Half of the candidates who ran for president in Indonesia's 2004 election (including the winner and new president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, PhD Agriculture Economics), they realize the importance (key backbone) of the Chinese merchants in Indonesian economy. Even the Muslim cleric prez candidate and ex-prez Abdurrahman Wahid acknowledged the importance of Chinese in the society and economy, and his short 1999-2000 administration "repealed many of the laws that discriminated against the Indonesian Chinese".
Actually the Chinese has deep roots in Indonesia from many centuries ago. The oldest art and architectural relics in Java are Hindu-Budhism temples, and some of the traditions (batik making, for example) have Chinese influence, traceable back to China.
The migration of Islam started in 1300's, followed by the rise of fundamentalists in last 3 decades (1960's to late 1980's) under Suharto, the US trained and raised kiss-a$$ corrupt puppet dictator. Yes, that's right, the Muslim militants and fundamentalists became prominent under American puppet dictator Suharto.
Other cities in Java (except Jakarta, Bandung, and Surabaya) hardly changed from what they were 40 years ago - due to corrupt dictator Suharto whose family amassed at least a billion in fortune and many of whom are now living in west coast USA.
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Bio of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono
en.wikipedia.org
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The ex-Veep Hamzah Haz is weird. He did dare to call "Bush Administration as 'king of terrorists'" abc.net.au
His bio shows he is quite a politician and opportunist at time of crisis and how he got to be the VP from 2001 to 2004
"Dr. Hamzah based on having obtained a Ph.D. from American World University, an internet diploma mill, for $2,500."
en.wikipedia.org
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Abdurrahman Wahid (also known as Gus Dur) (born August 4, 1940) was President of Indonesia from 1999 to 2001, and leader of the National Awakening Party, which he founded after the fall of Suharto. He was educated in Indonesia, Egypt and Canada. He was a widely-respected populist Muslim cleric and leader of the Nahdatul Ulama before being elected President by the Indonesian parliament. Because of serious illness and allegations of corruption, he was impeached in July 2001.
Despite his seeming inattention to governmental issues, he succeeded in decentralizing many aspects of the governance of Indonesia. He also repealed many of the laws that discriminated against the Indonesian Chinese and even went as far as admitting that his maternal grandmother was part Chinese. He is widely known as a moderate Muslim cleric and the Nahdatul Ulama, which traditionally is led by members of his family, has been known to collaborate with other religious groups in Indonesia. He is well-known as a very frank speaker, and is respected as an elder by many Indonesians, as evident in his nickname "Gus Dur".
Despite his impeachment, Gus Dur is still active in Indonesian politics, providing witty and sometimes sarcastic commentary on Indonesian politics. He publicly admitted that he abstained from voting in the second round of 2004 Indonesian presidential election[1] (http://www.gusdur.net/english/english_detail.asp?catName=News&pCat=&contentOID=693) as a sign of protest against the General Election Committee (KPU) for disqualifying him from candidacy.
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