JP\/6\/editorial<\/p>\n
May won't go away<\/p>\n
The month of May has increasingly become an annual struggle
\nagainst the threat of collective amnesia; the threat that we will
\nallow the May 1998 riots to disappear into the darker pages of
\nour history.<\/p>\n
The parents of the children who perished in department store
\ninfernos are among those who will not let us forget. Recently a
\nnumber of the victims' mothers came to the National Commission
\nfor Human Rights (Komnas HAM), urging that the masterminds be
\nexposed and made to account for their actions that killed their
\nchildren seven years ago.<\/p>\n
Their children were among over 1,000 who died in Jakarta and
\nother cities in the rioting that followed the shooting of
\nstudents during demonstrations against the Soeharto government.
\nMost died in the fires and on the streets during the riots;
\nothers died months later, from severe injuries and the shock of
\nbeing attacked and raped. Some reports over the past few years
\nhave described the condition of survivors; those who became
\npregnant, others who became disfigured physically and also
\nmentally, forever changed following the riots of May 13 to 15.<\/p>\n
The official report authorized by the human rights commission
\nclearly stated that there were indications that the riots
\n"occurred consecutively and systematically" within the context of
\na struggle for power. The sacrificial lambs in that struggle
\nincluded the urban poor, until now stigmatized as "mere looters".
\nCertain unidentified people had, according to witnesses, broke
\ninto stores and incited locals to loot. Other victims were among
\nthe ethnic Chinese, or anyone that looked Chinese, and
\nparticularly Chinese women. In our past, both the poor and the
\nChinese have occupied the margins of Indonesian society, becoming
\ndisposable whenever a power struggle emerges.<\/p>\n
Despite the official report, commissioned by the government
\nitself, that urged further investigation and judicial processing
\nof those involved in the riots, virtually nothing has happened.
\nNo-one has been brought to trial, and only low ranking soldiers
\nhave been punished for the shootings of students, reinforcing the
\ninvisibility of the victims. Every now and again high ranking
\nofficers serving at that time will proclaim their innocence,
\nleaving us to doubt whether anyone will ever be held accountable
\nfor these evil deeds.<\/p>\n
The new board of the human rights commission formed an ad hoc
\nteam to pry open the case, and concluded that the Attorney
\nGeneral's Office should launch an investigation into "crimes
\nagainst humanity." No response.<\/p>\n
There are certain people in our society who just wish that the
\nmemory of May 1998 would just go away. But like so many of our
\nother unsettled legacies, it just won't. It sticks out like an
\nugly stain on a nation that is trying to be proud of its recent
\ndemocratic achievements, and that is trying to be accepted by the
\nglobal community. May 1998 sticks around like a bad smell,
\ntogether with other incidents in our history that just won't go
\naway either, and raising irritating questions: What really
\nhappened and who should be held accountable for what happened in
\n1965 and the years immediately subsequent? And if we apologize
\nfor the massacre of hundreds of thousands of suspected
\ncommunists, how are families of the dead supposed to be
\ncompensated? And if all our generals get off scot-free for the
\natrocities that occurred in East Timor, then who exactly was
\nresponsible? And have our leaders forgotten the parents of those
\nwho were kidnapped and who remain missing to this day?<\/p>\n
The list of unanswered questions just goes on and on. Of
\ncourse, the message that is handed down to our young generation
\nis that you don't need to be accountable, as long as you have
\nmoney or power. And anyway, when you're so busy with issues of
\n"reform" and economic progress, there is no need to dwell over
\nthe past, is there?<\/p>\n
An absence of political will in facing up to the May 1998
\nriots opens wide the tragic possibility that history may repeat
\nitself. After all, in struggles for political power there are
\nalways victims, nearly always those whom our society has
\nmarginalized. Life goes on as usual, and powerful criminals
\ncontinue to walk away on technicalities, or simply because no-one
\ncan make them show up in a court.<\/p>\n
So, we go on pretending that May 1998 was just an unfortunate
\nincident that would be better just left alone, lest we provoke
\npowerful interests. After all, wasn't it enough that we got rid
\nof an authoritarian regime? If the answer is yes, then there is
\nno need to boast that we have left the old habits behind:
\nImpunity, and forever parading stability at the cost of humanity.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/jp6editorial-1447899208",
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