1998 Indonesian Riots

May 1998 Indonesian Anti-Chinese Riots

A photograph taken on May 14, 1998 captures an image of house burning and gang raping of ethnic Chinese by groups of ethnic Javanese in Indonesia. The incident presumably took place in West Jakarta where most Chinese live and work. Gang raping with similar mode of operation was actually frequent and not just isolated to one particular place or date. There were 152 cases occurred from May 13 through July 3, but the intense climax was in West Jakarta on May 13-15, 1998 (Volunteers Team for Humanity).The photograph could be shot by a journalist as a duty or a passing-by citizen who was not the target of the riots or, otherwise, was protected from being victimized in the riots; for example, a law abiding native Indonesian or a Chinese man living alone (without any family to take care of) in the district near the place where the incident occurred. The image encapsulates the conflicts resulting from the 1997 Asian monetary crisis, in which Indonesia also suffered. Apparently, the impact of the crisis does not only involve the economy of a country, but also triggers social conflicts within a country. In Indonesia, the social crisis of citizenship and community, which is caused by the economic destruction, is substantially indicated by the dispute between the two major ethnic groups: the native Indonesians and the Chinese Indonesians.

Violence and racism in the midst of a modernly developed city is the main theme of the image. In the back left of the photograph is captured high-rise office buildings and shopping malls which are full of glass windows. Diagonally across the photograph, there is a road capturing the mob and some passing-by cars, some of which stickered “Pro-Reformation” not to be violated. On the right side of the roads, there is a complex of shop-and-house buildings, few of which have a sign “Owned by native Indonesian(s)” posted in front of the buildings during the crisis. The shops-and-houses which do not have the...