ETHNIC CHINESE GUARDEDLY OPTIMISTIC OVER IMPROVED

C O N F I D E N T I A L JAKARTA 000343 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/08/2016 TAGS: PHUM PREL PGOV ID SUBJECT: ETHNIC CHINESE GUARDEDLY OPTIMISTIC OVER IMPROVED STATUS REF: JAKARTA 10649 Classified By: POLITICAL OFFICER SANJAY RAMESH FOR REASONS 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (C) Summary: A prominent Chinese-Indonesian human rights lawyer and leaders of NGOs focused on fighting racial, ethnic, and religious discrimination expressed guarded optimism about the status of ethnic Chinese in Indonesia. In a January 25 discussion, they said a new citizenship law unequivocally bestowed long overdue citizenship rights on Chinese-Indonesians and noted that ethnic Chinese enjoyed great freedom to practice their religion and culture. However, they remained deeply concerned about discriminatory local regulations in Yogyakarta, Central Java that violate the citizenship law, as well as the continued existence of anti-Chinese national regulations dating back decades which, though not actively enforced, have never been revoked. They also alleged that the 2006 decree on new places of worship made it difficult for religious minorities such as Chinese Christians and Confucians to build new churches or temples. End Summary. ¶2. (C) On January 25, Poloff met well-known Chinese-Indonesian human rights lawyer Frans Winata, Chairman Wahyu Effendy of the Anti-Discrimination Movement, anti-discrimination activist Esther Jusuf, and Hotma Sitompul, a Legal Foundation researcher. These contacts expressed guarded optimism over the improving condition of the Chinese-Indonesian community. They said by enacting the 2006 citizenship law, President Yudhoyono had taken a bold step to end decades of institutionalized anti-Chinese discrimination. Yudhoyono signed the citizenship law in August 2006 revising the definition of indigenous Indonesians to include all citizens who had never assumed foreign citizenship. Winata and Effendy said the citizenship law unequivocally bestowed Indonesian citizenship on ethnic Chinese and eliminated the need for citizenship certificates, finally giving Indonesian Chinese the legal basis to secure their fundamental rights as citizens. Before this law, ethnic Chinese were required to procure a "citizenship certificate" proving their Indonesian citizenship and without the certificate were often denied basic government services such as birth and marriage certificates. Effendy alleged that local officials often refused to issue this citizenship certificate to ethnic Chinese. No similar requirement existed for Indonesians of non-Chinese descent. ¶3. (C) While the new law is a major step forward, Winata warned that it would take a long time before all local officials actually complied with its provisions. He argued that a major test of the government's resolve to fully end anti-Chinese discrimination lay in how effectively it implemented the new law. Sitompul agreed, saying his organization continued to receive reports of local officials across Indonesia who still demand citizenship certificates. ¶4. (C) All of our contacts said the ethnic Chinese now enjoy unprecedented freedom to practice their religion and culture without hindrance by government officials or other Indonesians. Sitompul explained that during the Suharto era, over 60 national and local anti-Chinese regulations prevented the Chinese from practicing most aspects of their culture, from learning Chinese in schools to publicly celebrating Chinese New Year (in contrast, today, Chinese New Year is an Indonesian National Holiday). These discriminatory regulations and the 1999 anti-Chinese riots caused many Chinese, especially those with means, to flee Indonesia and seek asylum abroad. However, former president Abdurrahman Wahid fought hard to overturn most of these discriminatory regulations and to foster a more tolerant atmosphere in Indonesia. Since then, Esther Jusuf said, ethnic Chinese felt relatively safe and were no longer actively trying to leave Indonesia or send their assets overseas. She noted that many wealthy Chinese business owners who fled the country in 1999 had returned, but maintained assets abroad in places like Singapore and Taiwan as a form of insurance. ¶5. (C) Despite Wahid's efforts, Sitompul and Winata claimed that several local and national anti-Chinese regulations and decrees, though largely not enforced, remained on the books: --A Yogyakarta regulation prohibiting ethnic Chinese from owning land in the district. --A Yogyakarta regulation requiring ethnic Chinese to produce citizenship documents before being issued government identification cards. --A 1917 Dutch state regulation segregating Indonesians into three races: Europeans, Chinese/Arabs/Indians, and indigenous Indonesians; and a related civil registration law requiring all newborns to be identified by race. --A 1967 national regulation entitled "measures to resolve the Chinese problem" barring Chinese from politics and military service. --A 1966 Joint Parliamentary Resolution differentiating between natives and non-natives, which served as the basis for many anti-Chinese regulations over the years. --A 1973 "implementing procedure" which established a coordinating body and procedures at the Indonesian National Intelligence Agency for tackling the "Chinese problem." ¶6. (C) Sitompul expressed a foreboding that a future government, less well-disposed to the Chinese, could use these regulations and resolutions as the basis for anti-Chinese policies. Winata accused the government of continuing to monitor ethnic Chinese by assigningQnique serial numbers to their identification cards and birth certificates. Esther Jusuf also noted that another source of anxiety for ethnic Chinese was government inaction in bringing to justice the perpetrators of the 1999 anti-Chinese riots. She said the Indonesian National Human Rights Commission (Komnas Ham) prepared a 2003 report on the riots but alleged that they refused to make its details public. She also claimed that the Attorney General's Office never acted on the report, allowing the perpetrators to evade justice. Jusuf characterized the ethnic Chinese as "deeply skeptical" of the government's commitment and ability to punish those who orchestrated the 1999 riots. As a result, most Chinese had given up actively seeking justice for the 1999 riots. ¶7. (C) Sitompul believed the only way to fully end legal discrimination was to pass an anti-discrimination law modeled on United Nations conventions. Sitompul claimed human rights NGOs had pressured the Indonesian parliament (DPR) to set up an ad-hoc committee to explore comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation. He believed this DPR ad-hoc committee was actively discussing a draft bill criminalizing ethnic and racial discrimination, but noted that the bill did not address religious discrimination as it was "too sensitive a topic." Sitompul said that to be effective, such a bill would need to explicitly revoke all past discriminatory laws, regulations and policies. He also said human rights NGOs were divided in their approach to the bill: some advocated a limited bill focused on ethnic and racial discrimination, while others favored more comprehensive legislation covering religious, gender-based, and other forms of discrimination. (Note: We will explore this topic further and report separately on the anti-discrimination bill). ¶8. (C) All these contacts also worried about the growing influence of "Islamic parties and groups" and resulting implications for religious freedom. They claimed the 2006 decree on new places of worship would hamper religious freedom. (Note: In 2006, the Ministries of Religion and Home Affairs issued a joint decree stipulating that building a new house of worship requires a petition signed by 90 congregation members and at least 60 other community members (reftel). The petition must then be approved by the local offices of the Religious Affairs Department and the Communications Forum for Religious Harmony). Effendy argued that the decree would make it very difficult for dispersed ethnic Chinese Christians and Confucians to obtain the necessary signatures. He said the requirement for permission from the local offices of the Religious f"fairs Department and Communications Forum for Rlligious Harmony gave local officials enormous discretion to stop the building of new places of worship. He believed that many local officials in Indonesia remained both deeply biased against ethnic Chinese and afraid of Islamic groups, thus making it likely that they would reject petitions from Christians and Confucians. ¶9. (C) Our contacts believed that although the Chinese enjoyed great freedom today, they still faced legal challenges and other risks to their well-being. Effendy and Sitompul encouraged the USG to push for a comprehensive anti-discrimination bill that encompassed racial, ethnic and religious discrimination. PASCOE