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Bakery assault video sparks anti-Chinese backlash in Indonesia, exposing deep-rooted prejudices
Experts say the clip of a bakery employee being assaulted by the owner’s son reflects historical traumas and societal anxieties, with social media amplifying racist rhetoric
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Johannes Nugroho
Published: 6:22pm, 19 Dec 2024Updated: 7:01pm, 19 Dec 2024
A video showing a female bakery employee being assaulted by an ethnic Chinese man has gone viral in Indonesia, igniting an online firestorm that experts say reflects entrenched prejudices against the Chinese-Indonesian community and long-standing historical traumas within the country’s multi-ethnic society.
The assailant, identified as 35-year-old Cakung resident George Sugama Halim – the son of the bakery chain’s owners – was taken into custody on Monday.
The victim, 19-year-old bakery employee Dwi Ayu, testified under oath before a parliamentary committee that she was attacked on October 17 after refusing to deliver George’s online food order to his bedroom because she did not believe it was part of her job responsibilities.
Her lawyers had lobbied MPs to give her a hearing, with critics saying police were slow to react to the case, allegations the force has denied while stressing its commitment to managing the situation effectively.
“I threatened him I would report him to the police”, Dwi told the committee on Tuesday. “But he jeeringly replied, ‘You’re a poor nobody, and I’m rich and above the law, so dream on!’”
Footage recorded by another staff member showed George throwing various objects at Dwi, including a figurine, an electronic payment device and eventually a chair. She said he even hurled a baking tray that struck her in the head, causing bleeding and forcing her to take shelter near the ovens.
A female bakery employee, Dwi Ayu, claims she was assaulted at work. A video of the incident has gone viral in Indonesia. Photo: X@untoksikk
The video spread on social media, fuelling anger towards George and leading to anti-Chinese sentiment. Some users called for a boycott of Lindayes Patisserie and Coffee, the chain owned by George’s parents.
In his defence, George’s parents claimed through their business’s now-private Instagram account that their son was “mentally and intellectually” challenged, and stated they had medical tests to support this.
They also distanced George from their business, claiming, “he held no official position within the bakery, other than being the owners’ son.”
Dwi, who had worked there for five months, disputed their assertion, saying that George showed no signs of mental impairment and, in fact, led a branch of the bakery in Kelapa Gading, an affluent area of Jakarta.
The online vitriol against George soon took on racist overtones, with derogatory comments and threats against his family and the larger Chinese-Indonesian community.
The online hostility towards George escalated to include racist comments and threats against his family and the broader Chinese-Indonesian community.
George Sugama Halim. Photo: Facebook/George Sugama Halim
Chinese Indonesians, a minority group comprising less than 3 per cent of Indonesia’s 280 million citizens, have long been stereotyped as being privileged, wealthy and possessing a superiority complex towards “indigenous” Indonesians.
George’s family, appearing on a podcast hosted by Uya Kuya, a member of the Indonesian House of Representatives, said they had been “terrorised” by strangers through harassing phone calls and derogatory social media comments.
“Many of their comments were racist, saying we Chinese Indonesians were just guests in this country,” said Linda, George’s mother.
“I get people threatening to attack my shop on a daily basis because of what George did. Some even spoke of [the 1998 riots].”
The May 1998 riots saw nationwide attacks against Chinese Indonesians and the looting of their properties as the country’s economic crisis deepened, and the rupiah plunged to its lowest value in decades.
Human rights groups which conducted fact-finding missions in the aftermath claimed there were numerous cases of Chinese Indonesian women sexually assaulted or even killed during the chaos.
A screeb grab from a viral video of a Chinese Indonesian man assaulting a bakery employee has ignited anti-Chinese sentiment. Photo: X@untoksikk
SOAS University of London academic and Chinese Indonesian writer Soe Tjen Marching said she regretted the racist turn George’s case had taken.
“The stigma against Chinese Indonesians is still strong in Indonesia. This is similar to what happens to LGBT people, other ethnic minorities or minority religious communities. If one of them does something terrible, the whole community is tarnished,” she told This Week In Asia.
Charlotte Setijadi, professor of humanities at Singapore Management University, and author of Memories of Unbelonging: Ethnic Chinese Identity Politics in Post-Suharto Indonesia, said most Chinese Indonesians collectively had deep-seated traumas from their past.
“The fear of being made scapegoats in times of political, economic and social instability continues to be real for Chinese Indonesians.”
She said this is why every time anti-Chinese sentiments flare up in Indonesia, the ethnic Chinese have to relive their traumatic history.
But she went on to say that, for the most part, there are more examples of harmonious relationships between Chinese and non-Chinese individuals than not, attributing some negative stereotypes to colonial history.
Oki Rahadianto Supolo, sociologist
“The Dutch imposed stratification that divided Dutch East Indies society based on race and occupations, which planted the seed for stereotypes of all Chinese as being materialistic, economically ruthless, and disloyal or unfair toward those considered to be native to the land.”
However, Oki Rahadianto Supolo, a sociologist at Yogyakarta’s Gadja Mada University, noted that blaming an entire group for the misdeed of one was common in Indonesia, not just for minority groups.
“Our culture is predisposed towards judging people based on stereotypes. Everything is seen as black and white.”
He said social media allowed people to express their prejudices publicly, often protected by anonymity.
“As a nation, we should encourage greater interaction between different ethnic groups to cultivate a dialogue which could lead to better mutual understanding.”
