Crime not atoned is crime committed twice

When I was in junior middle school in the early 1980s, I had a very close friend whose parents were huaqiao, or overseas Chinese, who had returned from Indonesia in the 1960s. One of the reasons I, as well as other students, liked to visit him was that he had a small collection of cassettes of Teresa Teng, arguably the best Chinese singer ever. But then the songs of the late legendary Taiwan singer were officially banned on the Chinese mainland because the sweet softness of her lyrics was considered too erosive for socialist morale.

The cassettes were gifts sent by my friend’s relatives in Indonesia, along with a tape recorder. China was in its early stage of reform and opening-up then, and anything from overseas, from home appliances to cassettes, was the envy of commoners. I often joked with my friend that his parents should not have returned so he could have enjoyed a more affluent life like his relatives in Indonesia. To be honest, I was jealous of his Indonesian connection.

It was many years later that I realized how ignorant I had been.

Thanks to the friendship, I have cultivated an interest in the life and history of huaqiao in Indonesia. Sadly, the knowledge I have gathered makes a deplorable picture, with many episodes of blood and tears.

Although Chinese first migrated to Indonesia as early as the 15th century, their assimilation there has never been smooth. Their economic aptitude did not translate into acceptance of their status in society. They were considered outsiders, were politically vulnerable, and often fell victims to institutionalized discrimination, social harassment, and even massacres. In 1998, more than 1,000 people of Chinese descent were killed and many Chinese women raped during the days of racist mayhem that swept across the Southeast Asian country.

It was not until 2000 that ethnic Chinese were allowed to teach their own language in their schools, and celebrate traditional holidays such as Spring Festival, which were previously banned.

The plight of ethnic Chinese overseas pains one’s heart. And only last week, I discovered that their plight went far beyond my wildest imagination. The discovery came through a documentary depicting “Indonesia’s dark past” — US director Joshua Oppenheimer’s Oscar-nominated The Act of Killing — which I watched on the Internet.

Oppenheimer spent six years interviewing death squad members about how they killed tens of thousands of “communists” — most of whom were ethnic Chinese — during the “30 September Movement” in 1965, when the Indonesian government was overthrown by the military. Historians and academics believe that at least half a million “communists”, 300,000 of whom were ethnic Chinese, were murdered in less than a year by the military-backed death squads comprising mainly gangsters.