Refugee Review Tribunal AUSTRALIA RRT RESEARCH RESPONSE Research Response Number: IDN30694 Country: Indonesia Date: 5 October 2006 Keywords: Indonesia – Tangerang – Chinese – State Protection This response was prepared by the Country Research Section of the Refugee Review Tribunal (RRT) after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the RRT within time constraints. This response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. Questions: 1. Apart from a name is there anything else that readily identifies someone as being ethnic Chinese. 2. Would they be expected to speak Mandarin or Cantonese? 3. What beliefs or way of life could be considered to be significant as holding oneself out to be “Chinese”? 4. Is there record of the May (year unknown) riot in Tangerang? 5. Were “horrifying sex acts” targeted against ethnic Chinese reported? 6. What are conditions for Chinese in Tangerang? 7. Are Chinese shopowners and residences routinely looted? 8. Are they protected by the Government in this area? 9. What does “pribumi Muslim” mean? 10. Are there ‘reliable” rumours of “ethnic cleansing” of Chinese in this area and Indonesia generally? RESPONSE 1. Apart from a name is there anything else that readily identifies someone as being ethnic Chinese. 2. Would they be expected to speak Mandarin or Cantonese? 3. What beliefs or way of life could be considered to be significant as holding oneself out to be “Chinese”? Identifying someone as being ethnic Chinese in Indonesia is difficult as many differences exist amongst the group. Categorising individuals as ethnic Chinese on the basis of their name, appearance and/or language skills can also be problematic. Self-categorisation or categorisation by a native Indonesian may be the only way to determine if an individual is ethnic Chinese. The information provided in response to these questions has been organised under the following six headings: • Ethnic Chinese Identity in Indonesia; • Names; • Appearance; • Language; • Religion; and • Tangerang. Ethnic Chinese Identity in Indonesia According to Minority Rights Group, “identifying someone in modern-day Indonesia as ethnic Chinese is not easy, because the physical characteristics, language, name and lifestyle of Chinese Indonesians are not always distinct from those of the indigenous population” (US Citizenship and Immigration Services 1999, IDN99001.ZNY – Indonesia: Information on ethnic Chinese in Indonesia, 23 July – Attachment 1). According to Chang-yau Hoon, a PhD candidate in Asian Studies at the University of Western Australia, being Chinese in Indonesia is not the same as being Chinese in Singapore or Chinese in China or Taiwan. Hoon notes that Chineseness is “constantly changing” and that ethnic identity “is not based upon intrinsic characteristics such as race, blood, tradition and ancestry but varies from generation to generation and is shaped by local circumstances” (Hoon, Chang-Yau 2004, ‘How to be Chinese: Ethnic Chinese experience a “reawakening” of their Chinese identity’, Inside Indonesia, April-June – Attachment 2). Mely G. Tan, Senior Researcher at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences notes that while “the majority of Indonesians tend to group all ethnic Chinese together as one entity, there are clear differences among them”: • Ethnic Chinese in Indonesia can be distinguished between totok and peranakan although this distinction is now being questioned: The totok are those who are usually not of mixed descent, whose families have been in Indonesia for two or three generations, have had a Chinese language education and a Chinese cultural orientation, primarily indicated by the fact that they speak Mandarin or one of the Chinese dialects at home – at least, the older generation. By occupation, most of these totok are in business and trade. The peranakan are those who are of mixed descent, who families have settled in Indonesia for at least three generations, who may have had some Chinese language school education but do not speak Chinese as the home language, and whose cultural orientation is more towards the culture of the area in which they have settled. By occupation, many of them have had a university education and are in the free professions (physicians, dentists, engineers, lawyers, accountants), but a sizable number are also in business and trade. Today the validity of this distinction into totok and peranakan is being questioned, especially the distinction into tokok. This is no doubt largely due to the fact that since 1966 Chinese language schools have been closed down, and in 1967 the government issued a regulation prohibiting the use of Chinese characters in public places, and the expressions of cultural elements construed to be of Chinese origin, such as the Chinese lunar new year, outside the home environment (Tan, Mely G 1997, ‘The Ethnic Chinese in Indonesia’, Ethnic Chinese as Southeast Asians, ed Leo Suryadinata, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, p.42 – Attachment 3). • Ethnic Chinese can be distinguished by area of settlement: There are other ways of distinguishing among the ethnic Chinese. It can be by area of settlement, where their cultural life and values are strongly influenced by the culture of the dominant ethnic groups of the area. This form of acculturation is expressed in the use of the local language or a mixture of the local language and Indonesian at home, for instance, Javanese in Central and East Java, Sundanese in West Java, Minangkabau in West Sumatra, Menadonese in North Sulawesi, Ambonese in the Moluccas, and Balinese in Bali (Tan, Mely G 1997, ‘The Ethnic Chinese in Indonesia’, Ethnic Chinese as Southeast Asians, ed Leo Suryadinata, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, p.44 – Attachment 3). • Ethnic Chinese can be distinguished by generation: Another distinction is by generation: the older generation (50 years and over) who still speak their local language, and Dutch or Chinese, depending on their educational experience; and the younger generation (in particular those under 35, who were born a few years before or after the upheaval of 1965), who speak mostly Indonesian and, among those who have studied abroad, the language of the country they studied in, usually English (Tan, Mely G 1997, ‘The Ethnic Chinese in Indonesia’, Ethnic Chinese as Southeast Asians, ed Leo Suryadinata, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, p.44 – Attachment 3). Tan notes that “the trend is definitely towards integration and identification as Indonesians, albeit still recognizing their Chinese origin”. Tan believes that the cultural identity of ethnic Chinese in Indonesia constitutes a continuum with those who completely identify themselves as Indonesian at one end and those who are still Chinese-orientated at the other. In between are the majority of ethnic Chinese, “who are culturally more Indonesia-orientated, speak Indonesian or the local language at home, do not speak Chinese at all, and are minimally knowledgeable about Chinese religion and tradition” (Tan, Mely G 1997, ‘The Ethnic Chinese in Indonesia’, Ethnic Chinese as Southeast Asians, ed Leo Suryadinata, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, pp.53-57 – Attachment 3). A Jakarta Post article dated 1 September 2003 reports on Ignatius Wibowo, a Jesuit priest, lecturer at the University of Indonesia and director of the Centre for Chinese Studies. The article notes that one of the biggest problems ethnic Chinese in Indonesia face is confusion over their identity, some Chinese still find it hard to adapt to Indonesian society while others have integrated. Wibowo notes that “the latter were also victims of the May riots, which shows that the Indonesian people themselves have not fully accepted them” (Gunawan, T. Sima 2003, ‘Wibowo strides between two worlds’, Jakarta Post, 1 September – Attachment 4). Names Minority Rights Group reports that the use of Chinese names was banned by the Indonesian government. Therefore the absence of a Chinese name does not necessarily mean that the individual is not ethnic Chinese: In 1966/67 most ethnic Chinese Indonesians were forced to take Indonesian names, with very few Chinese Indonesians keeping their original Chinese surnames (US Citizenship and Immigration Services 1999, IDN99001.ZNY – Indonesia: Information on ethnic Chinese in Indonesia, 23 July – Attachment 1). Appearance According to Human Rights Watch, “ethnic Chinese Indonesians are physically easily distinguishable as Chinese by other Indonesians, though for non-Indonesians, the physical distinction can be difficult” (Human Rights Watch 1999, US Citizenship and Immigration Services 1999, IDN99001.ZNY – Indonesia: Information on ethnic Chinese in Indonesia, 23 July – Attachment 1). A Jakarta Post article dated 13 June 2006 reports that being Muslim and marrying a “native” will not save ethnic Chinese Indonesians from harm as they look Chinese: I have a Chinese-Indonesian friend who is Muslim. He married a “native” woman. During the riots of in May 1998, I told him he was lucky that he could go anywhere safely, because he had successfully assimilated with the Indonesian majority. His answer surprised me: “Nobody will ask about my religion or my wife,” he said. “People will look at my face and because I look like a Chinese, my religion and my wife will not save me from harm” (Hadipuro, Wijanto 2006, ‘Being a Chinese-Indonesia’, Jakarta Post, 13 June, Minorités website http://www.minorites.org/article.php?IDA=16590 – Accessed 3 October 2006 – Attachment 5). Language According to Ethnologue: Languages of the World, five Chinese