Pribumi and the Weaving of Indonesian-ness
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I frequently ask myself, hi Soekarno, are you really indigenous? Yes, you are thought to be an indigenous man of Indonesia. However, am I really indigenous? Mboten sumerep (I don\'t know), ladies and gentlemen. Please, who can prove to be indigenous or not indigenous from their blood. I do not know, ladies and gentlemen, but I am thought to be indigenous. There is possibly 10%, 5% or 2% of Chinese blood in my body!
Bung Karno\'s speech at the opening of the 8th national congress of Baperki, March 14, 1963.
The term “pribumi” reappeared as a topic of debate, especially after the speech of newly-inaugurated Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan. Why is the term very sensitive and why does it tend to have a discriminative connotation? The following is its answer from the long history and journey of the constitutional law.
Since the beginning, Nusantara (archipelago) has not been inhabited by only one indigenous tribe. It is different from Australia, which has the Aborigine tribe. No tribe in Indonesia can say that they are the only indigenous tribe of Indonesia.
Colonial politics
Even if there is a pribumi (indigenous) concept, the term refers to one tribe in Indonesia. Pribumi was born from colonialism, which colonized the Motherland with its politics of fragmentation. Based on Dutch Colonial Law of 1854, the Indonesian population was divided into three castes. The first class race was Europeans, the white people. The second class race was the Foreign Eastern group, which included the Chinese, the Arabs, and the Indians. The third class race, the lowest caste, was the inlander, which was translated as pribumi.
It was the embryo of segregation and legal discrimination in the body of the society of the Dutch East Indies. The discriminatory policy survived even though there was an amendment of the Dutch law in 1925, as Article 163 of Indische Staatsregeling continued adopting the three castes of the population.
In the 1920s, the word Indonesia became increasingly rife and become a symbol of the struggle for independence, which culminated in the Youth Pledge of 1928 by declaring one homeland, one country and one Indonesian language. For the colonial government, the population of the the Dutch East Indies was more appropriately called inlander rather than Indonesia. The first word had the nuance of insult, while the second had the meaning of being subversive because it was a form of rebellion against the colonial government.
In the era of the independence struggle, becoming pribumi seemed to have the rising nuance of being Indonesian. This heroic feeling was personified in the formulation of the original manuscript of the 1945 Constitution, which regulates, "The President is an indigenous Indonesian." The historical-juridical meaning of "indigenous Indonesian" on the norm was pribumi. It meant that the descendants of Indonesia from the European or Foreign Eastern groupings could not become the president of Indonesia. In fact, before it was finally crossed out, the initial formula of the article also required the president to be "Muslim." The phrase was omitted along with the replacement of the word “Muqaddimah”, which had the nuance of Islam and the seven words of the Jakarta Charter related to the implementation of the Shari\'a Islam.
With regard to Islamic aspirations, the sociological meaning of the word pribumi was not limited only to the indigenous Indonesians, but it also extended to being Muslim. Here, sociologically-historically, the word pribumi in Indonesia has nearly the same meaning of bumiputera in Malaysia. In the neighboring country, bumiputera is not only meant for the Malay ethnic group, but also Muslims. Therefore, non-Muslim Malays are not considered bumiputera, as well as the Chinese and Indian ethnic groups. In Indonesia, the factor of Islamic similarity causes the Arab ethnic group to easily merge into pribumi, unlike the Chinese ethnic group even though the two were included in the caste of Foreign Eastern in the Dutch East Indies era.
The legal segregation in the Dutch colonial era continued in the early days of independence, especially in the rule of law with regard to citizenship. Aside from Article 6 Paragraph (1), Article 26 of the 1945 Constitution also introduces the phrase "indigenous Indonesian" as a condition of becoming an Indonesian citizen. In connection with this law of citizenship, the sociological-juridical meaning of the word nonpribumi in Indonesia is increasingly being directed at our brothers of Chinese ethnicity.
The similarity of the People\'s Republic of China with the Communist Party led to various legal policies of citizenship of the Old Order government and, primarily, the New Order led to differences in treatment to the Chinese ethnic group. I will not discuss the discriminatory legal rules one by one. Basically, such rules of law limit opportunities of the Chinese to become Indonesian citizens and restrictions on Chinese religious and customary activities.
Nondiscriminatory
Such a discriminatory policy started to be eliminated in the reform era. At the beginning of his governance, president BJ Habibie issued Presidential Decree No. 26 of 1998, which not only bans the use of the term pribumi and nonpribumi in all policy formulation and implementation, program planning or implementation of governance activities, but further orders the elimination of ethnic, religious and racial discrimination in all state services.
Fresher wind was exhaled by president Abdurrahman Wahid, who, among others, issued Presidential Decree No. 6 of 2000, which revoked Presidential Decree No. 14 of 1967 related to the ban on the implementation of Chinese religious activities, beliefs and customs. Moreover, on the amendment of the 1945 Constitution, the word "Indigenous Indonesia" no longer became a requirement for presidency or citizenship. Therefore, a person who is born an Indonesian, like Anies Baswedan who is of Arab descent or Basuki Tjahaja Purnama who is of Chinese descent, can have the same rights and ability to become the president of Indonesia.
The anti-discriminatory policy is also affirmed in various legal rules such as the chapter related to human rights in the amendment of the 1945 Constitution, Law on Human Rights, Law on Human Rights Court, and the Law on the Elimination of Racial and Ethnic Discrimination, which was signed by president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY). Even ahead of the end of his term, in order to eliminate the discriminatory practices, president SBY issued Presidential Decree No. 12 of 2014, which essentially changed the term referring to the Chinese to Tionghoa.
Therefore, the meaning of the term pribumi, which initially referred only to the Indonesian indigenous inlander, as a result of Dutch colonial creation, has shifted and should no longer be interpreted as narrowly as a non-descendant citizen, but all "Indonesian citizens from birth", as the phrase and definition are regulated in the requirements for president in Article 6 Paragraph (1) of the 1945 Constitution after the amendment. Similarly, the term nonpribumi, which is highly discriminatory and refers more to our Chinese brothers, should preferably be removed and no longer be used.
Moreover, if the discriminative meaning of the Chinese ethnic group, communist issues and religions is capitalized on in the political contestation for the power struggle, such as the regional elections and general elections in 2019, the impact of its sociological damage will be very dangerous in terms of continuing the weaving of our diverse nation.
It does not mean I do not agree with the problem of serious social inequality, which colors the ethnic sentiments in our society. The World Bank report in 2016 shows only 1 percent of Indonesian citizens control 50.3 percent of the country’s wealth, while 10 percent control 77 percent of the country’s wealth. The very high inequality listed Indonesia as the third highest ranked in economic inequality issues. However, the economic inequality should not be the basis for discriminative policy. Taking the side of small-scale businesspeople of course has to be carried out without differentiating between them based on certain ethnicities or religions.
Moreover, such inequality takes place because of rampant corruption and collusion practices in the economic system, where businesspeople will be more successful if they have the political backing from the rulers. As reflected in the crony-capitalism index published by The Economist in 2016, which put Indonesia as the seventh highest ranked in collusion issues between the businesspeople and the rulers. With such a reality, the very unequal economic disparities are not the contribution of certain ethnic entrepreneurs, but rather the result of the corrupt and collusion policies from the rulers. It means that it is the war against a corrupt business climate that should be put forward.
In closing, different from president Soekarno, I know exactly that I have Chinese blood. My father is Sundanese, my mother is Banjar, and my grandmother (from my father) came from a Chinese ethnic group. Our children have Javanese blood because my wife is from Pekalongan. When anyone asks me about my ethnic origin, I firmly say: Indonesia!
DENNY INDRAYANA
Professor of Constitutional Law of UGM; Melbourne Law School, and Faculty of Arts, University of Melbourne, Australia
