chinese Associations (Hua Chiao Tsung Hui) to form the Keibotai, their own armed Chinese defence corps for protection with Japanese military instructors training them how to shoot and use spears. The Chinese viewed this as important to defending themselves from local Indonesians. The majority of Chinese of Java did not die in the war. It was only after the war ended when Japanese control fell and then the native Indonesians again started attacks against the Chinese of Java when the Japanese were unable to protect them.

2264: 2362: 2937: 2878: 2796: 2662: 2616: 42: 2769:, caused by three Chinese Indonesian teenagers beating another driver to death after a minor traffic accident, led to the looting and destruction of more than 1,500 Chinese Indonesian-owned shops and houses. The riots were not stopped by the local military; and nineteen soldiers were arrested for participating in the riots. The riots were later blamed on an underground section of the PKI. 2633:. This led to a treaty between China and Indonesia regarding the legal status of Chinese Indonesians, which formed the basis for the Citizenship Law of 1958. This law required all Chinese Indonesians to choose between Chinese and Indonesian citizenship, making a statement at the nearest district court. Approximately 390,000 ethnic Chinese rejected Chinese citizenship. 2345:, but there is no further documentation of their settlements beyond the 16th century. Scholars believe that the Chinese Muslims became absorbed into the majority Muslim population, until no Chinese communities remained when the Dutch arrived. Trade from China was re-established when it legalised private trade in 1567 and began licensing 50 2398:(modern day Sri Lanka) to harvest cinnamon. Wealthy Chinese were extorted by corrupt Dutch officials who threatened them with deportation; There were also rumours that deportees were not taken to their destinations but were thrown overboard once out of sight of Java, and in some accounts, they died when rioting on the ships. 2677:, to which very few Chinese belonged, it is likely that much of this violence was opportunistic, rather than due to suspected ties to the Communist Party. The best estimate is that thousands of Chinese Indonesians were killed (out of a total death toll of 500,000), with documented massacres taking place in 3004:

Discrimination, distrust, and violence against Chinese Indonesians is caused in part by a perception that they are still loyal to China, and only see Indonesia as a place to live and work. They are also seen as being "exclusive", unwilling to mingle with other ethnic groups, as well as discriminating

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in the northwestern part of the city, where the commercial area of Jakarta's Chinatown was badly damaged. Some store owners reportedly paid local thugs to protect them from the violence because security forces were largely absent. This violence spread to numerous cities throughout Indonesia on 14 and

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were arrested and detained in the Cimahi concentration camp; this group included leaders, spouses of Europeans, and Chinese who were legally considered Europeans. Chinese organisations were disbanded and banned. Not long afterwards, ethnic Chinese were required to register themselves and pledge their

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When the VOC was nationalised on 31 December 1799, the freedoms the Chinese experienced under the corporation were taken away by the Dutch government. An 1816 regulation introduced a requirement for the indigenous population and Chinese travelling within the territory to obtain a travel permit. Those

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As the Dutch implemented a war of attrition and scorch earth, they forced Chinese on Java to flee inland and the Dutch destroyed all important assets including Chinese factories and property. Local Indonesians joined in on the Dutch violence against the Chinese looting Chinese property and trying to

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In May 1959, the Sukarno government passed legislation revoking the trading rights of foreign nationals in rural areas; this was based on two previous, lower-level legislations. Due to uncertainty relating to the legal status of the ethnic Chinese, they were included as well. This led to the exodus

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notes that presently many Chinese Indonesian families have prepared escape plans in case of further unrest and find themselves unable to trust ethnic Indonesians. She also notes that younger Chinese Indonesians are increasingly impatient with the inability of the government and military to prevent

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During the Old and New Orders, Chinese Indonesians generally complied with legal restrictions as best they could. However, the May 1998 riots caused a change in attitude, including greater political activity and assertiveness. Additionally, the discrimination led to an ethnic identity crisis, with

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Indonesian Muslims who physically looked Chinese were attacked by rioters, despite not identifying as Chinese at all and only having one distant Chinese great-grandfather. An Indonesian Muslim woman who had 5 sons, Ruminah, mentioned she had just one Chinese grandfather who married a local Muslim

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thrown at them. Eventually, police reportedly stopped a group of students and assaulted them. Word of this attack spread through several witnesses, and a large group later attacked and destroyed a traffic police post. When more officers arrived to confront the group, the station was attacked. Not

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troops, that the Chinese were plotting to kill, rape, or enslave them. These groups pre-emptively burned houses belonging to ethnic Chinese along Besar River. The Dutch followed this with an assault on Chinese settlements elsewhere in Batavia in which they burned houses and killed people. For two

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camps (p. 173). The Chinese retreated to major towns. The Chinese in West Kalimantan rarely resisted (though they had in nineteenth century conflict with the Dutch and in 1914). Instead, they fled. One old Chinese man who fled to Pontianak in 1967 said that the Chinese did not even consider or

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In 1967, Dayaks had expelled Chinese from the interior of West Kalimantan. In this Chinese ethnic cleansing, Dayaks were coopted by the military who wanted to remove Chinese from the interior who they believed were supporting communists. The most certain way to accomplish this was to drive all

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regime in 1958, all Chinese Indonesians were required to state their intent to stay Indonesian citizens and in 1959 Chinese who were not citizens were forbidden from doing business outside of urban areas. The discrimination continued into the New Order. Chinese Indonesians were urged to choose

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The use of Chinese Indonesians as scapegoats is partly caused by their lack of political power and government protection. The New Order policy of assimilation has also been seen as a factor; the need to assimilate the ethnic Chinese "indicated that Chinese cultural elements are unacceptable".

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In Java, the Japanese heavily recruited Javanese girls as comfort women and brought them to New Guinea, Malaysia, Thailand and other areas foreign to Indonesia besides using them in Java itself. The Japanese brought Javanese women as comfort women to Buru island, and Kalimantan. The Japanese

2390:, the outbreak was followed by increased suspicion and resentment in native Indonesians and the Dutch toward the ethnic Chinese, who were growing in number and whose wealth was increasingly visible. As a result, Commissioner of Native Affairs Roy Ferdinand, under orders of Governor-General 4142:

Chinese out of the interior of West Kalimantan. An estimated 2,000–5,000 people were massacred (Davidson 2002:158) and probably a greater number died from the conditions in overcrowded refugee camps, including 1,500 Chinese children aged between one and eight who died of starvation in

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After the fall of Suharto, numerous discriminative laws were repealed and others promoting unity were passed. President Habibie passed legislation requiring the elimination of the terms pribumi and non-pribumi (native Indonesian and non-native) in 1998. In 2000, the next president,

2242:, forbidden to practice their traditions publicly, and required to obtain extra proof of citizenship. In total, forty five directly or indirectly discriminatory laws were passed during the New Order. Although the majority of this legislation was rescinded during the presidencies of 2922:

woman and she did not identify as Chinese at all or speak Chinese, but she and her family were constantly harassed and hated by their neighbours just for their Chinese physical looks; her hair salon was ransacked and one of her sons died in a fire at the mall during the riots.

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Between 1963 and early 1965, the situation for Chinese Indonesians generally became more stable. Numerous Chinese-language schools were opened and Chinese-language press flourished. However, there were still minor attacks on Chinese Indonesians in

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In 1848, the Dutch colonial government enacted the legislation sorting all inhabitants of the archipelago into two groups, based on whether or not they practised Christianity. This was later amended in 1855, combining Native Indonesian, Chinese,

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arrived in the afternoon, the crowd was dispersed with tear gas. As businesses in Medan closed on the following day, thousands of people attacked markets throughout the city and its surrounding districts. Police and anti-riot soldiers fired

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in October 1943. Over 1,500 people were arrested or killed by the Japanese occupying forces in an attempt to prevent a multi-ethnic rebellion. Ethnic Chinese were the largest single group targeted, with 854 killed in the affair.

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who did not carry a permit risked being arrested by security officers. The Governor-General also introduced a resolution in 1825 which forbade "foreign Asians" from living within the same neighbourhood as the native population.

2788:, owned by ethnic Chinese, were looted and burned; the largest of these was the Senen shopping complex. The security forces did almost nothing to stop the looting. The demonstrations and their aftermath came to be known as the 3207:(text in Indonesian), which required all foreign national-owned businesses to be located in urban areas. Due to uncertainty relating to the status of Chinese Indonesians, they were included as foreign nationals as well. See 2745:

of the influential Chinese Indonesians, the Suharto government passed several laws as part of so-called "Basic Policy for the Solution of Chinese Problem", whereby only one Chinese-language publication – controlled by the

2831:. With rising unemployment and inflated food prices, the public lost confidence in the government's ability to turn the economy around. By the beginning of May 1998, students had been demonstrating in campuses throughout 3090:. As such, hostilities and animosity exists in some degree between Muslims and Chinese Indonesians (regardless their religion), though not universally so. Conversely, Chinese Indonesians are noticeably more tolerated in 2910:. However, most of the people who died in the riots were the Indonesian looters who targeted the Chinese shops, not the Chinese themselves, since the looters were burnt to death in a massive fire. The incidents caused 2373:

city walls, with another 15,000 individuals living outside of the city limits. The Dutch colonials required them to carry registration papers, and those who did not comply were deported to China. After an outbreak of

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Suharto's economic programs continued to work, with Indonesia experiencing an economic boom with its Gross Domestic Product growing at a rate of 8 per cent in 1996, led by the manufacturing sector. However, the

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expelled 45,000 ethnic Chinese from rural areas, killing up to 5,000. The Chinese refused to fight back, since they considered themselves "a guest on other people's land" with the intention of trading only.

2992:, should "know his place lest the Indonesian Chinese face the consequences of his action". This controversial comment was considered to hearken back to previous violence against the Indonesian Chinese. 2980:, Chinese Indonesians have been mostly "embraced" by the government, with numerous mixed-ethnic cultural presentations and media activity. By 2004, there were three Chinese Indonesian members of the 982: 2750:– was allowed to continue, all Chinese cultural and religious expressions (including display of Chinese characters) were prohibited from public space, and the ethnic-Chinese were 3232: 3204: 2437:, at the city's outer walls. 1,789 Chinese were reported to have died in this attack. Meanwhile, rumours spread among the other ethnic groups in Batavia, including slaves from 4147:

discuss striking back at Dayaks as an option. This was because they were imbued with a philosophy of being a guest on other people's land to become a great trading diaspora.

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against native Indonesians in their business relations. The Chinese Indonesians whose predominant religion is Christianity also suffers from Christophobia and persecutions.

2263: 2115:" in situations where widespread discontent and social unrest becomes violent. The scapegoating has become more pronounced during the period since Indonesia's independence. 2096:

Violence against Chinese Indonesians generally consists of attacks on property, including factories and shops. However, killings and assaults have happened, including in

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From 30 May to 4 June 1946, attacks from Indonesian independence fighters killed 653 Chinese Indonesians. Roughly a thousand Chinese Indonesian-owned homes were burned;

2057:. Serious violence against Chinese people has occurred at irregular intervals since 1740, when the soldiers of the Dutch East India Company and other ethnic groups from 3188: 3070:, despite the significant number of Muslim minority among the ethnicity. These accusations are generally widespread in regions with active Islamist influence, such as 4440: 1490: 2535:

worked to awaken Indonesian nationalism in the Native Indonesian populace. Tensions between Sarekat Islam and the ethnic Chinese led to racially charged riots in

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against Dutch rule. There were significant outbreaks in the early 1960s. Violence against Chinese also took place in 1965 after the failed coup attempt during

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to collapse and economic growth slowed to 1.4 per cent in the fourth quarter. Unable to stabilise the economy, the government sought assistance from the

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held an emergency plenary session and reinforced the guard. On 7 October 1740, a group of hundreds of Chinese Indonesians attacked a Dutch stronghold in

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Chinese Indonesians with strong Chinese ties feeling unaccepted by the Indonesian populace, and those with strong Indonesian ties wanting equal rights.

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allegiance to the Japanese army. Despite Japanese attempts to quell dissent, there were several underground resistance movements led by ethnic Chinese.

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was introduced specifically against Chinese Indonesians. One of the first was in 1816 and required ethnic Chinese to carry a special pass at all times.

2379: 2804: 1901: 1262: 4441:""Over 1,000 killed in Indonesia riots: rights body Reuters - June 3, 1998 Jim Della-Giacoma, Jakarta", "The May riots DIGEST No.61 - May 29, 1998"" 5087: 2033: 681: 2728: 5536: 5467: 2874:

at the crowd to disperse them but were unsuccessful. When the violence ended two days later, six people had died and one hundred were injured.

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regime can indeed be described as the history of a minority ethnic group that had no choice but to comply with the policies applied to them."

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were passed. In April 1966, all Chinese schools (at the time numbering 629) were closed. On 8 May 1966, Territorial Military Commander of

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Cribb, Robert; Coppel, Charles (2009). "A genocide that never was: explaining the myth of anti-Chinese massacres in Indonesia, 1965–66".

4775: 4414: 1237: 823: 339: 499: 2429:), came to crush the revolt. The following day the Dutch repelled an attack by up to 10,000 ethnic Chinese, led by groups from nearby 5750: 5329: 2984:, as well as one cabinet member. However, discrimination and prejudice still continued, especially among political conservatives and 4579: 3930: 421: 309: 4525: 2835:

for nearly two months. The growing number of demonstrators was coupled with increasing calls from the public for overall reforms.

5686: 3159: 2948:; the public practice of Chinese culture was permitted beginning in 2000, and Chinese New Year declared a public holiday in 2002. 2936: 6135: 2002: 686: 431: 259: 244: 239: 69: 5582: 5207: 4953: 4927: 4901: 4867: 4837: 4811: 4789: 4764: 4741: 4714: 4170: 4134: 573: 504: 224: 6145: 6140: 5080: 4444: 2988:. On 15 March 2016, for instance, Indonesian Army General Surya Prabowo commented that then-incumbent governor of Jakarta, 2026: 1043: 314: 128: 4396: 4802:(1992). "The Changing Economic Position of the Chinese in Netherlands India". In Fernando, M. R.; Bulbeck, David (eds.). 2731:

declared that all ethnic Chinese had to leave Aceh prior to 17 August 1966; this was followed by a similar decree by the

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In different regions different terms have come into use that reflect common stereotypes. The following examples are from

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