JAKARTA, Jan 26 (AP) -- Indonesia's ethnic Chinese are preparing feasts and decking out temples to mark the New Year. But amid the festivities, some still complain of discrimination -- part of a legacy of racism in the archipelago stretching back 200 years.

Life now for the country's Chinese -- estimated to be between 2 percent and 5 percent of its 220 million people -- is immeasurably better than it was under dictator Gen. Suharto, who saw them as potential communist sympathizers.

The right-wing general banned them from celebrating traditional festivals, including New Year, encouraged them to take Indonesian-sounding names and made them get special documents to apply for citizenship. Chinese language publications were banned.

Those regulations have been lifted since Suharto was ousted amid riots in 1998.

But lingering discrimination remains, mostly in the form of higher fees charged for citizenship documents, activists say.

"It is difficult for public officials to realize that Indonesians of Chinese descent are just like other citizens," said Alvin Lie, a prominent ethnic-Chinese legislator. "Everything costs more. It is not systematic like it was under Suharto, but it is still happening."

Most Chinese in Indonesia are Christians or Buddhists. They inevitably get caught up in anti-Christian sentiment, which is common in mostly Muslim Indonesia and often manifests itself in attacks on churches.

Jealousy is also a factor. Despite the discrimination of the Suharto years, many Chinese tycoons close to the corrupt regime amassed huge fortunes _ helping create a still popular perception that all Chinese are wealthy.

Chinese settlers first arrived here in large numbers in the 15th century.

The country's Dutch colonial rulers treated them better than other inhabitants, allowing them to become the country's chief trading class and breeding resentment among indigenous people.

Junus Yahya, a Muslim of Chinese descent, said it was now time for discrimination to end

"Since our founding fathers proclaimed Indonesia's independence they said the nation was base on equality," said Yahya.