Book Review: The Chinese of Semarano: A Changing Minority Community in Indonesia
| Published date | 01 June 1962 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070206201700233 |
| Date | 01 June 1962 |
| Author | Victor Purcell |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
190
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL
process
in
India
serves,
in
fact,
to accentuate
the
centrifugal pressures
in
Indian
society.
But
he
does
not
seem
to allow,
in
his
final
reckoning,
for
the fact
that
it
also
serves
to
alleviate
somewhat
the
tensions
endemic
in a
society
as
highly
complex
and
tradition-ridden
as
India's.
Fifteen
years
of
parliamentary
government,
uninterrupted
and
on
the
whole
successful,
have
created
certain habits
and
norms
of
political
behaviour
likely
to
improve, however
little,
the
chances
of
the
success
of
the
democratic
idea
in
an
otherwise
most
uncongenial
soil.
The
very
fact
of
its
survival, surely,
speaks
of
its
strength
and
of
the
performance
by
the
parliamentary
system
of
a
useful
function.
Mr.
Harrison
does
not
seem sufficiently
to
admit
of
the
possibility
of
a
non-parliamentary
system
in
future
retaining
some
quasi-parliamentary
procedures
likely
to
ensure
the
consent
and
the
participation
of
the
governed
in
the
process
of
government.
India
and
the
United
States,
edited
by Mr.
Harrison,
is
by
compari-
son
with
his
own
book
a
very
ramshackle affair.
The
report
of
a
conference
on
the
subject
held
in
Washington
in
May,
1959,
it
consists
of
extracts
from
the
speeches
made
by
the
participants.
It
tries
to
cover
all aspects
of
the
subject,
and
therefore
succeeds
in
covering
none
exhaustively or
satisfactorily. Not
a
single
basic
theme
comes
into
focus
or
alive.
The
mediocrity
of
American
contributions
Is
aggravated
by
the
brevity and
the
poverty
of
Indian representation.
As
a
result,
the
book
for the
most
part
reads
like
a
discursive
and not
particularly
brilliant
dialogue.
As
an
exercise
in
adult
education,
on
the
other
hand,
and
which was
very
likely
Its
purpose,
it
is
quite
useful.
University
of
Toronto
JrirzmuR
MORAN
TaE
CHINEsE
OF
SEMARANG:
A
CANxaNr
MmoRry
COMMuNIY
IN
INDONESIA.
By
Donald
Earl
Willmott.
1960.
(Ithaca,
New
York.
Cornell
University
Press.
xii
374pp.
$6.00.)
Many
years
ago
Dr.
Toynbee,
on
the
occasion
of
a
visit
to
Singapore,
made
a
celebrated
prophecy
that
in
the
not
far
distant
future
the
ChIiinese wuuld
swamp
Southeast
Asia
and
move on
westwards
(or
words
to
that
effect).
What
signs,
if
any,
are
there
in
1961
of
this
coming
to
pass?
The
answer
is,
so
far,
none.
The
twelve
million
overseas
Chinese
in a
total
of
208
million
in
the
region
are
no
longer
the
spearhead
of
Chinese
expansionist
policy
as
they
were
when
the
Kuomintang
was
in
power
in
China,
but
are
now on
the
defensive.
The
People's
China,
it
seems,
is
preoccupied
with its
vast
plans
within
its
own
territory
and
the
problems
arising
from
them
and
want
no
adventures overseas.
The
test
case of
Chinese
policy
towards
the
Overseas
Chinese
is
Indonesia where
the
new
nationality
treaty
(signed
in
1955;
ratified
in
1960)
operates
and
from
whose
territory
the
People's
Government
is
repatriating
some
tens
of
thousands
of
Chinese
nationals
who
have
been
deprived of
their
living
by
the
new
laws
prohibiting
aliens
from
engaging
in
retail trade
in
the
country districts.
The alien
Chinese
in
Indonesia
have,
in
effect,
been sacrificed
to the
desire
of
Communist
China
to
keep
on
good
terms
with
the
Government
of
Indonesia.
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