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The Jakarta Post, 17 December 2009 Co-authored with Gatot Goei (Gatot Goei is an advocate and a former member of the Jakarta Legal Aid Body)  Tucked in between the multi-front and high-spirited antigraft movement is a tiny flare of unwavering prejudice. As the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) saga unfolded with the detention of Bibit S. Rianto and Chandra M. Hamzah, and later exploded with the airing of the conversations wiretapped by the KPK, high-profile cases involving figures like Anggoro, Anggodo and Yuliana Ong became catalysts for the emergence of age-old sentiments, the framing of Chinese Indonesians as the usual corrupt suspects. The tapes and subsequent debates have depicted how “well-connected” Anggodo is to the legal system. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s laggard response to the whole saga and the National Police and District Attorney’s obvious anti-KPK crusade firmly and appropriately probed Anggodo’s six reported cases, but has also added to the prejud

The Jakarta Post, 28 November 2009 Continuity, not change, is what most Chinese elites believe they will see in the relations of two global titans — the US and China — and has been confirmed by both heads of state during recent Barack Obama’s visit to China. It would be a continuity based on common awareness and acknowledgement of the interconnectedness of their fate and the effects of their interactions with the global community. It is also a continuity driven by compromise to prioritize the economic slump, while each strives to be one step ahead in the realignment of global power constellation. Security concerns, such as the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and Iran, as well as the US desire for China to play some role in Afghanistan and Pakistan, heighten the need for compromise. Even more pressing is the cooperation in pushing for greater and more comprehensive climate change policies ahead of the Copenhagen climate conference. In his earlier campaign speech, O

Kompas, 28 Oktober 2009. Sebulan ini, Beijing sibuk menyiapkan perayaan 60 tahun Republik Rakyat China. Tak hanya itu. Media penuh program patriotik. Parade disiapkan, memamerkan kekuatan militer dan budaya China. Film epik Berdirinya Sebuah Republik yang melibatkan artis-artis besar seperti Jackie Chan, Jet Li, dan Andy Lau memecahkan rekor penjualan tiket terbesar. Hajatan sepekan itu ditutup pergelaran opera Turandot karya Puccini di megastadium Sarang Burung oleh sutradara Zhang Yimou, sebagai simbol ”China yang baru”, perpaduan budaya tradisional Kerajaan Tengah dan republik yang mendunia. Namun, di sela-sela kemeriahan pesta, keamanan ibu kota dan wilayah rentan, seperti Tibet dan Xinjiang, diperketat. Warga lokal, sejumlah diplomat, dan wartawan asing yang tinggal di sekitar Tiananmen mengeluhkan peringatan untuk tidak membuka jendela saat parade berlangsung. Akses internet kian dibatasi, bahkan Facebook dan Twitter diblok. Apa yang sebenarnya terjadi dalam merefleksikan e

The Jakarta Post, 28 June 2009 In this newspaper's June 24 edition, Mario Rustan wrote a piece on the Chinese Indonesians' dilemma in voting for the president and, while acknowledging the diversity of Chinese Indonesian's political preferences, went further, describing what he called the community's "general attitude and behavior in politics". The general message of Rustan's article is that there has been a heightened sense of political awareness and assertiveness amongst Chinese Indonesians. Rustan's article made a fair assessment of the political preferences of some, but definitely not all, Chinese Indonesians. His arguments regarding the Chinese Indonesian's inclination that Megawati was the "obvious choice" in 2004 need to be further pondered. Furthermore, we need to be extra-critical in pondering the assessment he made on the current elections. It is regrettable that Rustan pointed out that, in the eyes of Chinese Indonesians i

Inside Indonesia 95 - Jan-Mar 2009 edition.  As the 2009 national elections approach, Chinese Indonesians face a paradox. While most Chinese Indonesians do not wish to position themselves as an exclusive ethnic-based political grouping, major parties have done little beside talk about addressing the social discrimination that Chinese Indonesians face.  Ethnic-based political parties had little success in the 1999 and 2004 national elections as the Chinese Indonesian Reform Party and the Indonesian Bhinneka Tunggal Ika Party failed to garner community support. The Chinese Indonesian vote was spread across nationalist secular parties. Some Chinese Indonesians didn’t bother to vote at all. Since the resumption of democratic elections in Indonesia in 1999, candidates of ethnic Chinese descent have stood in both national and local elections and their level of participation in campaigns and in public debates has increased. Fewer than 50 Chinese Indonesian candidates stood in the 1999 na