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Hard-line groups to protest 1965 apology at State Palace
Jakarta Post - June 2, 2016
The rally will start after Friday prayers at the Istiqlal Grand Mosque in Central Jakarta, from where protestors will conduct a long march to the State Palace, Islamic Defenders' Front (FPI) patron Muhammad Rizieq Shihab said on Wednesday.
"We want to go to the State Palace because it is the source of problems. The palace has been trying to find a formulation of reconciliation," Rizieq said during a national symposium entitled Protecting Pancasila from the Threat of the Indonesian Communist Party [PKI] and Other Ideologies" in Jakarta on Wednesday.
Furthermore, Rizieq also slammed the "government's plan to apologize to the PKI", even though no detail has yet emerged from President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's administration on how to resolve the 1965 political conflict and bloodshed.
The official reconciliation is also a waste of time as the survivors and victims have been through a natural reconciliation within the society, he added.
"That means that they have got their rights in terms of civil society, economy and politics. So why would we open old wounds?" he said referring among others to the removal of the label "political prisoner" on the identity cards of former political detainees and the restoration of their electoral rights. Still, survivors and their descendants have reported continued stigma and discrimination.
Meanwhile, symposium coordinator Kiki Syahnakri said that "hundreds" of fellow retired Army generals would also join the rally. "They are old and could easily catch a cold. But for this matter, we are ready to die," he said at the event.
At least 300 retired military generals are involved as organizers of the symposium that was also attended by several mass organizations.
The event was set up to challenge the Symposium titled "Dissecting the 1965 Tragedy" held in April as participants said they were not satisfied with the previous event. The national symposium on the 1965 tragedy brought together victims and families of the 1965 communist purge, human rights activists, academics and state officials to discuss how to settle the dark chapter in Indonesian history.
Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan said on Monday that he welcomed the Symposium on protecting Pancasila initiated by retired generals as it would also provide input for the government to make a decision on settling past human rights abuses.
The kidnapping and murder of six Army generals on Sept.30, 1965, led to the purge of PKI members, sympathizers and their families, resulting in hundreds of thousands of victims across the country, with at least 500,000 people killed during the massacres in 1965 and 1966.
Soeharto seized power in 1966 with the controversial March 11 Indonesian Presidential Executive Order (Supersemar). The 1966 Provisional People's Consultative Assembly (MPRS) banned the dissemination of "communism, Leninism and Marxism" in Indonesia.
Meanwhile, retired army general Kivlan Zein claimed that he had found indications that the PKI would soon be revived, echoing fears stated by among others Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu. The indications range from the spread of communist symbols to the gathering of leftist activists recently. The PKI had also renovated its old office in Jakarta as part of preparations for the revival, he said.
"They are ready to proclaim themselves once again in 2017, soon after the government apologizes to them," Kivlan said. "Before they become strong, we must hit them hard."
Activists have cited several instances of disrupted discussions and other events on 1965, raids on books and even T-shirts.
Dave Lumenta, an anthropologist at the University of Indonesia (UI), said that most people had no access to the country's history except the lesson materials taught in schools.
Hence, the single narrative of the 1965 mass killings provided by the government has formed collective memories among people that communists were only brutal atheists, he said in an interview in May. (vps)
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