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Well, according to a Chinese- Indonesian priest who visited the Philippines recently, many journalists fell for it without even checking the facts. "It is true that even under the anti-Chinese sentiment of the Dutch colonial rule, many Chinese were able to survive and to prosper. There is at least an image that Chinese are rich and control the economy. Yet for me it is a question why most of the newspapers write '3.5% of Chinese in Indonesia is in control of 70% of the economy'," said Sulawesi (not his real name), a priest involved in the campaign against human rights abuses in Indonesia. "The truth is Suharto and his cronies together with several Chinese cronies under his control dominated the economy." Quoting research done by an Indonesian expatriate, Mr. Sulawesi said the source of the alleged fallacy is an Australian study that discounted all government and foreign listed companies when it tallied Indonesian companies. "Many companies were not listed (in the Australian study). From the listed companies, they did not count government and multinational companies," he said. The insight was provided through research done by George Aditjondro, who in his paper describes himself as a former business news reporter in the 1970s and 1980s, and presently teaches Sociology of Corruption at the University of Newcastle in Australia. According to Mr. Aditjondro, the myth -- that the Chinese constitute only 3.5% of the population, but control 70% of Indonesia's economy -- "has been repeated and repeated so often now by the world press, that everybody -- including those sympathetic to the plight of Chinese Indonesians -- seem to believe it." He traces this myth's provenance to a 1995 study of a foreign affairs and trade department official named Michael Backman. Otherwise an excellent research, Mr. Aditjondro said the study entitled Overseas Chinese Business Networks in Asia claimed that Chinese-Indonesians controlled about 73% of Indonesia's listed companies "by market capitalization." Thus by end-1993, they reportedly controlled about 68% of the country's "top 300 conglomerates and nine of the top 10 private sector groups." But unfortunately, those who came across the Backman study reportedly failed to note what the phrase 'market capitalization' meant, which, quoting from the same, amounted to "control by market capitalization has been determined after listed firms controlled by governments or foreigners are discounted." Mr. Aditjondro therefore concludes that the ethnic Chinese did not control the Indonesian economy, especially if one were to exclude from any listing companies such as Freeport McMorRan, which supposedly controls top revenue earner PT Freeport Indonesia, Inc. and Coca Cola Amatil, and state-owned oil firm Pertamina. If excluded, noted the sociology professor, then it would appear that ethnic Chinese -- notably former Suharto associate Liem Sioe Liong -- controlled the economy. Looking into the nine private sector groups supposedly owned by the ethnic Chinese, Mr. Aditjondro said the Australian study listed them thus: Salim, Sinar Mas, Danamon, Gajah Tunggal, Astra, Lippo, Dharmala, Barito Pacific, and Ongko Groups. The sociology professor then sampled two of these to show who really owned what. The Salim Group, for one, is reportedly controlled by Liem Sioe Liong, two pribumi relatives of then President Suharto, and Ibrahim Risyad, an Acehnese associate of one of Suharto's cousins. This cousin named Sudwikatmono, along with two of Suharto's siblings, namely Siti Hardiyanti Rukmana and Sigit Harjojudanto reportedly controlled Bank Central Asia, which recently went under following Suharto's resignation. On the other hand, Sinar Mas Group, while controlled by Chinese- Indonesian Eka Tjipta Widjaja, maintains ties with a real estate firm controlled by Suharto's stepbrother Probosutejo. Sinar Mas, the study also noted, maintains joint ventures with Salim in the chemical industry, and with companies of the Timsco Group controlled by President Habibie's brother Timmy. If true, this undoubtedly lends credence to the observation that the transition from Suharto to Habibie could not have been easier. Mr. Aditjondro noted that even new Golkar party chief Akbar Tanjung maintains shares with some of Salim's and Sinar Mas' firms. Meanwhile, Bimantara, which was the only pribumi-controlled group out of the 10 top private holding firms, is reportedly controlled by one of Suharto's son Bambang Trihatmojo. But due to a minor lapse on the part of journalists, said Mr. Sulawesi, this information was lost in the process. And those 'caught' holding the bag were the minority ethnic Chinese. "Unfortunately, the CEOs of many of the listed companies are Chinese. So they conclude that these are Chinese-owned. For some it is true since Chinese own 60% of the shares of a company. But they are all under the control of Suharto," said the activist priest. Of course, another multinational institution that has a lot of say with regard to where the Indonesian economy should proceed -- and which also dealt with Suharto in the past -- is likewise invisible to the ordinary pribumi ransacking the hapless retailer's store next door. After all, the International Monetary Fund, said Mr. Sulawesi, has exacerbated the crisis last May with its unpopular and anti-poor conditions for the financial rescue package of about US43 billion. The Chinese-Indonesian priest knows too well that his parishioners do not have the slightest inkling that this behemoth institution -- which has caused national economies to grow or go under -- exists. "For simple people, it is easy to blame the Chinese retail store owner next door when they suddenly can't afford to buy their children's milk." Election volunteers now in 22 provinces ======================================= Jakarta Post - January 8, 1999 Jakarta -- The Independent Election Monitoring Committee (KIPP) now has volunteers in 62 cities in 22 provinces, its secretary general, Mulyana W. Kusumah, said on Thursday. Mulyana told The Jakarta Post that he could not give the total number of volunteers because registration was still in progress. In September, Mulyana told reporters that the committee, first set up to monitor the 1997 elections, had 9,000 volunteers in 47 cities in 14 provinces. Ideally, Mulyana said, the committee would deploy around 300,000 volunteers to monitor polls in the country's 324 regencies. "There should be at least 100,000 monitors," he added. In easily accessed areas, he said, one volunteer could cover four to five polling stations by using, for example, a motorcycle, while in remote areas one volunteer per polling station was needed. Mulyana, a lecturer at University of Indonesia, said the committee needed Rp 6 billion to monitor the polls in the country's regencies in the upcoming election slated for June 7. Universities have also recently established independent monitoring networks. One of these watchdogs is the University Network for a Free and Fair Election, established last month by universities and colleges in several provinces. A similar network of universities and colleges will be established soon, with its main objective to monitor the polls in Central Java. "KIPP welcomes the recent establishment of private poll monitoring groups because in the present relatively open political situation the role of such bodies is important to institutionalize democracy," the committee executives said in a letter to the Post on Thursday. On Thursday, Mulyana said that donors from Europe and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) had committed an unspecified amount of funds to the committee. USAID is also enabling the committee to send six of its volunteers to the Philippines next week to join an apprenticeship program with the Philippines National Movement for Free Elections. Mulyana said another party, the United States-based National Democratic Institute, was supplying KIPP the funds to establish branches and training centers, as well as providing technical assistance to the committee. Training for monitors has begun in Jakarta and will soon continue in areas outside the capital. All training sessions must be completed before March, to give the committee enough time to finalize preparations for the June 7 poll, Mulyana said. He added that while the draft of the new election bill recognizes private poll observers, more details would be needed to ensure formal acceptance of the monitors. KIPPs establishment in 1996 was met with reluctance by the government, and while the committee was not banned, its presence was not paid attention to, he said. Mulyana said that the committee had already begun to monitor the deliberations in the House of Representatives on the new political laws, including the bill on elections. Among its activities, KIPP has worked with other groups under the Consortium of National Legal Reform to draw up alternative drafts of the political bills. Further actions will be taken in line with the election schedule, such as the monitoring of electorate registrations and the selection by election organizers of which political parties will be eligible to contest the polls, he said. Mulyana called on other monitoring networks to work with KIPP in setting basic standards of what constitutes an election violation. The committee was founded by around 40 activists in March 1996, including Goenawan Mohamad, Nurcholish Madjid, Permadi, Adnan Buyung Nasution and Mulyana. Lawyer Todung Mulya Lubis was not involved in founding the committee as reported on Thursday. Troops raid Aceh village, 37 arrested ===================================== Agence France Presse - January 9, 1999 Jakarta -- Indonesian troops raided a village suspected of harboring a separatist leader holding two military hostages in troubled Aceh province Saturday, arresting 37 residents, the military said. But the separatist Aceh Merdeka (Free Aceh) leader Ahmad Kandang again eluded the raiders and they found no trace of the hostages in Kandang village near Lhokseumawe, Lhokseumawe district military chief Colonel Johnny Wahab told AFP by phone. Wahab said the troops clashed with local residents who tried to prevent the them from finding the separatists. "The troops were trying to find two soldiers kept hostage by the separatists but the villagers tried to prevent them," added Wahab. The villagers had been coerced to protect the separatists with threats of burning down their houses if they did not, he said. Wahab said two villagers were injured in the clash but there were no deaths. The army has blamed the separatist group for instigating the kidnappings of the two soldiers and for the murder of seven troops in a separate ambush in an upsurge of violence in the province earlier this month. On Sunday the military also raided three villages including Simpang Kibre village, some 20 kilometers from Lhokseumawe. In those raids at least 17 people killed and scores wounded but Aceh Merdeka leader Kandang was not found. The fresh raid came a day after a National Commission on Human Rights team had left the province following a three-day fact- finding tour. Town still tense after riot =========================== Agence France Presse - January 9, 1998 Jakarta -- Army troops patrolled the streets of Karawang town east of here Saturday a day after rioting and looting left two dead when police opened fire to stem the violence, residents said. "It's not settled down yet. There are lots of army troops out on the streets," a security guard at a Bank Central Asia office in Karawang, 80 kilometres (50 miles) east of Jakarta, said by telephone. The bank, like others in the town, was shut, the guard told AFP. He said that while people were on the streets, buses were not running and the only public transport was pedicabs and motor- cycle taxis. A resident source identified the army troops as from the West Java command and said police were absent from the streets. Police spokesmen were unavailable for comment, but the private SCTV television quoted Karawang district police chief Lieutenant Colonel Achmad Hidayat as saying 58 youths had been detained for questioning. SCTV put the number of seriously injured at 14, with a further 15 slightly injured in Friday's violence. A security guard at Karawang hospital, Dedeng, said 31 people had been treated, two of whom had died and with 10 suffering serious injuries from bullets or rocks. Dedeng said an 18-year-old youth died of a gunshot wound in the chest when police troops opened fire to try to control the mobs, while a second man had died after suffering gunshoot wounds to the legs. He identified the second victim as Udin bin Sali, a shopkeeper. "He was just passing by on his way home, he was not involved in the riot at all," Dedeng told AFP. At the private Dewi Sri hospital, an information office clerk, Nunung, said the hospital had treated five riot victims as outpatients and admitted two others, one of whom had already been released. The day-long riot Friday, the worst in Indonesia since the start of the year, degenerated into looting and vandalizing of shops and churches. Police fired several times in attempts to control the mob. The violence erupted after a mob of thousands gathered early in the day and moved to attack the local police station. The station was pelted with rocks, and the crowd, dispersed with warning shots fired into their midst, regrouped nearby and began to pelt shops and businesses. The crowd rampaged down the main shop-lined streets, stoning buildings, including three churches, smashing flower pots, and dragging furniture into the street and burning it. Hundreds of shops, showrooms, malls and shopping centres, four police posts and a sub-district police station were damaged by the mob, Colonel Hidayat told the Antara news agency. One car was also set on fire, the private radio Sonora said. Lieutenant Colonel Saleh of the national police information office in Jakarta said Friday the trouble had started Thursday over the rumored harsh ticketing of a driver of a motorcycle taxi. The protests swelled during Thursday, simmered during the night, then erupted again Friday. ********************************************************** Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor (ASIET) PO Box 458, Broadway NSW 2007 Australia Phone: 61-(0)2-96901230 Fax : 61-(0)2-96901381 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] WWW : http://www.peg.apc.org/~asiet/ Free Xanana Gusmao, Budiman Sujatmiko and Dita Sari! Free all political prisoners in Indonesia and East Timor! ********************************************************** ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Didistribusikan tgl. 12 Jan 1999 jam 09:48:17 GMT+1 oleh: Indonesia Daily News Online <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.Indo-News.com/ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
