Researching Ethnic Chinese Indonesians in Post-COVID-19 Pandemic Era: Challenges and Opportunities

The re-opening of Indonesia’s borders in 2022 after the COVID-19 pandemic allowed foreign researchers to explore more opportunities in researching various aspects of the country, including its ethnic Chinese minority. The ambivalent socio-political position of Chinese Indonesians as a perceived economically-dominant alien minority group all this while, despite the revocation of discriminatory laws against them after the fall of Suharto’s authoritarian regime in May 1998, continues to make issues related to Chinese Indonesian worth to be researched. However, foreign researchers also face various new challenges. The main challenge is the more stringent requirements in obtaining a research permit from the Indonesian government, which has also become a requirement for the application of visiting fellowships or visiting scholar positions in Indonesia’s universities. It is very difficult to get a research permit for 'sensitive' topics such as the role of Chinese Indonesians in Indonesian politics and the challenges they face, and identity politics related to Chinese Indonesians. Moreover, the neo-liberalization of higher education has led to not only lesser research grants available to scholars but also heavier teaching, supervision and administration workload of scholars which has hampered their research efforts. To overcome these challenges, it is suggested that foreign researchers always have ample financial savings for research in case they cannot get a research grant, and to reach out as well as collaborate with Indonesian researchers who share similar research interests. Universities, think tanks and civil society organizations within and outside Indonesia should also offer research grants for studies on Chinese Indonesians.