From Sojourners to Citizens: Managing the Ethnic Chinese Minority in Indonesia and Malaysia

• Main Author: TAN, Eugene K. B.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2001
• Subjects: Selective Nation-building; Ethnic Domination; Ethnic Chinese; Indonesia; Malaysia; Asian Studies; Law and Politics; Race and Ethnicity
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sol_research/861; http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01419870120077922
• Institution: Singapore Management University

The raison d'être of the management of the minority ethnic Chinese citizenry in Indonesia and Malaysia is not adequately examined in most studies. In this article, ethnic domination is put forth in explaining the dynamics of ethnic conflict management. New multi-ethnic states often opt for selective nation-building by creating institutionalized ethnic boundaries. Ethnic domination occurs when one ethnic group prevails over another through the systematic marginalization of the dominated group's political influence, cultural reproduction and way of life. Beneath the veneer of assimilation and consociation, the central identity encouraged is that of the indigenous bumi 'imagined community' from which the citizen-Chinese is excluded. Ethnic riots are symptomatic of the failure of incomplete ethnic domination, especially in the economic and cultural realms.