Originally posted by Fanatical_Knight:
I've spent hours searching for stuff to answer the following Questions, apparently, according to Indonesian govt websites, Indonesia is a nice place with no racial conflict or discrimination, yet my friends and newspapers said stuff about Indonesian Govt prohibiting the Chinese language, cultural practices etc and required Indonesian chinese to have Indonesian sounding names...
Pls guys gimme your views, or at least gimme some good honest websites.
First of all.. I tell u this because I live here and dun consider me as an intel (sounds scary).
I would say that now since Gus Dur period (he was the president before Megawati) Chinese culture
ISN'T prohibited anymore. You would see that nowadays there's Chinese names (Chinese calligraphy) appears in some companies' name. Many Chinese courses are open everywhere nowadays and even some school also have Chinese language as their curiculum.
True, that you need to have Indonesian name besides your Chinese name. You'll have certificate for this. My grams and mum have.
I need desperate help for the following Qs:
1.Current situation of laws/policies that are discriminatory in Indonesia (if any)
I'm not good at laws/policies.. but Indo gvt. have managed a program that we call "Pembauran" ("Intermingle" I think in english), it's abt how to make Indo and non-Indo (Chinese) could live together peacefully (something like that lar, I was joining the program as a rep. from my college). Discrimination... I would say.. still is, but not as worse as before. Depends on the person.
2. Whether the govt and govt agencies (Army; police) are multiracial
Well.. I think there's Chinese in parliamentary (let say.. Kwik Kian Gie), but of course not as much as Indo. I think army and so on MUST be Indonesian, and I dun think there's Chinese would join the army. We dun have NS here.
3. Mindset of the Indonesian, especially regarding the tension between CHinese and non-CHinese
Hmm... it's kinda hard to explain, 'cos I'm chinese. But me and my Indonesian friends are really well. Yes they see me as Chinese and some still (I supposed) dun really like Chinese. But it depends on the person itself. Chinese also could be arrogant sometimes.
4. Whether the Education system is multi-racial or segregated
Education... y'know wad. Most of Chinese Indonesian here are rich, so they no need to worry abt education. They'll put their kids to the best private schools or send them to study abroad.
5. Is residential public housing used to integrate the people
Hmm.. usually there's Chinese neighborhood (I live in this kinda neighborhood) and Indo. Public housing.. usually only Indo live there. If Chinese wants to live there, no problem oso. but they all oredi have good house, so no need to live in public housing I supposed.
BTW.. I even dunno where u get the website. Can tell me or not ?