A Brief History Of The Emergence Of Racism In Indonesia

Papuans (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

JAKARTA - The issue of racism has re-emerged in Indonesia on January 25. This time the racism case happened to Natalius Pigai, a former Commissioner for Komnas HAM. Pigai complained about Ambroncius Nababan, a politician from the Hanura Party for juxtaposing his photo with a gorilla on social media.

Bareskrim Polri has issued a summons for investigation of Ambroncius Nababan. In the summons numbered S.Pgl / 38/2021 / Dittipidsiber, Ambroncius has the status of a witness.

The issue of racism against Papuans is not the first. Papuans often accept racist behavior, both in the form of physical, psychological, and social abuse.

Associate Professor of the Department of Anthropology, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, University of Indonesia (FISIP UI), Drs Irwan Martua Hadiyana, MA, said that racism in Indonesia has a long history.

Irwan revealed that racism cannot be separated from the colonial heritage. The cause was the social stratification system applied by the Dutch to its colony.

During Dutch rule, people in Indonesia were divided into three groups. The highest strata, namely the European group, which contains the Dutch. The second strata of the Foreign Eastern group, which contains Chinese and Arabic descent.

The last stratum is the indigenous people, native Indonesians. From this classification of society the concept of racism was formed. The European community group, namely the Dutch, considered their race to be superior or higher in rank than other races.

Professor of Anthropology, Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Gadjah Mada University (FIB UGM), Prof. Dr. Heddy Shri Ahimsa-Putra, MA, M.Phil, revealed that the basis of racism is caused by biological differences.

"Every human being must distinguish one another based on physical characteristics. Classification of fellow humans, everyone must do it. But when a race is considered to have a higher rank, considered better, that's called racism, ”said Heddy, as reported by Kompas.

Launching from The Conversation through an article entitled "West Irian which Bung Karno Loves, Papua Locked by Racism" published by VOI, the problem of structural racism against OAP (Indigenous Papuans) has occurred since the colonial era. The position of the OAP in Indonesia was not equal to that of Indonesians in Java, Sumatra and other Dutch-occupied islands.

Racism then emerged when the Dutch sent indigenous people as collaborators to the colonial government to regulate policies in Papua. Amberi, the native messenger, then felt superior and considered OAP primitive and left behind.