How do you cover racial bigotry?

March 4, 2008

Journalist Andreas Harsono, recipient of Maverick’s Click of the Year Award for journalist-bloggers, ponders how journalists should cover a story of religious bigotry in Pontianak.(Thanks to reader Bonar for the link)

clipped from andreasharsono.blogspot.com

Bagaimana Meliput Pontianak?

Ratusan pendukung Barisan Melayu Bersatu datang ke Rumah Adat Melayu di Pontianak pada 20 Februari 2008. Mereka minta pemerintah melarang warga Tionghoa menggunakan bahasa Hakka atau Tio Ciu. Mereka juga menuntut pemerintah melarang perayaan Imlek dengan barongsai dan naga. Mereka minta semua aksara Mandarin dilarang di tempat-tempat umum.

Sejak Januari lalu, ketika Barisan Umat Islam datang ke DPRD Kalimantan Barat dan minta Majelis Adat & Budaya Tionghoa dibubarkan, hingga demo kemarin dengan Barisan Melayu Bersatu minta kebudayaan Tionghoa dilarang dan orang Tionghoa dilarang berbahasa etnik, saya sering ditanya bagaimana harus meliput ini?

unspun

blogging, Islam, Media, Muslim, Religion

blogging, Culture Clash, Muslim, Religion

4 responses to “How do you cover racial bigotry?”

marcg

March 4, 2008 at 9:51 pm

The title questions the coverage of racial bigotry but the actual piece is about religious bigotry? Is this a curious typo, language mixup or just traffic generating lingo? Religious bigotry and racial bigotry are different things.

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unspun

March 4, 2008 at 10:13 pm

@marcg: Th article is about racial bigotry, except in that part of the world race and religion is so intertwined it is sometimes difficult to separate them. That is because, in the world view of the Melayu champions Malays are Muslims and vice versa. In Malaysia, just across the border this twinning of religion and race is even enshrined in the Constitution. Ridiculous but true. See the rasa Sayang threads in this blog for Michael Chick’s explanation about Contesting Malayness.

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Pretty

March 5, 2008 at 8:28 am

this is sad… Indonesia should be considered lucky to have so many ethnic … what if javanese in manado are banned speaking java ? so low!

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triedtobehonest

March 5, 2008 at 10:42 pm

And I though the madura’s is the ethnic group most disliked in pontianak.

I never really get it why people are arguing about such a shallow topic. For me, religion is such a personal matter, we don’t have a say in other people religion.

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Unspun