Indonesia’s Ethnic Chinese:An Analysis Of Assimilation Progress From New Order To Reform Era

The revolution of Indonesia’s government system since1998brought a lot of significant value to the assimilation of ethnic Chinese and how they identify themselves. The ’forced-assimilation’policies from New Order era planted the feeling of inferiority among ethnic Chinese as the discriminatory practices were consented through the legal government policies on the nation-building base. This condition in fact denied the philosophy of Indonesia’s dictum, Bhineka Tunggal Ika (Unity in Diversity), which highly values the pluralism idea.This study is to analyze the progress of assimilation of ethnic Chinese with the focus on identity starting from New Order to the present Indonesia. The results of my study show the consequential influences of the government policies on shaping identity of the minority group. Based on the theory of assimilation, I also extracted some possible significant variables influencing assimilation, and the empirical result shows that affiliation or familiarity to Chinese institutions and organizations, and prejudice against indigenous people are the most significant factors that can influence the assimilation progress of ethnic Chinese today.Compared to the’forced-assimilation’of New Order, the progress of assimilation today is going well, along with the growing receptive attitude of indigenous Indonesians. As Indonesia becomes receptive towards ethnic Chinese, the encounters between the indigenous and ethnic Chinese will subside the deterrence of assimilation. Furthermore, the assimilation is progressing slowly but surely.