Ref: Kalau benar Presiden NKRI akan meminta maaf kepada para korban dan 
keluarga mereka yang menderita tindakan kekejaman rezim NKRI, seharusnya 
permintaan maaf yang dimaksudkan bukan sekadar ucapan maaf lahir bathin seperti 
pada hari raya agama, tetapi maaf yang mempunyai kekuatan hukum dalam mana 
dikembalikan hak-hak sipil dan kompensasi kepada para korban kekejaman dan TAP 
XXV/1966 dinyatakan tidak lagi berlaku.

Kalau cuma maaf-maaf seperti pada hari raya agama adalah tidak lain sepuhan 
lidah belaka yang tidak bermakna dalam masyarakat demokrasi berazaskan hukum 
manusia beradab!


http://www.smh.com.au/world/sorry-state-of-affairs-as-indonesia-faces-the-ghosts-of-its-past-20120504-1y49n.html
Sorry state of affairs as Indonesia faces the ghosts of its past 
May 5, 2012 
  a.. 
 
Mohamad Achadi, a former minister in Indonesia's Sukarno government who spent 
12 years as a political prisoner under Suharto. Photo: Michael Bachelard

An apology from the President is unlikely to change status quo, writes Michael 
Bachelard.

UNLIKE many of his countrymen, Mohamad Achadi cannot forget the bloodbath that 
attended the birth of the modern nation of Indonesia.

For 12 years in the 1960s and 1970s, he languished in prison while outside the 
country's leader, Suharto, was consolidating his power with the massacre of 
300,000 or more people.

Achadi's only crime was to be a minister in the cabinet of Suharto's 
predecessor, Sukarno. Those who died in the massacres were Communists, 
left-wingers and anyone else Suharto perceived as an enemy.

Advertisement: Story continues below 
 
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Photo: Reuters

It was just the first of many atrocities during Suharto's 32-year regime. 
Kontras, Indonesia's Commission for the Disappeared and Victims of Violence, 
has identified 11 different sets of killings, including the invasion of East 
Timor, the suppression of separatists in Aceh, the violence in West Papua.

But now, inspired in part by Kevin Rudd's apology to the stolen generations of 
indigenous Australians, the current President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, wants 
to make amends, to acknowledge the past crimes of the Indonesian government and 
apologise to the victims.

Dr Yudhoyono and his advisers have gone quiet since raising the issue last 
week, but Usman Hamid, a Kontras activist who has been involved in three years 
of official discussions over the issue, believes the President is genuine.

Dr Yudhoyono, known throughout Indonesia as SBY, has told confidants that he 
wants it as part of his legacy after his term ends in 2014. It is rumoured that 
he hopes to be appointed UN secretary-general in 2016, and an apology, it is 
believed, could only help.

According to Mr Hamid, however, there are many hurdles still in the way.

Even talking about past human rights abuses has raised the awkward issue of 
Indonesia's current crop of political prisoners, particularly from West Papua, 
Mr Hamid told the Herald.

The existence of these 30 or 35 people ''undermines Indonesian democracy'', and 
the only way to resolve it would be to release them - a policy the military 
would be likely to oppose.

''The first step should be to talk with the military and police and make sure 
they are willing to support the policy of release of political prisoners,'' Mr 
Hamid said.

''Of course, there is some debate about that.''

The military no longer has a formal role in politics in Indonesia, but it still 
wields considerable influence. SBY is a former army general, as is at least one 
of the potential candidates for the 2014 election.

>From 1965, the army carried out Suharto's dirty work and most in the military 
>are still taught in their academies that the victims, members of the Communist 
>Party of Indonesia (PKI), were to blame for the violence. So powerful has this 
>propaganda proven that there are still no left-wing political parties in 
>Indonesia, and it remains a criminal offence to teach Marxism and Leninism.

In this culture of forgetting, former political prisoners still suffer from a 
deficit in civil rights.

Wiryanto, the son of another Sukarno minister, Setiadi Reksoprodjo, says his 
family, like hundreds of thousands of others, had their land and other assets 
stripped from them and never returned. After their release, prisoners were 
denied work and public servants were excluded from government pensions. They 
were forced to seek permission for international travel and had trouble 
obtaining loans.

Until 2005, Wiryanto's father's identity card, which all Indonesians must 
carry, had the letters E.T. (for eks tahanan politik, or former political 
prisoner) stamped in the corner, so every official who checked it would know 
his shame.

''Being labelled PKI was worse than the condition of a bastard child,'' 
Witaryono told the Herald.

The courts have not helped. Nurlan was a prisoner who witnessed torture and 
spent the rest of his career as a journalist hiding behind a pseudonym, Martin 
Aleida. He tried suing for compensation, but the court said it was not its 
place to intervene.

Victims do not want an empty or partial apology, such as those made by Dr 
Yudhoyono's predecessors, Megawati Sukarnoputri and Abdurrahman Wahid. They 
want a public acknowledgement that opens the way to compensation, and to have 
their full civil rights restored.

''The idea [of the apology] is how to have an entry point for a general 
rehabilitation policy,'' Mr Hamid said.

But for Dr Yudhoyono, sorry still might prove too hard a word to say. His 
father-in-law, Sarwo Edhie Wibowo, was one of the generals centrally involved 
in the massacres. (He once boasted that 2 million people were killed, ''and we 
did a good job''.)

Muridan Widjojo, an activist and author of the Papua Road Map, says political 
prisoners such as Filep Karma are serving up to 15 years in prison.

''If you express the apology that's fine, but the violence, the oppression [is] 
still going on. If the conflict is still there, it means nothing,'' Mr Widjojo 
said.

Mr Witaryono and Mr Achadi both believe the obstacles are too high.

''To announce my father's innocence, it will never happen,'' Mr Witaryono said. 
''He'll always be tainted.''


Read more: 
http://www.smh.com.au/world/sorry-state-of-affairs-as-indonesia-faces-the-ghosts-of-its-past-20120504-1y49n.html#ixzz1u2PEKhyS


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