The present study deals with the nature of the New Order Government policies toward the Indonesian Chinese ethnic group and the role of Bakom PKB in assisting the New Order Government to formulate and implement the pembauran policy. This study will consider the policy communication framework toward the Indonesian Chinese ethnic group in Indonesia, and discuss the New Order Government policies, and the role of the Bakom PKB within this framework. Two case studies are used to iluminate the role of Bakom PKB in channeling the pembauran policy from the government to the society vice versa. In the case of settling the citizenship status of Chinese descent, the role of Bakom PKB in assisting the New Order Government in formulating and implementing the pembauran policy is obvious right from its establishment. While in the case of the development and implementation of kemitraan (partnership) policy, the Bakom PKB only has a public relation function. The development and implementation of kemitraan policy is carried out by the organisation/association/institutions which are included in the pembauran policy communication networks. There are also discussions on the New Order Government policies concerning the Indonesian Chinese in the period 1966 - 1996, and the communication networks that existed amongst the Bakom PKB, Pokja Inlerdep and private institutions in disseminating the idea of pembauran in the frame of national integration.

This thesis starts from Anderson¡¦s theory of ¡§Imagined Community¡¨, through the angle of ¡§Nationalism¡¨ and the ¡§Historical State Approach¡¨, to study the development of ethnic politics in Indonesia. In the analysis of historic events, this research hopes to represent the phenomenon of ethnic politics in Indonesia. According to the development of Indonesian Nationalism, this dissertation divides the political history in Indonesia into four stages, ¡§the independent stage¡¨, ¡§the national integration stage¡¨, ¡§the national cooperation stage¡§ and ¡§the democratic transformation stage¡¨, also there are two factors----¡§the state dominate¡¨ and ¡§the ethnic group politic mobilization¡¨ ---- being cross-compared their relations within the four historic stages. This thesis concludes: Indonesia as an ¡§imagined community¡¨, which leads the cleavage in the Indonesian national society. Lack of efficient institution for national integration at the beginning of the national independence, the cooperation politics in the New Order stage, both tended to build the inequality between different ethnic groups, which is the main reason for racial conflict after the democratization, and also the general factor affecting the ethnic politics in Indonesia. Individual factors affecting the ethnic politics in Indonesia include elements of the culture in religion, of the economy in region and the history in international politics, of the racial immigration and economy¡Kwhich form the ethnic consciousness and ethnic identity. Under the effects of the general and individual levels, nowadays the Indonesian ethnic politics presents itself as¡GA. Religion: Muslim parties contestation, the religious demonstration outside the institution, and the regional conflicts in religion. B. Region: secessionism, islanders demanding for regional autonomy or for federalism. C. Race: race violence against Indonesian Chinese, regional racial murders caused by the interior immigration policy. This dissertation concludes with elements of the above three levels, which show the phenomenon of contemporary ethnic politics in Indonesia.