Against the background of Indonesia's ethnic resurgence and social cleavage in the wake of the fall of Soeharto regime in mid-1998, this thesis seeks to identify the factors that have led to a particular incidence of this discord: the perceived inequity in access to economic and governmental resources, i.e., access to jobs in the public sector and to public health services. Taking modernization theory as its framework, the thesis compares the ascribed factor, i.e., Javanese or non-Javanese ethnicity, and certain other factors, i.e., level of education, region of origin and place of residence (urban or rural area) and evaluates the resulting data. The thesis argues that respondents who have a high level of education, live in a region closest to a national center and reside in an urban area, which are relatively more exposed to modernization, are better off in terms of access to economic and governmental resources regardless of their ethnic membership.

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Anti-Chinese violence in Indonesia reached a climax in Jakarta and elsewhere in May 1998 against a background of dramatic social and political change. This study presents close analysis of selected incidents that occurred mainly in Java in the years prior to this and in its aftermath. It tests explanations of anti-Chinese violence based on economic resentment, religious difference or state-sponsorship. By highlighting ethnicity as the single constant, as well as the importance of locating agency and responsibility, and the sources of representations of events of mass violence, the study challenges existing understandings of “anti-Chinese” violence. The approach taken recognises that violence against ethnic Chinese Indonesians must be viewed within the context of Indonesian nationalism and alongside other violence in Indonesia. It cannot be separated from the national political, social and economic turmoil of that time. In addition, it emphasises the competing representations of “Chineseness” and anti-Chinese violence for what they reveal about the motives behind certain explanations of violence and the events themselves. Of central significance is the way in which anti-Chinese violence is represented and perceived in Indonesian society as normal, natural and everyday. This study stresses the importance of listening to the voices of victims of violence and seeks to recognise the moral concerns related to scholarly and “official” generalisations about violence and suffering in particular. Framed in this way this approach poses the fundamental question, “Is there anti-Chinese violence in Indonesia?”

[Truncated abstract] The May 1998 anti-Chinese riots brought to the fore the highly problematic position of the ethnic Chinese in the Indonesian nation. The ethnic Chinese were traumatised by the event, and experienced an identity crisis. They were confronted with the reality that many Indonesians still viewed and treated them as outsiders or foreigners, despite the fact that they had lived in Indonesia for many generations. During Suharto's New Order (1966-1998), the ethnic Chinese had been given the privilege to expand the nation's economy (and their own wealth), but, paradoxically, were marginalised and discriminated against in all social spheres: culture, language, politics, entrance to state-owned universities, public service and public employment. This intentional official discrimination against the Chinese continuously reproduced their