Merangkai SinoLogika

Kompas, Opini - 20 September 2004. JIKA selama Pemilu 1999, komunitas Tionghoa tampak malu-malu dan agak canggung dalam berpolitik, dalam Pemilu 2004, partisipasi politik komunitas Tionghoa terlihat semakin dinamis dan asertif. Bagaimana membaca dinamika itu secara kritis? "Binatang ekonomi" dan "apolitis" adalah dua stigma populer yang berurat-akar bagi orang Tionghoa. Persepsi mayoritas elite politik Indonesia tampaknya masih berkutat di situ karena menilai partisipasi Tionghoa sebatas keuntungan ekonomis. Persepsi ini adalah buah dari asumsi tidak mendasar bahwa komunitas Tionghoa yang hanya 2 persen dari populasi menguasai 70 persen perekonomian nasional. Citra kekuatan ekonomi komunitas Tionghoa memang sudah ada sejauh sejarah kolonial. Tetapi label 2 persen dan 70 persen menjadi hingar-bingar di akhir tahun 1990 an seiring krisis ekonomi Asia, dikarenakan tendensi bombastis sejumlah jurnalis masa lalu yang salah mengutip penelitian Michael Backman (1

The Jakarta Post, 3 September 2004 Since the legislative election in April, more Chinese-Indonesians have undoubtedly been engaged in the country's democratization, and this degree of enthusiasm is a new precedent for their future participation. In the past, the only "participation" expected concerned economic activities. The reconstruction of the Chinese-Indonesian identity was shaped much by such economic preferences, which led to the stereotypical stigma that the ethnic group, which comprises 2 percent of the Indonesian population, makes up 70 percent of the economy. Although no valid proof exists to indicate the precise economic power of Chinese-Indonesians -- nor any to calculate the economic power of other ethnic groups in Indonesia -- this "popular" stigma has stuck. The notion of Chinese-Indonesians holding economic power has held sway for as long as the nation's history, particularly since the colonial era. However, this stigma was amplified i