the 20 odd million aussies, each a self-designated sheriff of the indonesian islands, will soon enough be busy, trying to face down a front comprised of 200 odd million backed by 1.3 billion
Ummm... I don't quite get that.. the Australians stepped into... East Timor.. after Indonesia kind of/sort of begrudgingly backed away after 25 years of occupation (All the while funding militias to create havoc and exact "revenge" (East Timor seized by the Indonesian government with the approval of the US government..) in 1975.. so and.. the Indonesians have not been too chummy with the Chinese historically N'est Pas.. ? Like killing... how many...ethnic Chinese? Disallowing such terrible things as reading a Chinese newspaper (granted I am pretty sure that law has been overturned....) Noam Chomsky estimates that Indonesia was responsible for the deaths of 1/3 of the people of East Timor all the while the ruling man at the time (Suharto) and his family grabbed key assets and land and milked the place for what it's worth.
"East Timor declared itself independent from Portugal on 28 November 1975 and was invaded and occupied by Indonesian forces nine days later. It was incorporated into Indonesia in July 1976 as the province of East Timor. An unsuccessful campaign of pacification followed over the next two decades, during which an estimated 100,000 to 250,000 individuals lost their lives.
On 30 August 1999, in a UN-supervised popular referendum, an overwhelming majority of the people of East Timor voted for independence from Indonesia. Between the referendum and the arrival of a multinational peacekeeping force in late September 1999, anti-independence Timorese militias — organized and supported by the Indonesian military — commenced a large-scale, scorched-earth campaign of retribution. The militias killed approximately 1,400 Timorese and forcibly pushed 300,000 people into West Timor as refugees. The majority of the country's infrastructure, including homes, irrigation systems, water supply systems, and schools, and nearly 100% of the country's electrical grid were destroyed. On 20 September 1999 the Australian-led peacekeeping troops of the International Force for East Timor (INTERFET) deployed to the country and brought the violence to an end. On 20 May 2002, East Timor was internationally recognized as an independent state."
en.wikipedia.org
Chinese Indonesians:
"Various government policies banned Chinese language teaching, speaking, and publication. Established schools and colleges run by Chinese-Indonesian foundations were nationalized and their facilities seized without compensation and converted to state or pribumi-run schools such as Universitas Res Publica, which became Universitas Trisakti. A presidential directive forced Chinese Indonesian to abandon their Chinese names and adopt Indonesian names. Anti-Chinese sentiments increased among the pribumi Indonesians and anti-Chinese pogroms were frequent. In identity cards, all Chinese Indonesians were designated as "WNI" (Warga Negara Indonesia = Citizen of Indonesia), a euphemism for "ethnic Chinese" as opposed to just "Indonesian" for the pribumi Indonesians. This made it easy for government officials to extract bribes and side payments, and has been compared to Jews under Hitler being required to wear the Star of David badge on their chests. Ethnic Chinese must hold certificates of having rejected Chinese citizenship, despite being native-born and their family having lived in Indonesia for generations.
These highly discriminatory laws are believed by some as a concerted government effort at cultural genocide. Those Chinese Indonesians who could not stand the discrimination fled. The Totoks returned to mainland China—only to catch themselves trapped in Cultural Revolution—and the Peranakans, to the old masters' country, the Netherlands.
In 1998, preceding the fall of Suharto's 32-year presidency, big riots targeted the Chinese Indonesians, pogrom style. It is verified and confirmed that Chinese homes were looted and burned, and many Chinese people were raped or killed[6]. The events in 1998 were significant because unlike earlier pogroms against Chinese Indonesians, due to the Internet, this incident spread world wide in real-time, and aroused the interest and feelings of the ethnic Chinese in China and other countries, which led to demonstrations against Indonesia in many countries with significant Chinese populations and protests to the government of Indonesia. After the tragedy, a large number of Chinese Indonesians fled to other countries, such as the USA, Australia, Singapore, and the Netherlands. Adding insult to injury, Habibie, the unpopular president after Suharto, ridiculed the fleeing Chinese as being unpatriotic. Ironically, Habibie himself left Indonesia to live in Germany after his performance report (pidato pertanggungjawaban) was rejected by the new, democratically-elected parliament in 1999."
en.wikipedia.org |
