Gus Dur And Megawati, 2 Figures Playing A Role In Grounding The Chinese New Year In Indonesia, Lifting The Prohibition And Establishing National Holidays

Photo illustration (Nuno Albertoy / Unsplash)

JAKARTA - Chinese New Year celebrations since the era of President Abdurrahman Wahid and President Megawati Soekarnoputri are again freely celebrated.

This celebration is an effort to strengthen awareness while upholding diversity, celebrating the diversity of Indonesia, a nation that is free, sovereign, has a cultural personality, is just and prosperous.

Historian Bonnie Triyana said President Abdurrahman Wahid, or as we are familiarly called Gus Dur, lifted the ban on public Chinese New Year celebrations as regulated in Presidential Instruction No. 14/1967.

At that time, President Gus Dur through Presidential Decree No. 6/2000 revoked Presidential Instruction No. 14/1967.

"Meanwhile, President Megawati Soekarnoputri issued Presidential Decree No. 19/2002 which stipulates Imlek as a national holiday," explained Bonnie, who was one of the speakers for the PDI-P (PDIP) DPP event, Imlekan with Banteng, Friday, February 12.

These two figures have a big influence so that Chinese New Year celebrations can be celebrated freely. Looking back, there is also the figure of the President of the Republic of Indonesia-1, Soekarno (Bung Karno) who firmly rejects discrimination against humans.

Bonnie explained that on June 1, 1945 Bung Karno stated firmly in his speech that Indonesian nationalism was a modern nationalism that went beyond the narrow boundaries of religious identity, race and ethnicity.

According to Bung Karno, Indonesia is a country for all groups united by a sense of common sense in the face of colonialism and various types of oppression by humans against other humans and by a nation against other nations.

He added that national awareness has grown stronger since the Youth Pledge was announced on October 28, 1928, strengthening the national consciousness that had been initiated since the early 20th century.

"The awareness as a nation that is equal to other nations is a firm stance against the racist policies of the Dutch colonial government through Regeerings Reglement 1854 which divided the Dutch East Indies society into racial segregations, namely: first, European groups, secondly the Foreign East (China, Arab, India) and the three Inlanders (bumiputera), "said Bonnie.

This racial division of society in Indonesia shows the reality of an era in which humans were viewed based on their race.

Seeing this fact, the 1928 Youth Pledge became an important historical milestone in the strengthening of Indonesian consciousness as an anti-thesis of the pre-Indonesian consciousness that was still shackled by discriminatory and racial ways and actions.

"Thus, identity politics that has often been played up to this day is a form of pre-Indonesian consciousness which is full of colonial nuances and does not match the spirit of independence," Bonnie concluded.