Posted on 05/22/2019 12:34:07 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
As violent protests broke out in the Indonesian capital early on Wednesday, resulting in the deaths of several people, messages started circulating on social media that the deceased were shot by “police from China”.
The message was followed by photos of light-skinned masked police officers that came with the caption: “China has sent security forces to Indonesia disguised as foreign workers.”
In another photo, a man is pictured in a selfie that showed a light-skinned officer from Indonesia’s mobile brigade police (Brimob) in the background.
It accompanied the caption: “My friend, this Brimob cannot speak Indonesian.”
The anti-Chinese images and messages spread rapidly, leading the government on Wednesday to temporarily block or slow the sharing of photos and videos onto Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, to halt the spread of false information.
Communications Minister Rudiantara told reporters the restrictions were meant to slow visual content that could inflame “emotions”.
Under’s Indonesia’s broad internet defamation law, creating and spreading fake news is illegal and punishable by prison.
“We have never seen anything like before in volume, severity, and coordination,” said Harry Sufehmi, co-founder of Mafindo, an Indonesian organisation fighting fake news.
The riots were triggered by protests against the election results of the April 17 presidential election, which saw incumbent President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo beating his challenger Prabowo Subianto with a winning 55.5 per cent of the vote.
Prabowo has rejected the results and rallied for supporters to demonstrate “people power” to protest against the Election Commission’s vote count.
Abdul Gani, 33, was among the thousands of protesters in Jakarta who answered the call to demonstrate, travelling all the way from Makassar, South Sulawesi to oppose the election results.
Abdul said he views the call of the people as “jihad”, and believes the messages about “mainland Chinese police” were not a hoax.
(Excerpt) Read more at scmp.com ...
The ethnic Chinese in Indonesia are relatively prosperous and most of them are the wealthiest group in the country.
The country’s tiny ethnic Chinese population – which numbers about 3 million out of Indonesia’s 260 million people – is once again frightened and on the edge following the outbreak of riots and anti-China hoaxes spreading online.
Chinese Indonesians living in Jakarta told the South China Morning Post they were worried they would once again be a target of mob violence similar to the one in 1998, where mobs attacked Chinese-owned shops, homes and individuals, leaving more than 1,000 people dead.
This whole thing reminds me of the attacks on Jews in Europe.
(Indonesia has a history of anti Chinese pogroms. The cleansing of the Communists back in forty or so years ago turned into ageneral massacre of Chinese throughout the islands to some extent but most severe in Java and Sumatra.
Yes. What you said is true. In many countries, it is always the well of minorities who are the target of anger when opportunists want to create chaos.
Human Rights Watch believes the current hoaxes were created to target ethnic Chinese citizens and businesses in Indonesia.
These groups, including the losing candidate, Prabowo and many of his advisers, have a dark reputation of using ethnic and religious sentiment, including anti-Chinese racism, in mobilising people to get power.
They did it in Java in 1998 with the anti-Chinese riots and they are trying to do it again today.
Although it is not that easy to provoke anti-Chinese sentiment in some other parts of Indonesia, it works in Jakarta. The root of the problem is that Indonesia has centuries of racism, discrimination against ethnic Chinese, starting since the Dutch period with the 1740 Batavia massacres. It happened again on a wide scale in 1945-46, in 1965-68, and in 1998.
I think that massacre was in 1965. So that would be 54 years ago.
Wasn’t there a Mel Gibson movie that takes place in Indonesia at that time - “Year of Living Dangerously”.
Do I remember that right?
Truth be told, Indonesia's economy would be far more dysfunctional without ethnic Chinese who have a keen sense of production, cost management, logistics and scheduling, among other things. Think of New York without any white people, cops or Jews and multiply by a factor of at least 10.
The ethnic Chinese in Malaysia seem to serve a similar role, though the knowledge gap between them and the locals is nowhere near as great.
You are right about the date of the massacre. To this day, when applying for a visa into the country, I need to account for my whereabouts during that year.
I never saw the movie so I don’t know. I have never been much of a moviegoer.
The history of Indonesian hatred of Chinese dates back to the Mongol invasion of Java in 1293 AD. The ruler, Kertanagara, and his son-in-law, Raden Wijaya, soundedly defeated the invading forces, humiliated them, and sent them back with their tails between their legs.
The Vietnamese did that, too. Southeast Asia has not been good Empire material for China in the last millennium.
The Muslims extremist use ethnic Chinese and minority religion to divide the secular political parties to get power by mob violence.
so where is the riady family hanging out today?
I would not automatically assume that these alleged ‘rumors’ are untrue.
One of the proven tactics of the enemy is to call a truth a lie and then ridicule and mock anyone who dares to speak the truth.
[Indonesia has a history of anti Chinese pogroms. The cleansing of the Communists back in forty or so years ago turned into ageneral massacre of Chinese throughout the islands to some extent but most severe in Java and Sumatra.]
It’s more a tendency that seizes Muslims, from time to time, to go amuck against the unbelievers in their midst. In the 60’s, these were heterodox Muslims:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesian_mass_killings_of_1965%E2%80%9366#Religious_and_ethnic_factors
[Islam in Java was divided between Abangan, who mixed Islam with other religions like Hinduism and native religious practices, and the Santri, who followed standard orthodox Islam. Many Abangans were supporters of the Communist Party,[79][80][81] and their interests were thus supported by the PKI.[82] They subsequently made up most of the people who were slaughtered in the killings.[83][84] Abangans were targeted for attacks by Ansor, the youth wing of Nahdlatul Ulama and the Santri with help from the Indonesian army.[85][86] To avoid being classified as atheist and communists, Abangan Muslims were forced by the Indonesian government to convert to Hinduism and Christianity in the aftermath of the slaughter.[87][88][89][90]
In Sumatra, youths massacred Javanese plantation labourers who made up the membership of the PKI in the province of North Sumatra.[91]
The targeting of ethnic Chinese played an important role in the killings in Sumatra and Kalimantan, which have been called genocide. Charles A. Coppel is sharply critical of this characterisation, in which he sees a western media and academics unwilling to face the consequences of an anti-communist agenda that they endorsed,[92] instead scapegoating Indonesian racism and indulging in extravagant and false claims of hundreds of thousands or millions of Chinese killed.[93] Charles Coppel wrote of the distorted coverage in an article titled: “A genocide that never was: explaining the myth of anti-Chinese massacres in Indonesia, 1965–66”. Coppel sees the same bias in coverage of the May 1998 riots, where the Volunteer Team for Humanity noted non-Chinese looters made up the majority of those who were killed.[94] His thesis continues to inspire debate.[95]
An estimate is that around 2,000 Chinese Indonesians were killed (out of a total estimated death toll of between 400,000 and 3 million people), with documented massacres taking place in Makassar and Medan and on the island of Lombok.[96] Robert Cribb and Charles A. Coppel noted that “relatively few” Chinese were actually killed during the purge while the majority of the dead were native Indonesians.[97] The death toll of Chinese was in the thousands while the death toll of native Indonesians was in the hundreds of thousands. Balinese and Javanese made up the majority of people who were massacred.[93]
Indigenous, non-Muslim, pagan Dayaks expelled 45,000 ethnic Chinese from rural areas, killing 2,000–5,000.[52] The Chinese refused to fight back, since they considered themselves “a guest on other people’s land” with the intention of trading only.[77][98] ]
It also occurred against the Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks in the waning days of the Ottoman empire:
If Widodo were high ranking ex-military, he could have his former subordinates do a shoot and shovel operation with Prabowo and all his associates. That would be the Indonesian way, prior to free elections after Suharto’s downfall in the late 90’s. But Widodo has always been a civilian. I suspect a coup is in the works, and both Prabowo and Widodo are lining up army people on their side. This could end in bloodshed, not so much for the ethnic Chinese in Indonesia, but for the nation as a whole, if civil war ensues. The best outcome for democracy would be a bloodless victory for the election winner, where he gets most of the generals on his side, and Prabowo goes into exile. The next best outcome would be Prabowo wins bloodlessly, and Widodo goes into exile. The third best outcome is civil war erupts and Widodo wins. The worst outcome? Civil war erupts and Prabowo wins.
Prabowo has been lining up support among Islamists and has put on Islamist airs. He was instrumental in the imprisoning of Jakarta’s mayor for blasphemy. An Islamist-run Indonesia is neither in our interests nor in Australia’s interests.
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