Title: Discord and Solidarity among the Arabs in the Netherlands East Indies, 1900-1942
Abstract: Arabs are the second most important minority of foreign origin in present-day Indonesia. Like the more numerous Chinese, they play an important role in the economic life of the country, as entrepreneurs, traders, shopkeepers, or money-lenders and, like the Chinese, they, too, are a clearly differentiable ethnic group. Prejudices that exist toward the Arabs correspond, to a certain degree, with those toward the Chinese. Both groups, for instance, are accused of engaging in dishonest competition, usurious practices, forming protective trade associations, bribery, and giving preference to members of their own group. Yet open hostility is seldom if ever displayed toward Arabs. The reason for this lack of animosity can be found in the smallness of the Arab community and in their national and religious identity. Numbering no more than a fraction of the Chinese population in Indonesia,1 Arabs today feel themselves to be Indonesians, in spite of all the social and cultural differences. In contrast to the Chinese, nearly all Arabs became Indonesian citizens when Indonesia gained its independence, and are generally accepted in their social environment as fellow countrymen or compatriots. This acceptance stems in part from the Arabs' religion, Islam, which is the same as that of the larger part of the Indonesian population.2 In religious matters Arabs generally enjoy much esteem. They come from the Arabian peninsula, the cradle of Islam, and had an important part in the spread and refinement of Islam in Indonesia. Their religious status neutralizes to some extent their economically unequal position. Their acceptance is also apparent from the many positions they hold in political and administrative areas. In 1992 there were three cabinet members of Arab origin and not a single one of Chinese descent.