Indonesian Chinese business communities in transformation, 1940-50
Date
1987
Authors
Twang, Peck Yang
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Abstract
The 1940s ushered in a period in which pre-war established Indonesian Chinese
businessmen began to decline while smaller Chinese businessmen began to emerge. This
change was of tremendous and far-reaching consequences not only for the Chinese
business communities but also for the political economic structure of Indonesia as a
whole.
Factors that caused this change were manifold. During the Japanese occupation a
pattern of decline and emergence of Chinese businessmen began to set in. In the period
that followed, anti-Chinese violence and its social and economic consequences
contributed to the waning of many Chinese businesses, especially those owned by the
Dutch-educated, whose business culture and social economic life differed greatly from the
totok. The nlOst influential anti-Chinese force was the indigenous business class, which
held a considerable measure of state power. The dominant nationalist faction's antiChinese
economic designs and policy partly explain why many Chinese tended to be
alienated from the Republican government. Such policy also contributed to the eclipse of
Chinese businesses.
Alienation from the Republican government and fleeing from Republican to Dutch
areas, however, did not mean that Chinese businessmen were "pro-Dutch". Many
Chinese businessmen 's political and economic relations with the Dutch had changed
since the start of the Japanese occupation. New trade patterns disrupted the pre-war
Chinese middleman network in the 1940s, and adversely affected Chinese business in
general. On the other hand~ however, these trade patterns gave rise to anti-colonial
"smuggling" trade. The most ferocious anti-colonial activity in the economic arena was
launched by Chinese marine traders (mainly totok Chinese). This risky trade served to
lay the foundation for the emergence of a new group of Chinese businessmen. It not only
provided the main form of trade opportunity for Chinese "smugglers", but led to the
creation of relationship between these businessmen and a number of indigenous powerholders.
Before the war, political and economic forces were, broadly speaking, divided
between the ethnic-majority (Indonesian) and ethnic-minority. Since the revolution,
however, the two elements became; to a degree, compatible with each other. A crossethnic
class formation appeared to be in the making.
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