In a bid to increase its citizenship by 4 million - I forgot by when - Singapore is now seducing more foreigners to anchor themselves onto its soil. As a consequence, my hostel is flooded with letters asking us to consider becoming PR (Permanent Resident). As a further consequence, I had lunch with my mom where she painstakingly describes the merits of being a PR and the demerits of being Indonesian. (Since I've always been against her plan of making me get a PR.) The conversation went from how SBY can no longer handle Indonesia, to various scandals involving Indonesian ministers and businessmen. (In Indonesia, these two are sinonymous with greed and corruption.) Mom's cases in point:
1. Recent investigations into the Sidoarjo mud scandal, where hot sulphur mud just devours entire villages, reveals that it is caused by greedy businessmen (of PT Lapindo) cutting cost by using less steel pipes and mechanisms. However, though this callousness costs many human lives, the perpetrators will get away since they have connections in the government. Cliche.
2. Continuing the Suharto family saga (in case you dont know, there was a time they owned everything Indonesian, including airports, roads, water, land, buildings...well, everything..) trillion rupiahs of money from Tommy Suharto's Swiss account, swindled from the average honest, hard-working, poor to middle-class Indonesians, has apparently just moved hand to another corrupt minister. Can anything be done? Nope, the minister's got ties to some other big daddies.
3. It was also recently revealed that in IPDN (Institut Pendidikan Dalam Negeri - National Education Institue), where one studies to become government officers, 47 Christian students have died due to violence during "ragging"...I mean, 1 junior versus 50 seniors, and it's called ragging?? Apparently, the school covers up the deaths for quite sometime already (how else could they reach a high of 47 victims), and even sent warning to a teacher that dared voice opinion on this. IPDN now stands for Institut Pemukulan Dalam Negeri. (National Beatings Institute).
From there, my mom went on to talk about various conflicts, safety and security issues, economic downturns, and how we Chinese are mere second class citizens. However hard we work, whatever we own and achieve, all that can be taken away from us in mere minutes, just because we are of Chinese descent. She talked on how I should take the PR, just to have a country to stay in, since political turmoil might turn Indonesia upside down very soon.
I know I'm a second class Indonesian citizen. In fact, since I'm Chinese and Christian at the same time, you can call me doubly-marginalised. (Hm, good thing I crashed some Arts lectures. Handy terms.) But well...wouldn't I still be a second-class citizen in Singapore if I accept a PR? Then again, 2nd class Singaporean citizen means you pay a slightly higher school fee, miss out on some perks, but otherwise Big Bro takes care of you; 2nd class Indonesian citizen means my possibility of being raped, robbed and killed roughly triples. Hmm..
I love Indonesia. Its literature, its Nature, its culture, its language, its songs, its instruments, even its people. And that is why even just taking a PR makes me feel like I've betrayed my country. But what does it matter if all my society sees of me now is my slit eyes and yellow skin? What does it say about a country when it is made up of 13 667 islands and its citizens cant even safely step out of the house?
Ah well, PR then? I dont know....
Kembalikan Indonesiaku padaku. Meskipun aku keturunan Cina....
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