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The Tegal Alur district is on the edge of Jakarta, where the city’s suburbs merge with the surrounding satellite towns and industrial zones of Banten. A generation ago, market gardens and small farms dominated. But many of the people who used to farm the land have been pushed aside to make way for huge factories, housing estates and infrastructure projects. Huge numbers of newcomers, enabled by the toll roads, have arrived.

Descendants of the original inhabitants work on the industrial estates as laborers. Many more scratch out a living as scavengers, rooting through the piles of discarded rubbish created by the factories, or do things like drive motorbikes or run food stalls. Farther away from town, people survive by fishing and working as agricultural laborers. Unemployment levels are high. Gambling, alcoholism and drug use are common.

The original inhabitants of Tegal Alur and its surrounding areas consist of at least two main ethnic groups, including the Malay-speaking, majority-Muslim Betawi and the Cina Benteng. Members of the latter claim descent from Chinese immigrants from the 14th century.

To a large degree, this group has been assimilated by the culture of the surrounding area. Like their neighbors, they speak Betawi Malay. They also engage in similar kinds of work and trades. Like many others in the area, they are often very poor. Unlike most of their neighbors, they usually identify as Christian or Buddhist. While they do not speak Chinese languages, they retain some elements of Chinese culture, including veneration of ancestors and certain wedding customs. They continue to identify and be identified as Chinese.

It’s not uncommon for people who live and work mostly outside the formal economy to not have complete documentation of their civil status, citizenship and other matters. The Cina Benteng are no exception. Often births and marriages are not registered and many of them don’t have birth certificates, marriage licenses or identity cards.

The local Betawi deal with the same issues. But the Cina Benteng often claim that because they are seen as Chinese, the barriers blocking them from acquiring this documentation are more formidable.

Particularly in the past, there has been institutionalized discrimination against Chinese-Indonesians, who number about 7 million people, about 3 percent of the country’s population. During Suharto’s military regime, celebrating the Lunar New Year was forbidden. Their access to government schools and universities was limited. They were very rarely employed as civil servants and never held senior government positions.

Most discriminatory legislation has been formally repealed since the passing of Suharto’s regime. However, many Chinese-Indonesians say discriminatory practices continue.

The Cina Benteng say they are discriminated against in a number of ways. For example, they claim they are not usually included in food assistance programs and do not receive other benefits intended for the poor. Government officials dispute these claims, stating that benefits are provided strictly according to need.

Theng Soen Nio

My family has lived in Indonesia for more than nine generations. Our ancestors came from China, but we’re Indonesians. We were born here and we’ve lived here all our lives, but we’re outcasts. The indigenous Indonesians, the pribumi, hate us for being Chinese. The Chinese despise us for our black skins. They say we’ve gone native. We aren’t welcomed in Indonesia and we can’t go back to China.

My family comes from Balaraja. My father had a patch of land. It was big enough to grow rice, corn and vegetables for the whole family. He was quite well off, but he had eight children. My brother still lives on the land there, in an old wooden house. It’s a traditional Cina Benteng style house. It hasn’t been repaired or looked after for years. My brother isn’t as smart as my father was. He sells land and then just spends the money. It all goes up in cigarette smoke.

There is a lot of social jealousy against the Chinese who own land. In the area my family lived, we always got on well with our neighbors. The indigenous Indonesians used to protect us from outsiders. In some other areas, it was quite dangerous. During the communist coup attempt in 1965, a lot of the indigenous Indonesians accused the Chinese landowners of being communists. A lot of Chinese were killed. My uncle was killed. He was a martial arts expert. He was famous. People were scared of him. The neighbors accused him of being a communist. He disappeared and we never heard from him again.

My husband was taken away for a few days. A lot of Chinese were taken away on suspicion of being communists. My husband was only held for three days, then he was released. He said the Army officials inspected his hands to see whether he was a farmer or a communist spy. They saw he had rough, callused hands, so they let him go.

I’ve lived in Jagal Babi for more than 20 years, since I married my husband. The rich Chinese from Jakarta raise pigs on huge farms here. The rich Chinese don’t have anything to do with us. The river used to stink of pig shit all year round. It still floods every year. Every year, the water comes into the houses along the canal. It usually comes up to your knees. It’s not as bad as it used to be. We used to have to walk along a bamboo platform. People used to slip on the bamboo and fall into the river all the time. Now there’s a concrete path. It was built by the local authorities when Megawati was president.

I’m 67. My husband died 10 years ago. I still remember him. I still light incense and pray for him. I’m a Buddhist. Buddhism is about respecting the spirits of our ancestors and our family. I was married more than 50 years ago, when I was 17. When we got married, we had a party for three days. There was a feast for all our family, and dancing. We didn’t register our marriage with the authorities. No one did back then. On their birth certificates, my children are listed as illegitimate.

Things are different now. It’s important to have your documents in order. I made sure my children’s births were registered. I gave them Chinese names, not indigenous names. We have our own culture. It’s a mixture of indigenous and Chinese. We have our own wedding costumes and ceremonies. We have our own architecture. People don’t know that. Even our food is different. It’s Chinese food, but it’s different from the food in the restaurants. My son and I make Cina Benteng-style pork sate and sell it through small food stalls.

This story first appeared in Invisible People: Poverty and Empowerment in Indonesia, published by the PNPM Support Facility, a government of Indonesia, multi-donor partnership for reducing poverty through community action. For more information, please see www.wayang.net/Invisible_People.