official English legislation

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>... in Indonesia, where ethnic Chinese are said to own 10 percent of the
>wealth.

>... somewhere between 100,000 and 1,000,000 ethnic Chinese were massacred
>in Indonesia, and no official language law was needed to bring this about
>during those riots.

There was serious trouble with anti-Chinese rioting in Indonesia recently,
especially in 1998, I think.

I think most commonly cited estimates would have ethnic Chinese comprising
about 3% of the Indonesian population and controlling about 70% of the
wealth (I don't know whether such estimates can be accurate or precise).
There is a religious aspect too, with the Chinese mostly non-Islamic in a
(90%+) Islamic country. But note that there are other serious ethnic
tensions in Indonesia (e.g., New Guinea, Timor, Borneo).

For comparison, peaceful assimilation is the rule in Thailand, I think,
with about 15% ethnic Chinese (said to control > 70% of the wealth). In
recent decades the Thai government has insisted -- forcefully in some cases
-- on primary education in Thai, I understand (previously some Chinese
enclaves were teaching primarily Chinese). There is considerable
intermarriage and generally little or no friction.

I don't claim any expertise.

-- Doug Wilson