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Abstract
This paper provides new statistics to the debate on percentage of Chinese Indonesians, using the latest 100% data set of the 2010 population census. It reveals that the statistics is closer to the low side of the debate, less than 2.0%, rather than the high side of 3.0% and more. Ethnicity is here self-defined by the respondents. With 1.2%, the Chinese Indonesians ranked as the 15th largest group of more than 600 ethnic groups. This paper also produces statistics at the district level, the first ever statistics on Chinese Indonesians. It finds that some provinces and districts have large percentages of Chinese Indonesians, but the respective total population are relatively small to the total Indonesia’s population. Majority of provinces and districts (25 out of 33 provinces and 415 out of 497 districts) have lower percentage of Chinese than the national figure.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1. Suryadinata, Negara dan Etnis Tionghoa; and Koning, “Chineseness and Chinese Indonesian Business.”
2. Suryadinata, Political Thinking of the Indonesian Chinese; Chua, “Chinese Big Business in Indonesia”; and Weeraratne, “Ethnic Entrepreneurs and Collective Violence.”
3. Hoon, “Assimilation, Multiculturalism, Hybridity.”
4. Suryadinata, “Citizenship, Indigenism and Ethnic Chinese.”
5. Chua, “Defining Indonesian Chineseness”; and Hoon, “Reconceptualising Ethnic Chinese Identity.”
6. Suryadinata, Political Thinking of the Indonesian Chinese; Suryadinata, “Politics in Post-Suharto Indonesia”; and Suhandinata, WNI Keturunan Tionghoa.
7. Ananta, “Negative and Positive Uses of Socio-economic Statistics.”
8. Hull, “Communication Surprises”; and Hull, “Estimates of Indonesian Population Numbers.”
9. Full coverage means no sampling process was conducted to collect information from respondents. This has been conducted for 2000 and 2010 censuses. The data are huge, the Indonesians with ethnicity information in the 2010 census consists of 237,641,326 individuals. More information about ethnicity in the 2010 census can be seen in Ananta et al., Demography of Indonesia’s Ethnicity. While earlier censuses were using sample to gather information. Thus, weight is used to produce estimates.
10. We appreciate the Statistics-Indonesia for providing us with the tabulations from the raw data set.
11. Morning, “Ethnic Classification in Global Perspective.”
12. Hull, “Estimates of Indonesian Population Numbers.”
13. Suryadinata, “Buddhism and Confucianism in Contemporary Indonesia”; and Hoon, “Assimilation, Multiculturalism, Hybridity.”
14. Coppel, Studying Ethnic Chinese in Indonesia.
15. There was a “protest’ from Dayak communities in Kalimantan because they were not fully represented in the 2000 publication census. Apparently, because this was the first time, the Statistics-Indonesia collected data on ethnicity; it did not have sufficient information on the Dayak. The Statistics-Indonesia has apologized and the Dayak community has accepted the apology. An improved categorization of the Dayak was then done with the 2010 population census, conducted by Ananta et al., Demography of Indonesia’s Ethnicity.
16. The 2015 intercensal population survey also collected the data on ethnicity.
17. Turner, “Setting the Scene Speaking Out.”
18. Read Tan, Etnis Tionghoa di Indonesia, for detailed discussion on the politics of the terms to refer to the Chinese
19. Hoon, “Assimilation, Multiculturalism, Hybridity”; and Tan, Etnis Tionghoa di Indonesia.
20. Hoon, “Reconceptualising Ethnic Chinese Identity.”
21. Hoon, “Christian Churches in Indonesia.”
22. Some feared that the Statistics-Indonesia (Badan Pusat Statistik), who conducts the population census, is not independent as it is a state body. However, we have been following the process of census taking until the publication of the results and we are very sure that there is no intervention from the government to influence the results. Moreover, we do not see that there is any benefit at all by the Government of Indonesia to influence the statistics on ethnicity.
23. Shryock, Siegel and associates, Methods and Materials of Demography.
24. See note 11 above.
25. Chua, “Defining Indonesian Chineseness.”
26. Ibid.
27. See note 11 above.
28. The ‘Cina PRC’ are perhaps those who were previously citizens of Republic of People of China; and ‘Cina Taiwan’, formerly citizens of Republic of Taiwan.
29. Ananta et al., Demography of Indonesia’s Ethnicity.
30. Ibid.
31. Ibid.
32. Badan Pusat Statistik, Pedoman Kode Provinsi, Kabupaten.
33. Mode detailed discussion on the debate and speculation on the number and percentage of the Chinese is referred to Ananta, Arifin, and Bakhtiar, “Chinese Indonesians in Indonesia.”
34. Zein, Etnis Cina dalam potret pembauran; and Prasetyo, “Adakah Media untuk Keturunan Tionghoa?”
35. http://netralitas.com/kolom/read/7406/masih-adakah-pribumi-dan-nonpribumi-di-indonesia- Masih Adakah Pribumi dan Nonpribumi?, accessed on August 9, 2016. Luhut Panjaitan was moved to become coordinating maritime affairs minister on 27 July 2016.
36. Read Ananta, “Negative and Positive Uses of Socio-economic Statistics,” on mis-interpretation of socio-economic statistics, including those on Chinese.
37. Skinner, “The Chinese Minority.”
38. Suryadinata, Chinese Minority and China.
39. Suryadinata, China and the ASEAN States.
40. Tan, “Role of Ethnic Chinese Minority.”
41. Suryadinata, “Politics in Post-Suharto Indonesia.”
42. We do not discuss the 1930 statistics, as the coverage is not the whole Indonesia.
43. Hull, “Results from the 2000 Population Census”; and Suryadinata et al., Indonesia’s Population.
44. Suryadinata et al., Indonesia’s Population.
45. Ibid.
46. Mackie, “How many Chinese Indonesians?”
47. Mackie, “Future for Chinese Indonesians.”
48. Ananta, Arifin, and Bakhtiar, “Chinese Indonesians in Indonesia.”
49. Suryadinata et al., Indonesia’s Population; and Ananta, Arifin, and Bakhtiar, “Chinese Indonesians in Indonesia.”
50. The trauma of the 1965–1968 events may still linger among those Chinese aged 60 years old and over; those of May 1998 chaos may still haunt some of the Chinese aged 30 years old and over. However, they now have the confidence to express their Chineseness if they want to. Therefore, there is no inhabitation to say whatever ethnic group they want to identify with, especially during 2010 population census.
51. Badan Pusat Statistik, Statistical Yearbook.
52. This is the lowest estimation made by Suryadinata et al., Indonesia’s Population.
53. See note 48 above.
55. Koning, “Chineseness and Chinese Indonesian Business.”
56. See note 29 above.
57. Gu, “Population Aging in China.”
58. See note 29 above.
59. The statistics at the province level are mostly based on Ananta et al., Demography of Indonesia’s Ethnicity.
60. See note 29 above.
61. As shown in Ananta et al., Demography of Indonesia’s Ethnicity, the Chinese is the fifteenth largest ethnic group in Indonesia as a whole, though forming only 1.20%. There are more than 600 other ethnic groups which are smaller than the Chinese.
62. Suryadinata et al., Indonesia’s Population; Chua, “Chinese Big Business in Indonesia”; and Weeraratne, “Ethnic Entrepreneurs and Collective Violence.”
63. Suryadinata et al., Indonesia’s Population; and Ananta et al., Demography of Indonesia’s Ethnicity.
64. See note 48 above.
65. We are advantaged with the tabulation on ethnicity provided by BPS – Statistics Indonesia based on the full enumeration data of the 2010 population census. This data set has a much better coverage than that of 2000 census and therefore allows us to produce statistics at district level.
66. Detail information about Hasan Karman, the first Chinese mayor of Singkawang http://www.tokohindonesia.com/biografi/article/286-direktori/1290-walikota-singkawang, accessed November 30, 2015.
67. Arifin et al., “Quantifying Indonesia’s Ethnic Diversity.”
68. Ibid.
69. Further results of the election in the City of Pontianak can be seen here http://kalbar.antaranews.com/berita/316511/kpu-tetapkan-sutarmidji-edi-pemenang-pilkada-pontianak, accessed November 30, 2015.
70. See note 29 above.
71. See note 48 above.
72. The current term of Basuki ‘Ahok’ Tjahaja Purnama will finish his term in 2017 and he has still the right to run his second term for 2017–2022.
73. Hauser-Schaublin, “From Subandar to Tridharma.”
74. See note 29 above.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Evi Nurvidya Arifin
Evi Nurvidya Arifin, PhD, is a researcher at Centre for Ageing Studies, University Indonesia and a lecturer at the Post-graduate programme on Public Health, University of Respati Indonesia. Some of her research interests are Chinese Indonesians, ethnicity in Indonesia, migration and ageing population.
Author’s postal address: Centre for Ageing Studies, Universitas Indonesia, Rumah Dinas Rektor, Kampus UI, Depok 16424, West Java, Indonesia.
M. Sairi Hasbullah
M. Sairi Hasbullah is a deputy chief Statistics for Social Statistics, BPS-Statistics Indonesia. His research interests are social issues such as poverty, labour force, social demography, ethnicity, happiness, and social capital.
Author’s postal address: Statistics – Indonesia (BPS), Jl. Dr. Sutomo 6-8, Jakarta 10710, Indonesia.
Agus Pramono
Agus Pramono is a staff of politics and security sub-directorate, BPS-Statistics Indonesia. His research interests are Indonesian politics, ethnicity and corruption.
Author’s postal address: BPS-Statistics – Indonesia, Jl. Dr. Sutomo 6-8, Jakarta 10710, Indonesia.