Ethnic Issues in Indonesia

the later known as Chinese War Brown, 2003. The Agrarian Law issued in 1870, prohibited the people of non-indigenous ethnic groups including the European and the ethnic Chinese to own or remain owning any land Brown, 2003. The European primary schools system in 1914-1920 also made visible the ethnic Chinese by the division system of schools which consists of Hollandsch- Inlandsche Dutch-Native, Hollandsch-Chineeseche Dutch-Chinese, and the European lower schools Ricklefs, 2001. After the independence, there were some efforts to embrace the ethnic Chinese as fellow Indonesian citizens without questioning their ethnic origin. Unfortunately, the step which the government took was that of assimilation which according to Gillborn 2005 devalued the ethnic minority people by forcing them to blend into the society while abandoning their ethnic identities and cultures. This policy was made worse in Soeharto’s presidency era where the assimilation policy was completely implemented, resulted in the banning of all the Chinese-language newspapers but one under military control, prevention of the Chinese middle schools to operate, discouragement of the use of Chinese language, prohibition of the Chinese organizations, and prevention of the Chinese cultural expressions Suryadinata, 2003. Also in this New Order Era, there happened the May 1998 Riots in which the ethnic Chinese became the targets of ethnic violence Vickers, 2005 and sexual abuse, with the worst being in Jakarta but also bad in Solo, Central Java Brown, 2003. Following the riots, the government started to reform and remedied their policy especially considering the matter of ethnic Chinese. Starting from the B. J. Habibie presidency which released a Presidential Decree No. 26 about eliminating all forms of discrimination in the government, including the use of pribumi indigenous and non-pribumi non-indigenous Bertrand, 2004. Meanwhile, a more significant move was initiated in Abdurrahman Wahid presidency which revoked the Presidential Instruction no. 41-1967 regarding the prohibition of Chinese cultural expressions. The celebration of Chinese New Year on the streets of Indonesia was then, for the first time since the late 1960s, permitted Bertrand, 2004; Mydans, 2000. In Megawati Soekarnoputri presidency, Imlek or the Chinese New Year is celebrated as an official national holiday as an effort to give equal, non-discriminatory treatment to ethnic Chinese Bertrand, 2004; Langit, 2002, followed by the announcement that Chinese Indonesians were no longer required to have an Indonesian Citizenship Certificate SBKRI Setiogi, 2004. In Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono presidency, Confucianism was acknowledged as one of the five accepted religions in Indonesia, though according to Taufiqurrahman 2006 many Chinese Indonesians still believe that they had to disguise their faiths as the tolerance and acceptance were “yet to filter down to the local-level bureaucracy.” 4 Verdicts on the Ethnic Issues in Indonesia It can be pointed out from the ethnic-related events above that there were struggles for living peacefully in unity among the ethnically-diverse communities in Indonesia. Movements to reach social integration were regularly challenged by anti-ethnic sentiments as well as ethnic inequality, and many violent actions against particular ethnic groups which may hurt both sides and left many people victimized. On the other hand, there were also positive developments such as the will to unite the Indonesian people from various ethnic groups since the early 20 th century, the interests to understand each other’s ethnic cultures as shown in the frequent theme of multiculturalism depicted in early Indonesian modern literatures, and the declining of ethnic conflicts which shows improvement on the tolerance and respect for ethnic differences among the Indonesian people. As it is examined, the ethnic conflicts may be caused by several motives. The conflicts between the ethnic Buginese-VOC alliance and the ethnic Makasarese can be understood as seizure of power over land in which the ethnic Buginese and the VOC looked forward to acquire the city of Makassar. It can also be caused by political matters such as when the number of ethnic Javanese dominated the appointed government posts in the 1955 election which caused resentment from other ethnic groups. Additionally, in some cases it can also be more of composite and permanent reasons as in the case of the ethnic Chinese which frequently became the victim of discrimination, which motives came from several reasons including their origin as initially being immigrants who are treated as non-indigenous people or foreign people, the economic discrepancy between many of the ethnic Chinese and other ethnic groups, and the visibility of their physical characteristics, reinforced by their nature as minority in Indonesia, which often be the cause of racial discrimination. In a similar situation of ethnic diversity in Canada, Reitz and Banerjee’s 2009 study on Racial Inequality and Social Integration shows that the social integration into Canadian society for racial minorities appears to be slower than for immigrants of European origins. This may also apply in Indonesian society as is evidenced by the long history of ethnic-related events in Indonesia, especially for there are many ethnic groups living together throughout the archipelago and there also exists visible minorities among the Indonesian society. There needs to be guidance to the awareness of ethnic diversity which aims for respect, tolerance, and acceptance of differences particularly among the new generation in Indonesia so that the Indonesian national motto, bhinneka tunggal ika unity in diversity, will not only become an irony just as what has happened in the past or is possibly still happening.

4. Ethnicity and Education a. Education as Solution to Ethnic Problems

Education is one way to help build the young generation’s mentalities towards the diverse society, promoting a sense of togetherness as well as respect, tolerance, and acceptance for diversity Byrnes and Kiger, 1992; Jacobs and Cates, 1999. In one bolder idea, there is the peace education which believes that education is one possible solution to conflicts including ethnic conflicts Bekerman and McGlynn, 2007. It is now pretty common to find schools which learners are from different ethnic groups, especially in Indonesia with its ethnically diverse society. It has also been usual for learners in Indonesia to have their learning media and learning materials related to other places outside their hometown and thus related to other ethnic groups. The problem arises when there exists a minority group within the society which may cause unequal treatment from the majority group, and when there is immediate judgment to differences which results from a narrow self-centered perspective. These are, however, inevitable, as nowadays the technology of communication and transportation has advanced that distance is no longer matter, people will meet others of different ethnic groups or exposed to other cultures which probably significantly different to their own. Schools and classroom education, in particular, can be seen as the miniature of the large society where early encounters may happen while its effects may continue to the larger society. These encounters and exposures of ethnic diversity needs to be guided and further developed as to avoid ethnic-related problems and help realize a unity in diversity. It is unfortunate that early proposition to the solution of ethnic problems was simply to ignore the differences or even make taboo the topic of ethnicity. In Indonesia, it happened in the New Order era under Soeharto’s presidency, where ethnicity was considered to be a political taboo at the time Ananta et al., 2013. This practice of ignoring the differences or not talking about it may initially seem normal from the point of view of an outsider, while actually it hurts the society, encouraging the citizens to be narrow-minded Lie, 2000, and creating an identity-less societies. As Fishman 1989 in Lie 2000: 97 underlines, “Absence of diversity would lead to the dehumanization, mechanization, and utter impoverishment of human beings”. This is also problematic when visible minorities are involved. As people are losing the opportunities to learn and understand ethnic differences, ethnic minority people who bear their visible physical differences since they were born will be the target of stereotyping Pine and Hilliard, 1990 in Byrnes and Kiger, 1992. Therefore, instead of ignoring the differences which cannot simply be eliminated for fundamental reasons above, people are encouraged to know, learn, and understand the diverse society in which they are living in so that they will be able to accept their differences. This acknowledgement of differences, in the educational setting, bore the notion of multicultural curriculum which covers ethnic differences as one of its main focuses.

b. Multicultural Curriculum

As if reflecting the environment of a society, school, as one of the most practical implementations of education, serves to give learners an early representation of how to live together in a society. In schools, learners especially children and teenagers, are prepared to be able to function accordingly in the society, including the moral value and mentality to respect, tolerate and live together peacefully in diversity. One major problem regarding this issue is encountered, apparently, due to a misguided curricular content and pedagogical styles: many ethnic minority learners suffer inequalities of opportunity Gillborn, 2005. Furthermore, Gillborn 2005 adds that the late assumptions regarding education policies on ethnic diversity: the assimilation or the institutionalization of the ethnic minority people who are regarded as educational problem, and integration or the acknowledgement of diversity in conception but severely misconceived by putting one certain point of view of mostly ethnic majority, devalued ethnic minority people by reducing them to the status of a problem. Coming from these failed attempts of dealing with diversity, multicultural curriculum is then developed. Multicultural curriculum is one in which choice of content reflects the multicultural nature of a particular society Cohen and Manion, 1983 in Gillborn, 2005. One significant difference between multicultural curriculum and the previous two education policies is its multicultural-perspectivity or cross-cultural perspective Johnson, 2007; Zajda and Freeman, 2009, the need to avoid value judgments about the differences especially from certain majority point of view, and instead it builds recognition of the differences and makes effort against such judgments Byrnes and Kiger, 1992. The goal of multicultural education according to Prihandono 2005, based on Gorski’s 2003 in Prihandono 2005, is fundamentally a social transformation which consists of self transformation, school and school system transformation, and transformation of the society. Swann’s 1985 in Gillborn 2005 Education for All, a report of the Committee of Inquiry into the Education of Children from Ethnic Minority Groups, reported six criteria to evaluate the school’s curricula regarding the multicultural perspective which includes: 1. The variety of social, cultural and ethnic groups and a perspective of the world should be evident in visuals, stories, conversation and information. 2. People from social, cultural and ethnic groups should be presented as individuals with every human attribute.