Correcting history<\/p>\n
The police wasted no time in investigating a claim that former
\npresident Sukarno signed the Supersemar document almost at
\ngunpoint. As we recall, Supersemar, the executive order signed on
\nMarch 11, 1966, supposedly empowered Maj. Gen. Soeharto to take
\nall necessary steps to restore peace and order in the country
\nthat was on the verge of collapsing. Soeharto quickly used the
\noverriding powers accorded to him by the letter to outlaw the
\nIndonesian Communist Party (PKI), arrest its leaders, and disband
\nSukarno's cabinet.<\/p>\n
While the circumstances surrounding the signing of the
\nSupersemar letter in the Bogor presidential palace remain
\nunclear, the event was a major turning point in Indonesia's
\npolitical history. Supersemar marked the decline of Sukarno and
\nthe rise of Soeharto to the presidency, a position which he held
\non to for more than three decades until his resignation in May.<\/p>\n
For 32 years, there was only one version of what had happened
\non that fateful day in 1966. This is the official version which
\nsays that Sukarno willingly signed the letter brought to him by
\nthree Army generals, all of whom were Soeharto's emissaries. When
\nhe signed it, Sukarno effectively transferred his executive
\npowers to Soeharto.<\/p>\n
Now, with the return of freedom of expression after Soeharto's
\nown downfall, one of Sukarno's bodyguards who was at the Bogor
\npalace at the time, has claimed that the president was pressured
\ninto signing the Supersemar. Soekardjo Wilardjito, aged 71, was
\nsummoned by the police this week to explain himself for
\nchallenging the official version. He has backtracked from his
\nearlier claim that he saw two generals brandish pistols, and now
\nsays they were merely gripping their guns, an act that was
\nnevertheless seen as intimidating to the president.<\/p>\n
The police questioning of Soekardjo focused not so much on
\ntrying to establish the truth about Supersemar, as on pinning
\npossible criminal charges on him for spreading lies. His claim
\nhas nevertheless renewed public interest to find out about what
\nreally happened.<\/p>\n
The signing of Supersemar was so important to the nation's
\nhistory that the official version should not go totally
\nunchallenged. The official version is not only one-sided, it also
\nleaves many unanswered questions, one of them being the
\nwhereabouts of the original letter. Each time this question has
\ncome up, the government has lightly, if not conveniently,
\ndismissed the importance of the original letter. Yet, until we
\nsee the document, we have to take the government's claim of the
\nexact wording of the letter with a grain of salt.<\/p>\n
Soekardjo could turn out to be a crank looking for cheap
\npublicity amid the media's frenzy to dig up the dirt on
\nSoeharto's administration. But he could also be telling the
\ntruth. Whichever is the case, he has opened a Pandora's box that
\nhas long been kept shut by an even greater force of evil bent on
\npreventing the nation from knowing the truth about its past.<\/p>\n
So much of the history of the way the New Order government was
\nestablished and managed has been kept in the dark. The New Order
\nadministration did not only make history, it also tried to write
\nits own history by insisting on its versions of many important
\nevents as the truth.<\/p>\n
Few people in Indonesia, even those who call themselves
\nscholars and historians, have dared to challenge the official
\nversion of the Supersemar signing; the Sept. 30, 1965 tragedy;
\nthe way Indonesia became caught up in East Timor, and many other
\nevents that changed the history of the nation. They could take
\ntheir cue from Soekardjo and use the current historic opportunity
\nto correct the nation's history.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/correcting-history-1447893297",
"image": ""
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}