I say it's b****t, no-one is ‘pribumi’ enough to treat others as if they’re the enemy of the state.

  10 April 2017 09:00

'Power Rangers' is playing in cinemas, people are bashedfor their opinions and sentiment against non-pribumi is filling up my timeline.

Remind me, what year is it again?

I thought racism was supposed to be a thing of the Western world, where black vs white problems keep leading to chaos and social injustice. I thought our slight racism only comes up when it comes to marriage where parents only let their children marry those from the same ethnic group.

I thought weve passed the point where pointing out someones ethnicity is considered a sensitive issue. I thought we can go Acong, Sitorus and Joko like we used to do after the reformation.

Apparently, I was wrong.

People are starting to bring up pribumi and non-pribumi issues again and making such a big deal about it like the Slytherin purebloods who look down at mudbloods.

Yes, Im talking to you, people who made stickers reading milik pribumi as if its 1998 all over again; you who yell pribumi should vote for pribumi; and you who complain about Islamophobia in Western countries while you do the same thing to those you call non-pribumi.

For heavens sake, stop being a hypocrite.

If your idea of native is only about ones ethnicity or where one was born, you need to think again.

No one is native or pribumi enough to tell another they are non-pribumi.

Stop screaming your hatred against the so-called non-pribumi if you live in Jakarta but are not Betawi, if you live in the capital but your mother comes from West Java and your father was born in Sumatra.

Even if youre indeed a Betawi pureblood living in Jakarta, do you really think that youre entitled to say that others are less pribumi than you are?

Newsflash: No, youre not. If you would leave Facebook for a while and open a book, youll see that your ancestors were a mix of Portuguese, Malay, Chinese and Arab.

Stop being a hypocrite. I know, we all know, what its all about: the election and your belief that says a particular governor is the enemy of your religion.

Go ahead, you can hate Ahok all you want. Its your right to hate him for any reason and I would still be your friend. You can hold 10 more mass rallies in Central Jakarta and I would still cover it.

You can protest against him every Tuesday if you feel the need to scream your hatred out loud and our photographer would still be likely there to make you famous.

But dont use pribumi and non-pribumi issues as an excuse to spread your flaming hatred.

Weve gone so far from what happened in 1998.

Weve healed too well to open the old wounds again.

Now tell me, if youre not okay with a Chinese governor because hes not pribumi enough for you,why are you okay with the other candidate who is apparently of Arabian descent?

Isnt he, according to your standard, is not pribumi enough as well?

Can you blame me for calling your out your bull***t?

The views is in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Brilio.

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