OPINION: Chinese Indonesians' president?
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