If
someone caused you unbearable suffering, the actions of which had haunted you
for 50 years, would you be able to forgive them?
Indonesians
were summarily slaughtered for being members of (or even just affiliated with)
a legal Indonesian political party. Upwards of a million people lost
their lives and a million more were
rounded up and placed in prison camps, without any due process of law. They
were given death or long, hard prison sentences without the presentation of
evidence or the right to a legal defense.
None of these victims had any connection to, or even awareness of, the events of 30 September 1965. And yet they died horribly or were tossed away into prisons like human garbage. No country can build a strong legal regime without confronting such past atrocities.
In our case, perpetrators and survivors-cum-victims have been living side by side for almost five decades. Imagine! In all that time, the victims have been hidden in suffering and silence, while the perpetrators have enjoyed impunity, power and even prominence. And we call ourselves a democracy?
The New Order’s interpretation of 1965 was the rationale for the oppression of the military-led regime. In 2015, it will be 50 years since the 1965 Indonesian genocide; surely it is time for change.
In early December, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo reiterated his presidential campaign promise to address past human rights violations. So how come Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Tedjo Edhi Purdijatno says we should, “forget the past”?
Vice President Jusuf Kalla also stated it was unlikely that the government would issue an official apology. Well, what do you expect from a man who was shown in The Act of Killing giving a speech in 2009 at an annual meeting of Pancasila Youth — a paramilitary group involved in the 1965 death squads — saying “We need gangsters to get things done”?
Calls to acknowledge the 1965 massacre have recently escalated, not only nationally, but also from outside Indonesia. On Dec. 10, Human Rights Day, US Senator Tom Udall introduced a “Sense of the Senate Resolution” condemning the 1965-1966 atrocities, calling on both the Indonesian and US governments to declassify related documents in US files.
It is an open secret that the US government, closely supported by the British and Australian administrations, supported the change of government in 1965 as as part of their struggle against Communism.
Udall’s resolution came around the time of the release of a Senate report on the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) torture program (similar to Kempetai’s torture methods and those of the Indonesian death squads), used against Islamist terrorist suspects after 2011.
People like former US vice president and secretary of defense Dick Cheney reject the report, but as White House press secretary Josh Ernest said, “Fessing up […] the willingness to come clean, does a lot to rebuild [the US’] moral authority around the globe.”
This is true of all nations, including Indonesia. It really is in our interests to come clean about our human rights abuses, not just those from 1965.
Adding a personal note, in the spirit of the New Year, look deep into your heart. Whether you need to apologize, atone or forgive, do it. Pay all your debts, whatever they may be, and clean the slate in 2015.
Happy New Year.
None of these victims had any connection to, or even awareness of, the events of 30 September 1965. And yet they died horribly or were tossed away into prisons like human garbage. No country can build a strong legal regime without confronting such past atrocities.
In our case, perpetrators and survivors-cum-victims have been living side by side for almost five decades. Imagine! In all that time, the victims have been hidden in suffering and silence, while the perpetrators have enjoyed impunity, power and even prominence. And we call ourselves a democracy?
The New Order’s interpretation of 1965 was the rationale for the oppression of the military-led regime. In 2015, it will be 50 years since the 1965 Indonesian genocide; surely it is time for change.
In early December, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo reiterated his presidential campaign promise to address past human rights violations. So how come Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Tedjo Edhi Purdijatno says we should, “forget the past”?
Vice President Jusuf Kalla also stated it was unlikely that the government would issue an official apology. Well, what do you expect from a man who was shown in The Act of Killing giving a speech in 2009 at an annual meeting of Pancasila Youth — a paramilitary group involved in the 1965 death squads — saying “We need gangsters to get things done”?
Calls to acknowledge the 1965 massacre have recently escalated, not only nationally, but also from outside Indonesia. On Dec. 10, Human Rights Day, US Senator Tom Udall introduced a “Sense of the Senate Resolution” condemning the 1965-1966 atrocities, calling on both the Indonesian and US governments to declassify related documents in US files.
It is an open secret that the US government, closely supported by the British and Australian administrations, supported the change of government in 1965 as as part of their struggle against Communism.
Udall’s resolution came around the time of the release of a Senate report on the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) torture program (similar to Kempetai’s torture methods and those of the Indonesian death squads), used against Islamist terrorist suspects after 2011.
People like former US vice president and secretary of defense Dick Cheney reject the report, but as White House press secretary Josh Ernest said, “Fessing up […] the willingness to come clean, does a lot to rebuild [the US’] moral authority around the globe.”
This is true of all nations, including Indonesia. It really is in our interests to come clean about our human rights abuses, not just those from 1965.
Adding a personal note, in the spirit of the New Year, look deep into your heart. Whether you need to apologize, atone or forgive, do it. Pay all your debts, whatever they may be, and clean the slate in 2015.
Happy New Year.
_______________
The writer is the author of Julia’s Jihad.
The writer is the author of Julia’s Jihad.
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