http://insideindonesia.org/content/view/1267/47/
The killings of 1965-66
Even now, Indonesians find it difficult to face the traumatic events of
the past
Robert Cribb and Michele Ford
Prisoners captured during the Trisula Operation
Photograph taken at the Museum Brawijaya by Vannessa
Hearman
In the course of little more than five months from late 1965 to early
1966, anti-communist Indonesians killed about half a million of their fellow
citizens. Nearly all the victims were associated with Indonesia's Left,
especially with the Communist Party (PKI) that had risen to unprecedented
national prominence under President Sukarno's Guided Democracy. The massacres
were presided over and often coordinated or carried out by anti-communist
sections of the Indonesian army, but they also engaged wider elements of
Indonesian society - both people who had reason to fear communist power and
people who wanted to establish clear anti-communist credentials in troubled
times.
The killings followed a coup which took place in Jakarta on the morning
of 1 October 1965 in which six senior army generals were killed and a
revolutionary council was formed, seizing power from Sukarno. For the whole of
the New Order period, Indonesian authorities portrayed these events as a
communist grab for power, which was to be followed by the wholesale slaughter
of their opponents. Sceptics, by contrast, doubted the PKI's involvement and
even wondered whether the coup might have been a 'black' operation by
conservative forces, intended to compromise the Party. Recent research,
especially by John Roosa, who writes for this issue, has shown that the PKI
leadership was closely involved in the coup, but that the aims of the operation
were far more limited than a seizure of power.
The destruction of the PKI was part of a process that brought Suharto's
military-dominated New Order regime to power. The new regime abandoned
Sukarno's leftist orientation in foreign and domestic politics and embarked on
a program of western-style economic development. The New Order never concealed
the fact of the killings. Rather, it portrayed them as both a justifiable
response to the alleged threat presented by the PKI and as an outcome of
unrestrained populist politics in the 'Old Order'. The undefined memory of
massacre was thus recruited to justify the New Order's elaborate structure of
political and cultural control and restriction. The alleged evil intentions of
the PKI were also used to justify an enduring and vindictive persecution of
Indonesians who had been associated with the Left and who survived the
massacres. More than a million passed through detention camps, and some were
held for ten years or more. After their release, they faced continuing
restrictions on their civil rights within Indonesia and their family members -
including children not even born in 1965 - faced harassment and restriction.
One of the great achievements of the post-Suharto period is the fact that
it is now possible to begin the complex work of better documenting the events
that occurred in 1965 and in the years that followed. This process is slow and
painstaking. It is made difficult by a diminishing pool of informants, the
fading memories of those who are still alive, the decay of physical evidence
and continuing prejudice in local communities. Groups trying to uncover detail
of the killings have at times faced official harassment and many of the formal
restrictions against former communists remain in place. Significant progress
has nevertheless been made, drawing on rich veins of oral history and
documentary sources within and outside Indonesia.
It is now possible to begin the complex work of better documenting the
events that occurred in 1965 and in the years that followed
For all this growing body of analysis, the killings themselves remain
tantalisingly elusive. Direct witnesses were few, and perpetrators have for the
most part remained stubbornly silent. The usual reluctance of killers to talk
about what they have done is compounded by the fear of reprisals or claims for
compensation. Many Indonesians, too, look back on a national history that is
studded with difficult, controversial and divisive events and argue instead
that Indonesians should look forward and focus on improving their future rather
than dwelling on past crimes. On both sides of the Left-Right divide, moreover,
there has been a feeling that a too-detailed investigation of the precise
circumstances of the killings might reveal sordid, unpleasant details that
would compromise the stark elegance of mainstream narratives both of communist
victimhood and of communist evil. All but one of the contributors to this
important edition of Inside Indonesia presented papers based on their original
research at a conference on the same theme organised by Tony Reid, Doug Kammen,
Kate McGregor and Vannessa Hearman and held at the Asia Research Institute in
Singapore in June 2009. We would like to thank the conference organisers, who
are editing a book based on the conference proceedings, for encouraging
participants to also contribute to this collection. Many more researchers were
involved in that conference than could possibly be showcased here.
This edition begins with an article by Brad Simpson, reminds us of the
support western governments provided to the army and other anti-communist
forces at this time. This is followed by Greg Fealy's account of Nahdlatul
Ulama members' involvement in the events of 1965-66. Dahlia Gratia Setiyawan ,
Vannessa Hearman , Taufik Ahmad and Annie Pohlman follow with harrowing
accounts of Communists' lives under attack, on the run and in detention camps
in Java and Sulawesi, while Katharine McGregor describes the terrible pressures
experienced by survivors and their supporters. John Roosa's dictionary, which
offers readers insight into the mechanics of the coup itself, rounds the
collection out.
In these articles we get a glimpse of a terrible world that has now
largely receded into memory. However, understanding the circumstances that
could bring such misery and barbarity to a country which achieved independence
with such hope for justice and prosperity remains a task for every generation.
Robert Cribb ([email protected] ) is professor of History at the
Australian National University and editor of the 1990 volume, The Indonesian
Killings 1965-1966: Studies from Java and Bali.
Michele Ford ([email protected] ) chairs the Department of
Indonesian Studies at the University of Sydney, where she teaches about social
activism and human rights in Southeast Asia.
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