Jakarta – The Chinese Indonesian community is still being discriminated against by the authorities despite the move by President Abdurrahman Wahid to allow them to openly practise their religion and perform traditional Chinese ceremonies, said a local sociologist.

Sociologist Melly G. Tan said on Thursday she hoped that discrimination against her ethnic group would be stopped immediately, citing practices in passport application and civil service as examples.

She said Chinese Indonesians applying for a passport are still required to show their citizenship papers. "Whereas for non-Chinese people, it's enough to show a birth certificate. It means there's discrimination against Indonesians of Chinese ancestry," she said on the sidelines of a book launching ceremony. Such unfair treatment, she added, has created a great opportunity for immigration officers to get extra money through bribery.

She was also sceptical about the chances of Chinese Indonesians becoming civil servants, top government officials or students at state universities in the country. "There was a Chinese-born minister recently, but that was only one," she added, referring to former Coordinating Minister of Economy and Finance Kwik Kian Gie.

During the 32-year "New Order" era of former President Suharto, Chinese symbols were banned and other Chinese cultural traditions were restricted as per a Presidential instruction from 1967. Only recently did Mr Abdurrahman revoke this restriction.

An expert on Chinese Indonesians from University of Indonesia, Gondomono, shared Ms Melly's views. "Just because several Chinese Indonesian businessmen collaborated with the country's elites and became successful and rich, all then become stereotyped and identified with shrewd business," he said.

"People blame the prolonged monetary crisis on Chinese tycoons, such as Bob Hasan and Liem Sioe Liong, while they actually couldn't do it if they didn't collaborate with non-Chinese people in the government and banking industry,: Ms Melly said.