Local and Transnational Initiatives Towards Improving Chinese-Indigenous Relations in Post-Suharto Indonesia: The Role of the Voluntary Sector
Author: Nagata J.1
Source: Asian Ethnicity, Volume 4, Number 3, OCTOBER 2003 , pp. 369-381(13)
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Abstract:
The erosion of state-managed Chinese-pribumi relations during the Suharto era and the succeeding economic collapse in Indonesia have left a socially and politically fragile situation where new sources of cohesion and social capital are emerging spontaneously at the local level. Some of this takes the form of voluntary and informal activities, both by local and international non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and other forms of (global) civil society, using horizontal network principles, which link local and transnational ethnic Chinese communities from Malaysia and Indonesia to Australia and North America. In this article, I describe three of the more innovative and striking experiments in inter-ethnic and humanistic cooperation, combining both Chinese and pribumi initiatives: these include an educational/environmental institution, founded by a Chinese doctor (Yayasan Perguruan Sultan Iskandar Muda), in Medan; an inter-ethnic Heritage trust (Badan Warisan Sumatera Utara), in the same city; and the Jakarta/Bandung-based Tim Relawan Kemanusiaan, a humanitarian team dedicated to the rehabilitation of victims of state violence across Indonesia. All these groups are connected with transnational NGO and other networks, and are concerned as much with more inclusive issues of citizenship and human rights as with 'assimilation' or ethnic interests alone.
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