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Indonesia is still afraid to look into the mirror and face its bloody past
The Guardian (Australia) - November 11, 2015
On 10 October, along with her brother and father, Kadmiyati was rounded up by the military and brought to the district military headquarters with about 10 of her neighbours. She thinks herself lucky – she was only detained for a few months. A year later she was again arrested, interrogated and tortured.
Kadmiyati was invited to attend the Ubud writers' festival this year. She was due to speak at the opening of a photo exhibition organised by Asia Justice and Rights (AJAR) together with the Herb Feith foundation. She was excited and had prepared a Javanese song to share with the audience. When the exhibition was cancelled, along with a series of sessions discussing 1965 and its legacy, I asked if Kadmiyati felt disappointed. She smiled brightly: "I am used to it. It does not mean we stop speaking out."
Indonesia's president Joko Widodo has only been in power for one year. During his election campaign, he included the promise to address the violations of the past as part of his so-called nine point agenda, Nawacita. A few months into his presidency, Jokowi spoke to a group of survivors convened by the National Human Rights Commission at a meeting in Yogyakarta to commemorate human rights day in December 2014.
Kadmiyati was among the crowd, together with other survivors of 1965. She rushed towards him at the end of his speech. "Some of us are now elderly and frail. We need support. Time is running out." The president listened intently, nodded his head and asked his minders to write down their names. She left the meeting feeling hopeful. Now, her hopes have been dashed.
Indonesia is still afraid to look into a mirror and come to terms with its bloody past. But it hasn't always been like that. In the fervour of reformation, the upper house of the Indonesian national parliament passed a resolution in 1999 acknowledging how the Suharto regime had "fractured protection and promotion of human rights, demonstrated by various human rights violations, in forms that include violence, discrimination and abuse of power".
The idea of a truth and reconciliation commission was floated, a law was passed in 2004 but annulled two years later. This has also blocked the establishment of two truth commissions for Papua and Aceh, respectively legislated in the special autonomy laws.
The problem with impunity is that it is contagious. Impunity for these past crimes seeps into impunity from everyday justice. The mass crimes committed in 1965 were repeated in Timor-Leste, repeated in Aceh and Papua, and replicated among those speaking out against land grabbing and in defence of labour rights. Although Indonesia has made progress towards democracy since reformation, we are still ensnared in our past.
However, the lack of official appetite for truth has not dampened the urge to seek it. Survivors and human rights workers have worked hard to carve out a space to speak about the atrocities of 1965 and other incidences of repression and abuse that were rife throughout Suharto's "New Order" regime.
Between 2013 and 2014, a coalition of 50 NGOs from Aceh to Papua organised a year-long event called the Year of Truth, where survivors and witnesses spoke out about their experiences. The coalition, Coalition for Truth and Justice, gathered testimonies and evidence from its members, held public hearings in cities across the nation, and produced a final report that has been widely disseminated.
This year marks the 50th year since the pogroms against members of the Indonesian communist party and anyone thought to be associated with it. Even today we do not know whether 500,000, one million or more were killed. An Amnesty International report from 1969 estimated that 150,000 people were held without trial as "political prisoners" in makeshift detention centres throughout Indonesia.
Efforts to encourage the government to acknowledge victims of 1965 has been met with a pushback from conservative elements, some have put up signs warning of the "latent danger of communism". However, survivors and their advocates have not been swayed, their voices gathering momentum.
At The Hague on Wednesday, a group of international jurists gathered to hear the testimonies of survivors and witnesses from the 1965 atrocities. A "people's tribunal" had been convened in lieu of a comprehensive and rational response from the Indonesian government.
Kadmiyati's verse that she prepared to sing in Ubud goes something like this: "Let's keep the spirit working to stop our suffering. Expressed but not achieved, release our grief and pain. Fifty years have passed, the gates of reconciliation yet to open. To lead our nation back to its glory."
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