Let the dragons out and the angpau in, it’s that time of the year again! In retrospect, it’s been only a few years since Indonesians, especially those of Chinese descent, started to freely celebrate the Chinese New Year and embrace another part of its rich culture. Nowadays, malls are dressed to their best in red and yellow to welcome the occasion. In many public venues, it’s becoming more common to find lion dance performances attracting full attention of the crowd. We are rediscovering a culture that has made significant contribution to the nation from centuries ago. In short, Chinese New Year celebration has become bigger and livelier each year.
We have come a long way from ethnic discrimination-I am very proud to say that, noticing the goodwill of the society to stop such outdated view. However, I will also readily admit that the fight for equality is very very far from over. Chinese Indonesians still get different treatment in many aspects, including from government offices which are supposed to serve all Indonesians. Additionally, it is too bad that lots of people in the community are still holding on to unjustified racial prejudice against Chinese Indonesians as if they were illegal immigrants or second-class citizens. These actions are totally baseless and at one point, it will lead to human rights violations. If we want to tell the world how wonderful Indonesia’s cuture is, we’d better clean up our act and stop these terrible views from gaining more ground in the society.
HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR! May we have a prosperous, peaceful year ahead and may this nation grow stronger each and every day.
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