Govt puts out welcome mat for political exiles<\/p>\n
By Linawati Sidarto<\/p>\n
AMSTERDAM (JP): Another New Order taboo crumbled last week:
\nIndonesian political exiles could now opt to regain their lost
\ncitizenship.<\/p>\n
At the Indonesian Embassy in The Hague on Jan. 17, Minister of
\nLaw and Legislation Yusril Ihza Mahendra met with over 100
\nIndonesians who have lived in exile since the country's political
\nturmoil in September 1965.<\/p>\n
Yusril's message to the graying crowd, some shedding tears of
\njoy, was that the government wants to turn over a \"new leaf\" and
\nplans to remove the hurdles which for the last three decades made
\nit difficult for many of them to visit their homeland.<\/p>\n
While many attending the event reside in the Netherlands, some
\ncame especially from France, Germany and Scandinavia.<\/p>\n
\"Imagine, for so many of us this was the first time since 1965
\nthat we attended a function at an official Indonesian venue,\"
\nsaid Ibrahim Isa, a government official under founding president
\nSukarno's rule.<\/p>\n
He jokingly added that previous visits to the embassy had been
\nto \"demonstrate, which took place on the other side of the
\ngates\".<\/p>\n
However, questions and doubts lurk beyond the afterglow, as
\nthe exiles ponder the past and what may, or may not, happen in
\nthe future.<\/p>\n
Many here have welcomed the gesture from President Abdurrahman
\nWahid's new government.<\/p>\n
\"This is quite a miracle, a very significant breakthrough,\"
\nsaid Nico Schulte Nordholt, an Indonesia specialist at Twente
\nUniversity in the Netherlands.<\/p>\n
\"The fact that this gesture was made within 100 days of
\nPresident Wahid's rule shows this has been given a very high
\npriority.\"<\/p>\n
Isa, 69, dubbed the Jan. 17 meeting \"historic\".<\/p>\n
An Indonesian representative to the Organization of Asian-
\nAfrican Peoples Solidarity in Cairo beginning in 1960, Isa was in
\nJakarta for a planned conference in early October 1965.<\/p>\n
\"It didn't take long to see that there was some serious
\ntrouble, as people started disappearing left and right, either
\ndetained or killed,\" he recalled.<\/p>\n
The coup attempt on Sept. 30, 1965, when a number of key
\ngenerals were abducted and murdered, was soon blamed on the
\nIndonesian Communist Party (PKI). What followed was a bloodbath
\nin which some estimates say over a million people branded
\ncommunists were either killed or arrested.<\/p>\n
Although Isa managed to swiftly return to Cairo, the writing
\non the wall was clear when in January 1966 he spoke out at an
\ninternational conference in Havana about \"the truth\" surrounding
\nthe recent tragedy in Indonesia.<\/p>\n
He was quickly denounced as a traitor in Indonesian papers.<\/p>\n
Via Beijing, Isa and his family eventually settled in the
\nNetherlands, the country with the most Indonesian political
\nexiles in Europe.<\/p>\n
\"We have fought long and hard for our rights, and while we
\nstill have a ways to go, last week was a step in the right
\ndirection,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Skeptical<\/p>\n
Others are less enthusiastic about the development.<\/p>\n
\"Many more (exiles) didn't attend last week's meeting,\" said
\nWarjo, 69, who attended Beijing's Normal University in 1964 on a
\nscholarship from the Indonesia-China Friendship Foundation.<\/p>\n
Some estimates put the number of Indonesian political exiles
\nin Europe to be as high as 500, although Isa said it's \"probably
\nsomewhat less than that.\"<\/p>\n
Many of them have not returned since the 1960s.<\/p>\n
It's difficult to gauge how many absentees chose to stay away,
\nlike Warjo, and how many simply did not know about the event.<\/p>\n
\"I was only aware of the event after I saw it on the news,\"
\nsaid Go Gien Tjwan, who was one of the top people at the news
\nagency Antara \"until I was dishonorably discharged\" not long
\nafter September 1965.<\/p>\n
At that time Go was also vice chairman of Baperki, one of the
\nmany mass organizations branded illegal in Indonesia in the wake
\nof September 1965. The youth organization Pemuda Rakyat, of which
\nWarjo was a member, suffered a similar fate.<\/p>\n
Warjo sees the gesture from the new government as \"merely a
\nconcession\", and still too vague to feel happy about because
\n\"many of the New Order's military and civilian officials are
\nstill in power\".<\/p>\n
In 1966 Warjo was called to the Indonesian Embassy in Beijing
\nand asked to choose allegiance between Sukarno and Soeharto.<\/p>\n
\"The officials said: 'If you choose Soeharto, you can freely
\nreturn home. If you don't, you won't be given a passport, you
\nwon't be able to go home',\" Warjo recalled, a fate shared by many
\nIndonesian students and officials residing abroad at the time.<\/p>\n
He questioned whether in the future identification documents
\nwould not still bear special codes which branded the bearer as a
\nsocial pariah. During Soeharto's rule, codes were put on the IDs
\nof former political prisoners, which often barred them and their
\nfamilies from many basic rights, either in securing permits to
\nobtaining certain jobs.<\/p>\n
One element of the Jan. 17 meeting struck the wrong chord,
\neven among enthusiasts.<\/p>\n
Yusril said that those desiring to regain Indonesian
\ncitizenship only needed to fill in forms and pledge their
\nallegiance to Indonesia in front of Indonesian ambassadors in
\ntheir respective countries.<\/p>\n
Isa pointed out that he, like the other exiles, was always
\ntrue to Indonesia, and that the New Order government \"has
\nviolated our rights\" through ways like refusing requests for new
\npassports, or denying entry to Indonesia.<\/p>\n
Of premier importance, all agree, is an investigation into
\nwhat really happened during September 1965 and its aftermath, and
\nwho should be held responsible.<\/p>\n
Almost everyone detained shortly after September 1965 never
\nsaw any arrest warrants, nor went through any court process
\nbefore being jailed.<\/p>\n
Poet<\/p>\n
One of them was Sitor Situmorang, one of Indonesia's most
\nimportant poets, who was arrested in January 1967 and spent the
\nnext eight years in Jakarta's Salemba Prison.<\/p>\n
\"I have never been formally accused of anything, let alone
\nconvicted. Light has to be shed on my case, and those of many,
\nmany others. Sweeping legal reform should be done,\" said Sitor,
\nwho now resides in the Netherlands.<\/p>\n
He underlined the importance, for example, of clarifying what
\nmistakes Sukarno committed, pointing out that many of his
\nfollowers were among those arrested.<\/p>\n
\"If Sukarno really made mistakes, then show them, prove it. As
\nlong as no efforts toward such an investigation are made, we will
\nremain stuck with false accusations and, hence, mistaken arrests
\nof so many people.\"<\/p>\n
Even more important than reconciling with exiles abroad, he
\nadded, is clearing the names of the ex-political prisoners, and
\ntheir families', many of whom have suffered daily persecution due
\nto their alleged link with the September 1965 events.<\/p>\n
Go Gien Tjwan stressed that without rectifying and clarifying
\nhistorical facts, any kind of reconciliatory gesture would ring
\nhollow.<\/p>\n
\"And this must include bringing Soeharto to court for all that
\nhe did to the victims of his New Order regime. People keep
\ntalking about retrieving the money he allegedly stole from the
\ncountry, but this is so much more important.\"<\/p>\n
Many exiles are taking a wait-and-see attitude, after Yusril
\nsaid the government would announce next month which concrete
\nlegal steps it would take to further the reconciliation steps.<\/p>\n
The skeptics question how far-reaching these steps would go to
\nabolish existing laws and regulations -- which ban all left-wing
\norganizations and communist thoughts -- such as the Provisional's
\nPeople's Consultative Assembly Decree no 25\/1967.<\/p>\n
Isa worried that some forces in Indonesia would try to stall
\nthe efforts of the President, pointing out that recently some
\nlegislators voiced displeasure over leniency toward anyone with
\nalleged communist links.<\/p>\n
He said that for Indonesia to become a truly democratic
\ncountry which respects the law and basic human rights,
\ndiscriminatory regulations must all be scrapped.<\/p>\n
Looking back, the exiles' list of woes is long, including
\nrejection by their relatives.<\/p>\n
Isa recalled that when he first came back to Indonesia in
\n1994, with a Dutch passport, some members of his family refused
\nto see him.<\/p>\n
\"And yet, how can I blame them? They were persecuted because
\nthey were related to me,\" he said.<\/p>\n
The most painful, many agree, was being labeled a traitor by
\nthe government of a country they love so dearly.<\/p>\n
\"I have fought for my country, and took part in the
\nindependence struggle. I will always be very proud of that,\" said
\nWarjo, who as a teenager fought the Dutch colonists in the 1940s.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/govt-puts-out-welcome-mat-for-political-exiles-1447893297",
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