Surabaya. Each Lunar New Year, many Indonesians recall the legacy of former president Abdurrahman Wahid, widely known as Gus Dur, whose reforms paved the way for public celebrations of the holiday after decades of restrictions.

Gus Dur, Indonesia’s fourth president who served from 1999 to 2001, is credited with lifting policies that had suppressed Chinese cultural expression during the authoritarian New Order era under former president Suharto.

Since Gus Dur’s presidency, Lunar New Year — known locally as Imlek — has been openly celebrated across the country, with festive decorations displayed not only in places of worship but also in shopping malls and public spaces.

“His contribution was extraordinary, especially for the Confucian community and ethnic Chinese Indonesians, because it was due to him that Lunar New Year could be celebrated widely,” said Liem Tiong Yang, a Confucian cleric in Surabaya, speaking on Tuesday.

For more than three decades under Suharto’s rule (1966–1998), public displays of Chinese identity were heavily restricted. A 1967 presidential instruction limited the practice of Chinese customs, traditions and religious observances to private settings. The use of Chinese characters in public signage was banned, Chinese-language publications were tightly controlled, and cultural performances such as barongsai lion dances were prohibited in public spaces. Confucianism was also stripped of formal recognition as an official religion, forcing many adherents to register under other faiths.

That changed when Wahid issued Presidential Decree No. 6/2000, revoking a 1967 presidential instruction that had restricted Chinese customs and traditions. The move marked a turning point in the state’s recognition of Indonesia’s ethnic Chinese minority.

Gus Dur later designated Lunar New Year as an optional holiday. In 2003, his successor, President Megawati Soekarnoputri, upgraded the holiday to national status, a designation that remains in place today.

Liem said the holiday has since evolved into a cross-cultural celebration embraced by Indonesians of various faiths.

“Lunar New Year decorations are not only found in places of worship but also in malls. It has become a moment for people of different religions to celebrate togetherness,” he said.

He added that Gus Dur’s pluralist values remain relevant for younger generations in Indonesia, a diverse archipelago of more than 270 million people spanning hundreds of ethnic groups and religions.

“Indonesia was not built by one group alone, but through the joint efforts of many ethnicities and faiths,” Liem said. “What Gus Dur taught — mutual respect, tolerance and human dignity — should be upheld.”

Gus Dur, a Muslim cleric and former leader of the country’s largest Islamic organization, is widely remembered as a champion of minority rights and religious pluralism. His policies on cultural freedom and inclusion continue to shape Indonesia’s approach to diversity more than two decades later.

Indonesia is home to one of the largest ethnic Chinese communities outside mainland China. According to data platform Statista, the country was estimated to have around 11.15 million people of Chinese descent in 2023, making it the largest Chinese diaspora population outside China and equivalent to roughly 4% of Indonesia’s total population.

However, official figures have varied. The most recent ethnicity data from the 2010 population census conducted by the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) recorded 2,832,510 ethnic Chinese residents, but the number may be underreported, as many individuals were reluctant to identify themselves as ethnically Chinese in past censuses due to historical discrimination and assimilation policies.