A fatal incident in January involving a Chinese-owned mining company raises the spectre of political opportunists exploiting anti-Chinese sentiments in the run-up to Indonesia’s 2024 elections, say these writers.
, with US$3.2 billion of investments in 2022, and has been Indonesia’s largest trading partner for the past nine years, with 2022’s trade volume reaching US$124.3 billion. These trends have led to a steady inflow of Chinese guest workers, who now make up about 44.34 per cent of all foreign workers in Indonesia.
In mid-2022, former Jakarta governor and former head of the State Intelligence Agency Sutiyoso expressed “concern” that these Chinese workers would never return to China. He added that they would multiply in Indonesia and that people of Chinese descent would dominate the country, mentioning Malaysia and Singapore as examples.
There has been some pushback against Sutiyoso’s rhetoric. The Indonesian Solidarity Party’s Chinese Indonesian politician Grace Natalie considered his remarks racist ones, which could cause a rift in Indonesian society. Garuda Party politician Teddy Gusnaidi suggested that Sutiyoso might have violated Law No 40 on the Elimination of Racial and Ethnic Discrimination.Such anti-Chinese fearmongering illustrates a persistent obstacle in Indonesia’s management of ethnic issues.
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