Racialized Capitalism and Anti-Chinese among Indonesian Workers

Af Sigit Rochadi

doi:10.29333/ejecs/766

Authors

Af Sigit Rochadi Universitas Nasional

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.29333/ejecs/766

Keywords:

racism / anti-Chinese, racist capitalism, workers, Indonesia, migrant workers

Abstract

This research discusses racism, capitalism, and anti-Chinese among Indonesian workers. According to numerous preliminary studies in Western Europe, competition and prejudice drive racism and xenophobia. However, no research has been carried out on the historical relationship between immigrants and Indonesians in forming the capitalism process. Therefore, this qualitative research revealed these historical relationships and found that racism did not affect migrant workers other than Chinese. The study also found that racism was institutionalized through capitalism formation by the state during the colonial period. The Dutch colonialists applied racism in politics by placing Chinese workers as the intermediary, and foreman, thereby leading to the rise of class and racial conflicts. When colonialism collapsed, state officials required that the Chinese become an economic elite and needed capital support to do so. The result showed the harmonious relations between Chinese businessmen and state officials on the one hand and tensions between the state and workers on the other regarding racism and anti-China in Indonesia. Furthermore, over the past decade, identity politics has strengthened in Indonesia with open resistance to Chinese workers.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Ahmadi, A. (2021). The traces of oppression and trauma to ethnic minorities in Indonesia who experienced rape on the 12 May 1998 tragedy : A review of literature. Journal of Ethnic & Cultural Studies, 8(2), 126–144. DOI: https://doi.org/10.29333/ejecs/744

Allport, G. W. (1958). The nature of prejudice. Addison-Wesley.

Backman, M. (2001). Asian eclipse. Exposing the dark side of the business in Asia (rev. ed.). John Wiley and Sons.

Bourchier, D. M. (2019). Two decades of ideological contestation in Indonesia: From democratic cosmopolitanism to religious nationalism. Journal of Contemporary Asia, 49(5), 713–733. https://doi.org/10.1080/00472336.2019.1590620 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00472336.2019.1590620

Bremen, J. (1987). Menjinakkan sang Kuli : Politik kolonial, Tuan Kebun dan Kuli di Sumatra Timur (Taming the Coolie: Colonial politics, Tuan Kebun and Coolie in East Sumatra). Pustaka Utama Grafiti.

Chua, C. (2006). Chinese big business in Indonesia: The state of capital. The National University of Singapore.

Côté, R. R., Erickson, B. H., & Erickson, B. H. (2009). Behavioral scientist and immigrants. American Behavioral Scientist 2009, 52(12), 1664–1689. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764209331532 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764209331532

Creutzberg, P., & van Laanen, J. T. (1987). Sejarah statistik ekonomi Indonesia [Changing economy in Indonesia, A selection of statistical source material from the early 19th century up to 1940]. Yayasan Obor Indonesia.

Cribb, R., & Coppel, C. (2009). A genocide that never was : Explaining the myth of anti-Chinese massacres. Journal of Genocide Research, 11(4), 447–465. https://doi.org/10.1080/14623520903309503 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14623520903309503

Crush, J., & Ramachandran, S. (2010). Xenophobia, international migration, and development. Journal of Human Development & Capabilities, 11(2), 209–228. https://doi.org/10.1080/19452821003677327 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/19452821003677327

de Wilde, M., Nicholls, W. J., & Vermeulen, F. (2021). Suburban battles over immigration: A case study of local day laborer policies. Ethnic & Racial Studies, 44(16), 44–62. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2020.1829671 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2020.1829671

Dick, H. W. (2000). Industrialisasi abad ke-19: Sebuah kesempatan yang hilang? (Nineteenth-century industrialization, A missed opportunity?) In J. T. Lindblad (Ed.), Sejarah ekonomi modern Indonesia berbagai tantangan baru (pp. 176–210). LP3ES.

Ellermann, A. (2020). Discrimination in migration and citizenship. Journal of Ethnic & Migration Studies, 46(12), 2463–2479. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2018.1561053 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2018.1561053

Etherington, M. (2019). Religion as a workplace issue: A narrative inquiry of two people—One Muslim and the other Christian. SAGE Open, 9(3). https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244019862729 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244019862729

Forbes Corporate. (2020). Mapping the world’s richest. www.Forbes.Com. https://www.forbes.com/billionaires/

Ford, M., & Lyons, L. (2012). Smuggling cultures in the Indonesia-Singapore borderlands. In M. Kalir, Barak & Sur (Eds.), Transnational flows and permissive polities: Ethnographies of human mobility (pp. 91–108). Amsterdam University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9789048515875.005

Frymer, P., & Grumbach, J. M. (2020). Labor unions and White racial politics. American Journal of Political Science, 00(0), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12537 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12537

Gurer, C. (2019). Refugee Perspectives on Integration in Germany. American Journal of Qualitative Research, 3(2), 52-70. https://doi.org/10.29333/ajqr/6433 DOI: https://doi.org/10.29333/ajqr/6433

Gorodzeisky, A., & Semyonov, M. (2015). Not only competitive threat but also racial prejudice: Sources of anti-immigrant attitudes in European societies. International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 4(September), 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1093/ijpor/edv024

Gorodzeisky, A., & Semyonov, M. (2019). Unwelcome immigrants: Sources of opposition to different immigrant groups among Europeans. Frontiers in Sociology, 4(April), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2019.00024 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2019.00024

Hadiz, V. R. (1997). Workers and the state in new order Indonesia. Routledge.

Harlina, S. (2020). Demo tolak TKA China di Sultra berakhir lempar batu dan tembakan gas air mata (Demonstration against Chinese foreign workers in Southeast Sulawesi ended throwing stones and shots of tear gas). Detik.Com. https://news.detik.com/berita/d-5065697/demo-tolak-tka-china-di-sultra-berakhir-lempar-batu-dan-tembakan-gas-air-mata

Heidhues, M. S. (2012). Anti-Chinese violence in Java during the Indonesian Revolution, 1945 – 49. Journal of Genocide Research, 14(3–4), 381–401. https://doi.org/10.1080/14623528.2012.719371 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14623528.2012.719371

Hermawan, B. (2020). Demo Tolak Kedatangan TKA China Kembali Terjadi di Sultra (Demo Against the Arrival of Chinese Foreign Workers Happened in Southeast Sulawesi) https://www.republika.co.id/berita/qcqre3354/demo-tolak-kedatangan-tka-china-kembali-terjadi-di-sultra

Hürtgen, S. (2020). Labor-process-related racism in transnational European production: Fragmenting work meets xenophobic culturalisation among workers. Global Labour Journal, 11(1), 18–33. https://doi.org/10.15173/glj.v11i1.4018 DOI: https://doi.org/10.15173/glj.v11i1.4018

ILO. (2019). Triangle in ASEAN quarterly briefing note. www.ilo.org/asia

Ingleson, J. (2014). Workers, unions and politics: Indonesia in the 1920s and 1930s. Brill’s Southeast Asian Library. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004264762

James, W. Y. (2019). Imprint of Racism: White Adult Males’ Transformational Experience from Racial Antipathy to Racial Reconciliation. American Journal of Qualitative Research, 3(1), 93-116. https://doi.org/10.29333/ajqr/5813 DOI: https://doi.org/10.29333/ajqr/5813

Kemasang, A. R. T. (1985). How Dutch colonialism foreclosed a domestic bourgeoisie in Java: The 1740 Chinese massacres reappraised. Review (Fernand Braudel Center), 9(1), 57–80. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40241012

Kiki Safitri. (2020). Komentar berita : Buruh minta pemerintah pulangkan TKA China, mengapa? (News comment: Workers ask the government to return Chinese foreign workers, why?) https://money.kompas.com/komentar/ 2020/06/28/115200926/buruh-minta-pemerintah-pulangkan-tka-china-mengapa-

Kunio, Y. (1988). The rise of ersatz capitalism in South-East Asia. Oxford University Press.

Muhaimin, Y. (1991). Bisnis dan politik: Kebijaksanaan ekonomi Indonesia 1950-1980 (Indonesia economic policy 1950-1980: The politics of client businessmen). LP3ES.

Namli, U. (2021). Behavioral Changes among Street Level Drug Trafficking Organizations and the Fluctuation in Drug Prices Before and During the Covid-19 Pandemic. American Journal of Qualitative Research, 5(1), 1-22. https://doi.org/10.29333/ajqr/9691 DOI: https://doi.org/10.29333/ajqr/9691

Pati, K. A. (2020). Tolak kedatangan 500 TKA China, ratusan orang demo di perempatan Bandara Haluoleo Kendari (Refuse the arrival of 500 Chinese foreign workers, hundreds of people demonstrate at the intersection of Haluoleo Airport, Kendari). https://regional.kompas.com/read/ 2020/06/23/16195351/tolak-kedatangan-500-tka-china-ratusan-orang-demo-di-perempatan-bandara

Pichler, F. (2010). Foundations of anti-immigrant sentiment: The variable nature of perceived group threat across changing European societies, 2002-2006. International Journal of Comparative Sociology, 51(6), 445–469. https://doi.org/10.1177/0020715210379456 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0020715210379456

Purdey, J. (2006). Anti-Chinese violence in Indonesia, 1996-1999. NUS Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004486560

Raijman, R., Semyonov, M., & Schmidt, P. (2003). Do foreigners deserve rights? Determinants of public views towards foreigners in Germany and Israel. European Sociological Review, 19(4), 379-392+i. https://doi.org/10.1093/esr/19.4.379 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/esr/19.4.379

Robison, R. (2009). Indonesia: The rise of capital. Equinox Publishing.

Robinson, C. J. (2005). Black Marxism: The making of the Black radical tradition. The University of North Carolina Press.

Rochadi, A. S. (2020). Gerakan buruh Indonesia perlawanan dan fragmantasi (Indonesian Labor Movement, Resistance and Fragmentation). Bumi Aksara.

Rochadi, A. S., Pramanti, A., & Sulaiman, A. (2018). The declining Pancasila Industrial relations and the increasing industrial conflicts: Research findings from Karawang- Indonesia. Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, 292, 166–173. https://doi.org/10.2991/agc-18.2019.25

Saich, T., & Tichelman, F. (1985). Henk Sneevliet: A Dutch revolutionary on the world stage. Journal of Communist Studies, 1(2), 170–193. https://doi.org/10.1080/13523278508414768 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13523278508414768

Schlueter, E., & Scheepers, P. (2010). The relationship between outgroup size and anti-outgroup attitudes : A theoretical synthesis and empirical test of group threat- and intergroup contact theory. Social Science Research, 39(2), 285–295. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2009.07.006 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2009.07.006

Sears, D. O. (1988). Symbolic racism. In P. A. K. & D. A. Taylor (Eds.), Eliminating racism. perspectives in social psychology (A series of texts and monographs) (pp. 53–84). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-0818-6_4 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-0818-6_4

Sitompul, N. (2020, March 10). Rakyat Kena PHK, TKA China Diberi Kerja - PPMI CENTRE - Official Website. PPMI. http://ppmicentre.com/2020/05/21/rakyat-kena-phk-tka-china-diberi-kerja/

Suryadinata, L. (2001). Post Suharto’s Indonesia Beyond the ethnic approach? Asian Survey, 41(3), 502–524. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/as.2001.41.3.502

Sutter, J. O. (1953). Indonesianisasi: Politics in a changing economy, 1940-1955. Cornell University Press.

Takashi Shiraishi. (1997). An age in motion : Popular Radicalism in Java, 1912-1926. Cornell University Press.

Tamsah, H., Yusriadi, Y., & Farida, U. (2020). Training, Knowledge Sharing, and Quality of Work-Life on Civil Servants Performance in Indonesia. Journal of Ethnic and Cultural Studies, 7(3), 163-176. DOI: https://doi.org/10.29333/ejecs/514

Twang, P. Y. (1998). The Chinese business élite in Indonesia and the transition to independence 1940-1950. Oxford University Press.

Virdee, S. (2019). Racialized capitalism: An account of its contested origins and consolidation. Sociological Review, 67(1), 3–27. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038026118820293 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0038026118820293

Wertheim, W. (1956). Indonesia society in transition: A study of social change. van Hoeve.

Wijaya, T. (2019). Chinese business in Indonesia and capital conversion: Breaking the chain of patronage. Southeast Asian Studies, 8(2), 295–329. https://doi.org/10.20495/seas.8.2_295

Wu-Ling, C. (2015). Local politics and Chinese Indonesian business in post-suharto era. Southeast Asian Studies, 4(3), 487–532. https://doi.org/10.20495/seas.4.3_487

Racialized Capitalism and Anti-Chinese among Indonesian Workers

Authors

DOI:

Keywords:

Abstract

Downloads

References

Downloads

Published

How to Cite

Issue

Section

License

Make a Submission

Information

Metrics