Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – Presidential candidate Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is on shaky ground with ethnic Chinese after comments by his running mate Jusuf Kalla were taken as discriminatory.
Mr Jusuf had backed Malaysian-style affirmative action favouring indigenous Indonesians, a stance feared by the Chinese community.
The Bambang camp has downplayed his comments which, it said, had been taken out of context. Such policies would not be introduced if its candidates assumed power, it added.
"Our platform clearly stipulates that we respect pluralism and in no way support discriminative policies. Mr Jusuf has a way of expressing his thoughts that are often misperceived by people," a senior member of the team told The Straits Times.
The Bambang camp said the impact of the issue was mostly felt in the first round of the election and that it had contained the fallout. The Straits Times understands Mr Jusuf has since been told to tone down comments to avoid controversy.
He and Mr Bambang have been making the rounds to ease jitters and woo back the Chinese vote for the September 20 face-off. But the damage may have been done already. Some believe many Chinese who initially backed the Bambang camp have shifted their support and funding to incumbent President Megawati Sukarnoputri.
Businessman Kurniawan Halim said: "The remarks only confirm that people like Mr Jusuf never consider the ethnic Chinese minority as part of Indonesia. We are convenient scapegoats and our successes are seen as part of the cause of the country's problems."
Ethnic Chinese form some 3 per cent of the population but are believed to control about 75 per cent of the economy, and own nine of the country's top 10 business groups. Bitterness over this skewed distribution of wealth culminated in the May 1998 riots which led to president Suharto's resignation. Many Chinese homes were burned and their businesses looted during the violence.
Mr Jusuf, who is from one of the most successful indigenous Indonesian business families, advocated policies to benefit small and medium entrepreneurs when he was Coordinating Minister for Social Welfare in the Megawati Cabinet. He called on Chinese businessmen to limit the size of their conglomerates and form partnerships with indigenous Indonesians to bridge the income gap.
In a recent interview with the magazine Tokoh Indonesia, he praised Malaysia's New Economic Policy for giving indigenous Malaysians a head start. He said Indonesia's economic policies in the 1950s and mid-1970s, which strongly favoured indigenous Indonesian businesses, had helped businesses like his family's Kalla Group to flourish.
These policies, which were briefly implemented, led to the exodus of 130,000 Chinese Indonesians. Favouritism for indigenous Indonesians must be cultivated and maintained firmly, he told the magazine.
But some Chinese, who met him to clarify his stance, are sticking with him. Said businessman Ben Subrata: "I don't think that Mr Bambang and Mr Jusuf would implement something as harmful as an economic policy that discriminates against the Chinese. There are many Chinese businesses that fall into the category of small and medium enterprises, and I think an affirmative action catering to these entrepreneurs regardless of their ethnicity or religion would be the best solution to fix the unbalanced distribution of wealth."