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Ethnic Chinese still grapple with discrimination despite generations in Indonesia

Published Sun, Mar 19, 2017 · 09:50 PM

Prambanan, Indonesia

WHEN Willie Sebastian bought a tiny piece of land to build a storage space, government officials in the heart of Java island delivered him an unpleasant surprise. He could not register the purchase, since he was of Chinese descent, and therefore the land would belong to the local sultan.

The men at the land office knew he was Chinese, he said, even though his family changed their last name from "Lee" in the 1970s, during his country's right-wing dictatorship, to avoid discrimination.

"They just looked at this face and knew," Mr Sebastian said recently, pointing to his light skin and eyes, while working in his humble general…

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