For decades, Chinese Indonesians have been in numerous harshspotlights in their own country. Starting from supposedly simple thingslike obtaining official documents to be legal citizens of Indonesia, theironly homeland now, where they can be harassed and cornered, whichnot seldom can extend to the extremes where they are made as victimsand scapegoat particularly when issues related to racism arise.Similar to other ethnic groups, they also live in different economicclasses. Some are very wealthy, some are rich, some live in the middleclasseconomy, some dwell in their simple lives, some are poor, andsome try to survive their abject poverty.In the urban areas, they are seen to live a good life; some arevery rich or even extremely prosperous. Most of these people arebusinessmen, ranging from a colossal size to a mere small business.However, reality also shows that many Chinese Indonesians in thesuburb areas live an uncertain day-to-day life and some are evenextremely poor. Fishermen in Tangerang, North Sumatra, Riau, Bangkaor pedicab drivers, unskilled labor, angkot (a small public minibus)drivers, domestic maids, office boys, and blue collar workers in WestKalimantan (Sambas and Singkawang) and Bangka are factual examplesof the grueling lives that they have to carry on striving.In spite of all the facts, people often forget or even intentionallyignore the facts that many Chinese Indonesians have also madepositive contributions to their country in many different aspects, suchas economy, sports, culture, science, or political sectors to name afew. These facts also need to be understood and enlightened to fellowcountrymen in order to portray a more balanced, objective view, andnon-discriminatory judgment which in turn can prevent hatred, dislike,and other unfavorable prejudice against Indonesian citizens of Chinesedescent due to the past inaccurate stereotype and labeling.This book tries to present an objective portrait of ChineseIndonesians and their roles within their own beloved country and state,with the very same goal of all proud Indonesian countrymen—to createa stronger unity and integrity of Indonesia, a country that highly valuespluralism and the unity-in-diversity principle through the distinguishedPancasila philosophy

For decades, Chinese Indonesians have been in numerous harsh spotlights in their own country. Starting from supposedly simple things like obtaining official documents to be legal citizens of Indonesia, their only homeland now, where they can be harassed and cornered, which not seldom can extend to the extremes where they are made as victims and scapegoat particularly when issues related to racism arise. Similar to other ethnic groups, they also live in different economic classes. Some are very wealthy, some are rich, some live in the middleclass economy, some dwell in their simple lives, some are poor, and some try to survive their abject poverty. In the urban areas, they are seen to live a good life; some are very rich or even extremely prosperous. Most of these people are businessmen, ranging from a colossal size to a mere small business. However, reality also shows that many Chinese Indonesians in the suburb areas live an uncertain day-to-day life and some are even extremely poor. Fishermen in Tangerang, North Sumatra, Riau, Bangka or pedicab drivers, unskilled labor, angkot (a small public minibus) drivers, domestic maids, office boys, and blue collar workers in West Kalimantan (Sambas and Singkawang) and Bangka are factual examples of the grueling lives that they have to carry on striving. In spite of all the facts, people often forget or even intentionally ignore the facts that many Chinese Indonesians have also made positive contributions to their country in many different aspects, such as economy, sports, culture, science, or political sectors to name a few. These facts also need to be understood and enlightened to fellow countrymen in order to portray a more balanced, objective view, and non-discriminatory judgment which in turn can prevent hatred, dislike, and other unfavorable prejudice against Indonesian citizens of Chinese descent due to the past inaccurate stereotype and labeling. This book tries to present an objective portrait of Chinese Indonesians and their roles within their own beloved country and state, with the very same goal of all proud Indonesian countrymen—to create a stronger unity and integrity of Indonesia, a country that highly values pluralism and the unity-in-diversity principle through the distinguished Pancasila philosophy

The Chinese in Indonesia have played an important role in Indonesian society before and after the fall of Soeharto. This book provides comprehensive and up-to-date information by examining them in detail during that era with special reference to the post-Soeharto period. The contributors to this volume consist of both older- and younger-generation scholars writing on Indonesian Chinese. They offer new information and fresh perspectives on the issues of government policies, legal position, ethnic politics, race relations, religion, education and prospects of the Chinese Indonesians.

The ethnic Chinese in Indonesia, numbering more than six millions, constitute the largest single group of ethnic Chinese in Southeast Asia. They are economically strong, culturally diversified, and socially active. This book presents the profiles of leading figures in the Indonesian Chinese community in the twentieth century in the economic, political, religious, cultural, academic, and social fields. This is the first systematic and comprehensive book of its kind. It is useful for scholars interested in research on Indonesia or Chinese minorities in Southeast Asia generally. First published in 1971, it was revised and developed into the present format in 1978 and has since been revised several times. This is the third and most up-to-date version.

The disintegration of Indonesia's New Order regime in 1998 and the fall of Soeharto put an end to the crude forms of centralised authoritarianism and economic protectionism that allowed large Chinese conglomerates to dom- inate Indonesia's private sector. Contrary to all expectations, most of the major capitalist groups, though damaged considerably by the Asian Crisis, managed to cope with the ensuing monumental political and economic changes, and now thrive again albeit within a new democratic environment. In this book Christian Chua assesses the state of capital before, during, and after the financial and political crisis of 1997/1998 and analyses the changing relationships between business and the state in Indonesia. Using a distinct perspective that combines cultural and structural approaches on Chinese big business with exclusive material derived from interviews with some of Indonesia’s major business leaders, Chua identifies the strategies employed by tycoons to adapt their corporations to the post-authoritarian regime and provides a unique insight into how state-business relationships in Indonesia have evolved since the crisis. Chinese Big Business in Indonesia is the first major analysis of capital in Indonesia since the fall of Soeharto, and will be of interest to graduate students and scholars of political economy, political sociology, economics and business administration as well as to practitioners having to do with Southeast Asian business and politics.

Indonesians of Chinese descent constitute only two to three per cent of the country s population but dominate the private business sector. Serious acts of violence against this ethnic minority occurred during Indonesia s colonial past, and after a period relatively free of such incidents became increasingly frequent during the final years of Suharto s New Order. In this first book-length study of anti-Chinese hostility during the collapse of Suharto s regime, Jemma Purdey presents a close analysis of the main incidents of violence during the transitional period between 1996 and 1999, and the unprecedented process of national reflection that ensued. The mass violence that accompanied the fall of the regime in May 1998 affected not only ethnic Chinese but also indigenous or pribumi Indonesians. The author places anti-Chinese riots within this broader context, considering causes and agency as well as the way violence has been represented. While ethnicity and prejudice are central to the explanation put forward, she concludes that politics, economics and religion offer additional keys to understanding why such outbreaks occurred.

This book contains a collection of papers on various aspects of Indonesia's economic and its industrial development. It discusses the early independence period in the 1950s; the Soeharto era (1966-1998); and the ensuing two economic crises, namely the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997/98 and the Global Financial Crisis of 2008.