Thung Ju Lan: Rejecting ethnic stereotypes A. Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta It was a silent afternoon at the office building of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI). Many researchers and employees were still on leave following the Chinese New Year celebration. But in a room on the building's sixth floor, the institute's researcher, Thung Ju Lan, was busy writing and printing papers. On a first encounter with Thung, you get the direct impression that she is a hard worker -- and probably associate her with her ethnicity: Chinese. Thung, a PhD degree holder from La Trobe University, Australia -- with her thesis titled Identities in Flux: Young Chinese in Jakarta -- quickly rejects the ethnic Chinese stereotype, asserting it is a form of discrimination. She celebrated Imlek, popularly known as the Chinese New Year, to enhance social relations, especially with her mother. "Actually all ethnic groups, including Chinese, discriminate others by maintaining stereotypes and prejudices," she told The Jakarta Post at her office. Thung, who received her master's degree from Purdue University, in Indiana, the U.S., said discrimination could take the form of ethnic Chinese considering themselves better than other ethnic groups. Based on her doctoral research, Thung said ethnic Chinese values, especially that of young urban Chinese, were not that much different to the beliefs of young people of other ethnicities. "When we asked Chinese youths to identify their ethnicity, they mentioned values similar to those held by youths of other ethnic groups," the graduate of the Chinese Studies Program at the University of Indonesia said. "Ethnicity is actually a constructed concept. It's a choice. People prefer to befriend certain groups because they want to meet their physical and spiritual needs, including safety," said Thung. However, she said Chinese descendants faced discrimination in legal and political terms, from the 1965 tragedy to the May riots of 1998 and even today. After the 1965 failed coup, which the government blamed on the Indonesian Communist Party, and following the mass killings of the party's supporters, Soeharto, who replaced president Soekarno, banned all forms of Chinese cultural expression. The May riots, which contributed to the downfall of the military regime, claimed the lives of hundreds of people, including Chinese-Indonesian descents, and led to the destruction of many of their properties. Then president Abdurrahman Wahid revoked the discriminative regulations against ethnic Chinese and the president after him, Megawati Soekarnoputri, declared Imlek a national holiday. These days, even though the discriminative regulations have been revoked, discriminative treatment is still occurring. For instance, Chinese-Indonesian descendants are still required to submit their citizenship certificates when they apply for passports. Thung, who was born in Jakarta on May 12, 1958, experienced such discriminatory treatment that she changed her name to sound more Indonesian. "I have two names: Chinese and Indonesian. I cannot revoke either one because both relate to my personal documents, such as my bank account," said Thung, who declined to mention her Indonesian name. "People often misspell my Indonesian name. I chose the Indonesian names for my two brothers and five sisters." Thung has befriended many of her fellow researchers at LIPI. "Many junior researchers call her 'the good stepmother'. She is firm in correcting our papers. But it's actually for our own good," junior researcher Sri Yanuarti said. Sri said fellow researchers viewed Thung as a nationalist, and respected her for choosing a career as a researcher -- a civil servant position -- instead of other careers which might offer her a higher salary. "It's a no-money job. Mbak Thung also teaches at Lemhanas. It (also offers) no money, but she does it because she wants to enhance the knowledge of Lemhanas' participants," Sri said. During the Soeharto era, Lemhanas -- an acronym for the National Resilience Institute -- was known as a school for candidates of "national leaders". Although the institute still exists, it lacks the strength it once had. "Becoming a researcher was my choice. Actually, the job was the only job at that time which was offered to me after I had graduated from the University of Indonesia," Thung said. As well as teaching and researching, Thung has also presented papers at many local and international seminars on ethnicity, including in Kyoto, Melbourne and Singapore. Thung credits a feminist method used in her doctoral research for helping her understand the problems in her research on ethnicity. "I'm not a feminist in terms of fighting for women against men. But the method enabled me to understand my position as a researcher. For me, the method is a way to fight for justice," she said. The current freedom of cultural expression, she said, was not enough to achieve justice for all ethnic groups, adding pluralism should become the ideology of all people. "Pluralism should be in the minds of the people ... not simply allowing people to express their cultures, including the Imlek celebration." http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailfeatures.asp?fileid=20080218.W05&irec=3 _________________________________________________________________ Climb to the top of the charts! Play the word scramble challenge with star power. http://club.live.com/star_shuffle.aspx?icid=starshuffle_wlmailtextlink_jan
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