A nation divided?
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's promise this week to put national reconciliation at the top of his government's agenda once he is installed as president on Oct. 20 could not have come at a more opportune moment as, today, history once again comes knocking at the door of the nation's collective conscience. Though 39 years have elapsed since Indonesia's biggest human tragedy in modern times began to unfold in the pre-dawn hours of Oct. 30, 1965, time, it seems, has done little to expunge the memory of that day, when alleged communist death squads roamed the still-quiet streets of Jakarta, seeking out marked homes in the city's elite residential neighborhoods, killing or abducting targeted army officers for assassination in a remote spot in the city's eastern suburbs.
Six army generals and one lieutenant were killed in what military judges and historians of the time say was a communist- inspired plot to wipe out the entire army leadership and take over the government. Catastrophic as those events may have been, what came in the weeks that followed defies all imagination. Troops of the then Indonesian Armed Forces (ABRI), led by the army, swarmed out across Java's towns and countryside, rounding up known and suspected members or sympathizers of the now-banned Indonesian Communist Party (PKI). Anticommunist groups, with the encouragement of the Army, took part in the rampage.
No one to this day knows how many "communists" precisely were killed in that orgy of retaliation that swept across the country during those first few weeks of what has since become known as the G30S tragedy. Rough estimates, however, put the number at least 500,000. The tens of thousands of others who escaped the killings were jailed or banished to remote prison camps, including the infamous Buru Island camp in eastern Indonesia. And more: Their kin, close friends and associates were barred from taking government jobs or others that would enable them "to spread their influence". The G30S tragedy eventually led to the ouster of President Sukarno and the establishment of the New Order government under president Soeharto. Sukarno's left-leaning policies abruptly gave way to Soeharto's rightist, dictatorial and corrupt regime. In short, the G30S movement, as it is popularly known, heralded a complete turnabout in policies.
With the known penchant of Soeharto's New Order regime for manipulating or falsifying historical facts, however, doubts have since emerged among many scholars as to the validity of the existing interpretation of this crucial episode of the country's most recent history. As a consequence, not only are calls being aired for a reevaluation of the New Order version of Indonesia's most recent history, demands are rising for the rehabilitation of the good standing of families unjustly punished for their alleged leftist and communist sympathies in the past.
In fact, a first step in this direction was made by president Abdurrahman Wahid, but was never followed up due to the strong opposition he faced. The president had to see his term cut short by the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), which accused him of incompetence. The emphasis that is being placed on national reconciliation by the man who is most likely to become Indonesia's new president after Oct. 20, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, now seems to offer a new opportunity for such a rehabilitation, and for a redress of injustices committed in the past against tens of thousands of Indonesians.
Of course, it remains to be seen whether or not a program of reconciliation aimed specifically at compensating for these injustices is deemed acceptable by those who will be in power as of Oct. 20. Nevertheless, the spirit of atonement and conciliation that has been repeatedly conveyed by Susilo, and the prospect of the establishment of a proposed Truth and Reconciliation Commission, raise the hope that, at long last, the nation will be able to confront the past before it lets bygones be bygones. What that means is that the Indonesian nation will at least have a better chance to stride forward into a better future -- united and undivided -- in accordance with Susilo's campaign slogan.