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Government to draft recommendation from 1965 National Symposium
Jakarta Post - May 31, 2016
A committee comprising retired Army generals, Pancasila-based organizations and Islamic groups will hold a two-day national symposium entitled "Securing Pancasila from the Threat of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) and Other Ideologies" in Jakarta on June 1 and 2.
The event aims to give a perspective different from that of the recent 1965 National Symposium entitled "Dissecting the 1965 Tragedy". In April's symposium, survivors, government officials, academics, human rights activists and other groups came together to seek national reconciliation for victims of the political turmoil, which has been said to have claimed more than 500,000 lives.
Coordinating Political Legal, and Security Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan said the government would wait for input from the upcoming national symposium, from which it would get another perspective to include in the recommendation.
"We expect to get input from participants of the [June] symposium too. We will combine those two versions and see which one of suggestions delivered is most suitable to be implemented," Luhut told journalists on Monday.
Luhut further said the organizing of the two symposiums was not aimed at finding which parties were wrong or right or to pinpoint which parties were left or right wing. It was all a matter of humanity, he explained.
Luhut said the government wanted to settle the 1965 issue once and for all so that it would not be a burden for the next generation. All future actions would be taken in accordance with prevailing laws, which ban communism, he added.
Retired Army general Kiki Syahnakri, chairman of the June symposium, said the upcoming symposium aimed to protect younger generations from the threat of communist ideology and a re-emergence of the Indonesia Communist Party (PKI), which would hamper Pancasila and stop the country from moving forward.
"We want to use an ideological approach. If all [parties] acknowledge Pancasila as our principle, hopefully there will be a compromise," Kiki said.
He further said the historical approach was not the proper way to address the 1965 tragedy because it involved many versions and would confuse people. Therefore, national reconciliation should be balanced and not based on partial claims.
Kiki said the symposium's committee had invited representatives of human rights groups and other figures, such as representatives of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) and Indonesian Human Rights Watch (Imparsial), April symposium chairman Agus Widjojo, 1965/1966 Murder Victims Research Foundation (YPKP) head Bedjo Untung and as survivors and witnesses of atrocities perpetrated in 1965, to attend the event.
The committee has said it is against a plan to exhume the mass graves of 1965 victims across Indonesia, saying it would be dangerous because it could trigger social unrest.
Luhut said the government was considering whether the government would exhume mass graves located mostly in Central Java, based on YPKP findings. "I have said this over and over: I don't believe 400,000 people were killed [in 1965]," Luhut said.
The minister further said he would not attend the national symposium in June even though he had been officially invited. He said Defense Minister Ryamizar Ryacudu would attend the event instead. (ebf)
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