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VIII of X: Growing Up A Minority Female in Indonesia

© Jennie S. Bev

Growing up as a part of the minority in Indonesia is degrading and, at the same time, making one feeling unsheltered. One small mistake in mingling with the majority can cost more than one can bear. Nothing and nobody can guarantee your safety. Not the government, not the law, not the armed forces. Being a female, an ethnic Chinese and a Catholic increase the odds exponentially. Only with a strong and intense commitment to live and to stay alive can a member of this triple-fold minority survive.

Though there is no particular Indonesian custom that limits our activities, Indonesian women in general are supposed to be the source of assistance and support to our husband and family. There are more and more women working in the labor force, but they are not considered the primary breadwinners.

Any woman of non-Moslem religions, including the Catholics, suffer double-fold danger for being physically less advantageous and being 'kafir'(non-believer of Islam). Both traits could lead into victimization for various religious reasons.

The ethnic Chinese comprises only 3-4% of the whole population of 220 millions. Ninety percent of the population is Moslems. Most Chinese are non-Moslems. They comprise of Christians, Catholics, Buddhists, and Hindus. The first two are the majority among the minority. The ethnic Chinese are widely known to possess the largest economic influence in the country --almost 70%. Hence, not many realize that they are only among the top 5-10% of the pyramid. Others are not as privileged as their fellow indigenous countrymen are.

For more than a century, the Chinese have been treated as human shields by the Dutch colonization. They were given special rights to trade and became merchants, only to envious the indigenous. The Dutch colonization government ruled this archipelago country of 13,000 islands, with over 400 tribal ethnics and stretches the distance from San Francisco to New York, under 'dividing the nation' strategy.

They legally and systematically divided the population into three groups: the white Europeans, the East Asians --Chinese and Japanese-- and the indigenous people. One of the forms of discrimination that is still being enforced today is the unique numbering system of the Chinese's identity cards to distinguish them from the rest of the society. Chinese characters and customs ---including the famous dragon dance and Chinese schools are also forbidden. Chinese names are not favorable and everybody must adopt Indonesian names.

For over 350 years of colonization, which ended in 1945 with the

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