The New Order Era Raise Discrimination Against Chinese

Azmi Abubakar, a Muslim youth from Aceh, founded a Chinese museum Jakarta (Indonesia News) – Discrimination by society against Chinese citiz...

Azmi Abubakar, a Muslim youth from Aceh, founded a Chinese museum

Jakarta (Indonesia News) – Discrimination by society against Chinese citizens stems from ignorance. The information available is very minimal, and information that is already minimal is also misguided. This was stated by Azmi Abubakar, Founder of the Chinese Peranakan Library Museum.

Azmi stated that in a Webinar in Jakarta (26/1), held by the Indonesian Writers Association SATUPENA, chaired by Denny JA. The Satupena discussion was hosted by Anick HT and Amelia Fitriani.

According to Azmi, discrimination against the Chinese comes from misguided information inherited from the New Order. So when there was a monetary and economic crisis ahead of the 1998 reform, Chinese citizens were accused of being the cause and blamed.

Racial riots against Chinese citizens on 13-14 May 1998 became one of the impetus for him, to pioneer the establishment of the Chinese Peranakan Pustaka Museum. Azmi regretted that racial attacks against Chinese citizens at that time should not have happened if the public had correct information about the role and contribution of Chinese citizens in Indonesia.

The second thing that prompted Azmi's move was the tsunami that hit Aceh and killed around 200,000 people. "The Chinese community has helped the Aceh tsunami victims and for years has accompanied Aceh's recovery," said this man from Aceh.

So, Azmi argues, the remedy for overcoming discrimination is through providing correct information. "Discrimination occurs because of limited information, even misleading," he said. For this reason, the Peranakan Chinese Library Museum focuses on collecting and disseminating correct information about Chinese citizens.

“Since setting up this museum, I refuse help from anyone. The Chinese should not help. The government can't help either. The budget for employees and this place is from my own pocket,” continued Azmi, who has a construction business.

Many people do not correctly understand the role of Chinese citizens in Indonesia

Azmi gave an example of information that not many people know. That is, Chinese citizens were once the main football players in Indonesia. The top four players are Chinese citizens. So, not only in the badminton branch. This was before the New Order era.

In the era of discrimination by the New Order, Chinese citizens limited themselves to sports that relied on individuality, not teamwork, such as football. Because they are afraid of always being blamed (ma).

Photo: Special/abri