Indonesian Chinese still face discrimination. Can one Muslim make a difference this election?

Azmi Abubakar hopes the Indonesian Solidarity Party can lower the level of prejudice among young people and disrupt older parties’ comfort zone

He faces an uphill struggle to get elected in the April 17 polls, but there is hope in the community that his message of tolerance will take root

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Pro-democracy activist Azmi Abubakar. Photo: Valerian Timothy

Published: 2:00pm, 24 Mar 2019Updated: 3:09pm, 1 Apr 2019

Azmi Abubakar is a Muslim and ethnically Acehnese, sharing a heritage with the residents of Indonesia’s westernmost province – the only one in the country that enforces Islamic or sharia law.

But for his maiden outing at the April 17 general election, Azmi, 47, has joined a party with progressive views and a commitment towards fighting for the rights of religious and ethnic minorities.

Azmi’s membership in the Indonesian Solidarity Party (PSI) is not surprising given his background. He was a student activist who rallied for the downfall of the late dictator Suharto in 1998 when deadly anti-Chinese riots raged across the country.

In 2012, the real estate entrepreneur set up the Museum Pustaka Peranakan Tionghoa (Chinese Indonesian Literature Museum) in South Tangerang city, which houses more than 30,000 books and documents produced or once possessed by members of Indonesia’s Chinese community. There are no exact official figures but ethnic Chinese are thought to make up about 2 per cent of Indonesia’s population of more than 260 million.