As the Chinese New Year approaches on Feb. 10, Indonesia has an opportunity to reconsider what really defines its national identity. Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim population and largest archipelagic country, comprises different ethnicities including the Chinese, which has been a part of the country’s diversity since the 15th century.

Before 1965, when Indonesia was led by its first president, Soekarno, the Chinese New Year was celebrated openly by people across the country. I remember the Chinese New Year in Indonesia from my childhood. Weeks before the holiday, restaurants, shops, markets and streets were decked with lanterns, banners and posters. Wherever you went, shades of red, in different shapes and forms, engulfed you in garish merriment.

Gongxi Gongxi, the standard Chinese New Year song, filled the air. Its drumbeats were evocative of the anticipated festivities. The night was sporadically interrupted by firecrackers and fireworks. At home, women pressed triangle wafer crisps, the fortune cookies for the occasion, and baked an assortment of cakes.

But under Soeharto, who became the president between 1965 and 1999, there was an attempt to create a unified Indonesian identity by banning Chinese language, celebrations and even Chinese names.

Flash forward to 1999: The newly elected president, Gus Dur, reinstates Chinese Indonesians’ right to celebrate Chinese New Year. Then five years later, in 2004, President Megawati Sukamoputri officially pronounced the Chinese New Year a national public holiday.

But by the time the laws against cultural expressions of the Chinese were lifted, much had been lost. Those growing up within this span of time had largely abandoned their ethnic cultural background, with only some surviving fragments of the population in Medan, Belitung and Singkawang still holding on to the vestiges of the heritage.

What was lost can hardly be attributed to the pride of a streamlined national identity. A thread of the colorful fabric of Indonesian national identity was lost. In a nation that boasts a myriad of ethnicities, Indonesia can benefit from hybridity rather than surface homogeneity.

Yet there is still hope for the future. We may see a return of the social clubs from which Chinese Indonesians would learn to read, cook, sing, play music and craft the delicate paper arts. Perhaps there are still elders who can help pass on to their children the facts of their family history, guide them through the rigmaroles of a ceremony and teach them home-brewed remedies.

More importantly, maybe we will see a return to the family reunions, the collaborative efforts to organize the New Year’s Eve dinner and invite the neighbors to share these festivities.

With the Indonesians’ ability to experience the celebrations of their diverse fellow citizens, perhaps it will spark curiosity among youth, our children and grandchildren, to know the country’s rich culture.

Finally, with emancipation comes equality. With equality, social integration of Indonesia’s many ethnic groups. This fact is clearly seen in the carefree mingling of Indonesia’s diverse populations on campuses, in workplaces and in residential areas.

And, given time, who knows, we may see those homemade triangle wafer crisps changed according to the explanation above again.

Richard Oh is a novelist and filmmaker based in Jakarta. THE DAILY STAR publishes this commentary in collaboration with the Common Ground News Service (www.commongroundnews.org).