The idea to establish a multicultural school was born from the founder's - dr Sofyan Tan's - bitter experience post-1965 tragedy in Medan. One of the major negative impacts of the political turmoil at the time was the "hostility" towards some Chinese Indonesians. Consequently, many of these Chinese Indonesians, especially those from the older generation who directly experienced the violence, suffe
red from deep psychological pains and trauma. The prejudice, even hatred of some people from this older generation led them to pass down the stereotypical views, especially the negative ones towards the so-called "pribumi" to the younger generation. On the other hand, the inheritance of stereotypical values was also preserved among the “pribumi” younger generation. This young generation inherited a presumption that the Chinese were "exclusive", "stingy”, anti-social", "egoistic," and “their nationalism was still in question. This stereotypical way of thinking is counterproductive to the efforts of achieving a cohesive and harmonious Indonesian society. If the process towards social integration is left without any systematic, structural and strong attempts to "demolish" such prejudicial attitudes and “nurture” the development of peaceful co-existence, it can lead to discrimination. People may consequently live together without respecting diversity. Diversity is no longer recognized as the blessing from God as taught in various religious scriptures, but instead is used as the source of social disintegration. The concern over this social issue thence encourages Sofyan Tan to build up more harmonious social ties between the two generations that are very plural, both in terms of ethnicity, culture, religion, and social strata. Using education as a means of reconciliation, he intends to not only debunk those stereotypical ways of thinking and reduce the potential occurrence of discriminatory attitudes, but he alsoendeavors to eradicate poverty which he deems to be the root of the discriminatory acts.Because of this, from the beginning Sofyan views that it is important to provide young people who live in marginalised, especially economically marginalised conditions with good quality multicultural education.They are the "axis" that can be easily "burned" and “manipulated” by certain parties who hold ethnical sentiments in the politically unstable situation in Indonesia! The children from this group are also faced with very limited options: either obtaining a formal education in educational institutions that have low (or no) quality or receiving no formal education at all and becoming workers in the informal sector. If the education does not have good quality, then they will be eliminated more easily from thelabor market competition. All of this is a vicious circle that must be broken. Younger generation from poor families should be given good quality education so that they can improve their bargaining position in the labor market, which eventually raises their opportunities to move upwards in the social mobility ladder. Through good quality of education that teaches students about respect and mutual understanding towards everyone regardless of their ethnic, religious, racial and inter-group differences, it is expected that the stereotypical views and prejudicial attitudes can also be ameliorated. Despite having such social missions, YPSIM school is not built to merely cater children from poor families. YPSIM welcomes all children from distinctive social backgrounds. Differences in socio-economic status should not be seen as a determinant factor in the admission process. Rather, they are seen as a source of inspiration or motivation for the students who come from less affluent families to catch up and do better. These socio-economic variations are also used as an opportunity for theoccurrence of cross-subsidies mechanism, especially from the more affluent to the less affluent families. Through this strategy, the school wishes to give real example of how one of the national philosophies “gotongroyong” (collaborative cooperation to attain a shared goal) can be implemented in daily lives.
