The violence erupted over a domestic issue, when supporters of the ex-special forces general Prabowo Subianto gathered to demonstrate against his loss to the incumbent president, Joko Widodo, in the April 17 election.

Depressing though it was, the hoax was not particularly original. Instead it was a riff on the anti-China sentiment that has dogged Indonesia since its colonial era and today characterises much of the country’s fake news.

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Such hoaxes tend to make little distinction between Indonesians of Chinese descent, foreign workers from mainland China or even the government in Beijing, often lumping them all together as one giant, over-arching Chinese bogeyman with which to blame all of society’s ills.

One recent attempt at fearmongering claimed that 10 million Chinese workers had entered Indonesia and were about to “dominate the country”.

It might be tempting to attribute this growing paranoia to the actions of the president, who last year changed the employment regulations to make it easier for Indonesian companies to employ workers from abroad. Except that the figures don’t support this view.

Widodo’s move, part of an effort to attract investment from overseas, does appear to have increased the number of foreign workers in the country from 68,762 in 2014 to 95,335 in 2018, based on data from Indonesia’s manpower ministry. Even so, foreign workers still account for less than 0.1 per cent of the country’s workforce of 124 million. And that would suggest foreign workers are far less numerous than many news reports – even those in the country’s traditional media outlets – would have you believe.

HISTORY, CULTURE

To understand the source of the fear, it’s worth returning even further back than 1998 – centuries, in fact. In the colonial period Indonesia’s Dutch overlords divided the people into three racial classes: the Europeans, the “foreign Easterners” – Arabs, Indians and Chinese – and finally the Pribumi, Indonesia’s “indigenous” populations.

Under Dutch rule, ethnic Chinese were granted privileged economic and social status that gave them the job of collecting export-import duties on behalf of the Dutch East India Company. They were also prevented from living in the same neighbourhoods as native Indonesians.

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Thus, the seeds of resentment and division were sown. When Sukarno, the country’s revolutionary first president, came to power in 1945, he sought to rebalance the scales, forcing ethnic Chinese to pledge allegiance to the country and making it illegal for them to do business outside urban areas. In the 1960s the New Order regime of dictator Suharto took things a step further, banning Chinese education and newspapers and forcing ethnic Chinese to take “Indonesian” names.

But Suharto played both sides. While exploiting the anti-Chinese sentiment he also embraced wealthy Chinese Indonesian tycoons into his corrupt regime, which only served to fuel the resentment. By 1998, ethnic Chinese made up just 3 per cent of the population, but controlled 80 per cent of Indonesia’s private sector commerce.

Given the decades of resentment that had built up, this made for a noxious mix: when the Asian Financial Crisis erupted, sending unemployment levels and food prices rising, the ethnic Chinese community was an easy scapegoat and bore the brunt of the ensuing violence.

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Two decades on and similar sentiment remains, bubbling under the surface and fed by some of the same suspicions.

The stereotype is sometimes strengthened by politicians. Vice-President Jusuf Kalla once tried to explain the reason for the dominance of ethnic Chinese tycoons by saying that restrictions on minorities entering military service meant members of the community were more likely to enter the business world instead.

It is not only historical animosities returning to the surface, but prejudices that have become mixed up with a political climate increasingly centred on identity and religion. The Chinese in this regard are a double minority – not only are they ethnically different, they also tend to be either Christian or Buddhist, which sets them apart from the vast majority of Indonesians, who are Muslim.

Added to this, of course, is the trust deficit that exists towards China as a foreign power and resentment towards the Chinese nationals who come to work in the country on a temporary basis.

All these factors make for a potent mix of “otherness” associated with Indonesian Chinese, which makes them an obvious target in a climate of heightened nationalism.

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Many of these factors played a part in the spectacular fall from grace of Basuki Tjahaja Purnama – the former Jakarta governor known colloquially as “Ahok”. Ahok, who had stood out as being an ethnically Chinese, Christian politician, had been campaigning for re-election in 2017 when doctored footage emerged online in which he appeared to insult the Koran. Widespread Islamist-inspired protests followed and he was jailed for two years.

Analysts at the Singapore-based Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS)-Yusof Ishak believe the dynamics of that election have had a continuing effect on anti-Chinese sentiment on a national scale.

For Indonesia’s ethnic Chinese minority, the message was simpler: the power of the mob is back.

MONEY WORRIES

Economic factors are also driving the present paranoia, with Indonesia grappling with various abnormalities in the structure of its labour force.

Most Indonesians work in agriculture, but the sector contributes just 9.5 per cent of the nation’s GDP. Both pay and levels of education tend to be low. Official figures from 2019 show one in four workers had received no education beyond elementary school level.

And while the unemployment rate is falling, the decrease has slowed markedly – in 2018 it was down to 7 million from 7.24 million in 2014.

Against this economic background, the sudden appearance of even a relatively small number of foreign workers – a high proportion of whom are from China – has stirred up old animosities. According to the Indonesian Ministry of Manpower, workers from China accounted for 30 per cent – or 32,000 – of the foreign workers in the country in 2018, an increase of around 8,000 workers from the previous year.

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Many of these jobs are mid-level, professional positions that Indonesia would struggle to fill using its local workforce, but some are low-skilled labourers. According to the ombudsman, 90 per cent of the unskilled labour force working in the Special Economic Zone of Morowali, in South Sulawesi, has been imported from China. Of course, for some, this is something to be celebrated – the Morawali SEZ is seen by many as one of the country’s most successful joint projects with China.

It says this unhappiness has been exacerbated by perceptions that Chinese workers are “rough” and that increased competition from Chinese companies has led to local job losses.

Given how great a proportion of the Indonesian workforce is made up of low-skilled labourers, it shouldn’t then be surprising that fake news stories targeting job insecurities – such as the article claiming up to 10 million Chinese labourers were headed to the country – have stirred up the most trouble.

REALITY BITES

Whatever the reasons behind the fearmongering, Indonesia needs to address this anti-China sentiment for its own good, as much as that of its foreign guests.

If Indonesia is to benefit from Chinese investment – and doing so would be one way of addressing its labour force issues – it will have to embrace at least to some extent, Chinese ways of doing business. Chinese investments across the Gulf, Africa and even Europe all rely to various degrees on importing Chinese workers. Beijing will see no reason Indonesia should be any different. Still, Indonesia could learn from these examples.

Some Gulf states, for example, require foreign companies to partner with national firms if they are to do business, and stipulate that a certain percentage of the workforce must be made up of locals. On top of this, many companies are required to reserve managerial positions for local workers, too. Adopting similar directives could help prove to sceptics the benefit of Chinese investment.

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As the CSIS report notes, companies hiring Chinese workers also need to be transparent, particularly about the numbers, while the government must have the power to respond swiftly when concerns emerge about foreign investments and projects emerge.

Negotiating such guarantees are within the power of Indonesia, which should remember that it has leverage. While Indonesia needs Chinese investment to boost its economy, China needs Indonesia to realise its economic goals overseas. Indonesia is a key node on the belt and road’s maritime route stretching from China to Rotterdam.

In adopting schemes that would lay bare the benefits of Chinese investment to the average Indonesian worker, Jakarta has the chance not only to nip the fake-news-fuelled paranoia in the bud – but to exorcise the ghosts that have been haunting it for so many years. ■