A time to forgive

A time to forgive

"Don't let me die in prison," former foreign minister
Soebandrio pleaded many times during his imprisonment. In 1967,
he was sentenced to death for his involvement in the 1965
abortive communist coup. His sentence was later commuted to life
imprisonment.

For years his plea seemed unheeded. But, yesterday, what was
regarded by many as an impossible thing happened: President
Soeharto granted a special pardon to him and two other people,
former Air Force commander Marshall Omar Dhani and former deputy
chief of the Intelligence Body (BPI) Brig. Gen. R.S. Soetarto,
who were also serving life sentences. The three of them will be
free men by Aug. 16, just one day before the golden anniversary
of the Republic of Indonesia.

The pardon, announced in a very cautious and well-worded
statement by State Secretary Moerdiono yesterday, is an
indication that the government is fully aware that a certain part
of society, notably the Armed Forces (ABRI), may not be very
happy with the decision. In the last fortnight, numerous ABRI
members have aired their concern about the possibility of such a
pardon. Several comments similar to the statement made the other
day by the Commander of the Armed Forces, Chief Gen. Feisal
Tanjung, have been heard. Gen. Feisal said that, "ABRI will never
forgive the communist party (PKI)."

Apparently, to ease the tension before the announcement (the
decision to pardon the three men was signed by President Soeharto
in early June and surely certain people have been aware of this)
of late some officials have been trying to float the idea that
the three soon-to-be-released men are not "communist diehards".

It is obvious that there has been an effort made to
differentiate between the "diehards" and the "fellow-travelers",
such as Soebandrio, Omar Dhani and R.S. Soetarto. Moerdiono's
statement that the three men, based on the records of their
trials, were not members of the communist party was a final touch
to ensure that nobody will question President Soeharto's pardons.
Still, one might be mystified as to why the fact that the three
men were not communist party members was never disclosed before.

Although the pardon has its legal and political foundations,
it is apparent that humanitarian reasons were the main factor
behind the release of these men. Soebandrio is 80 years old. Omar
Dhani is 71, while R.S. Soetarto, 77, has been in the hospital
since May last year. These men all exhibited good conduct during
their period of incarceration, and considering their age, they
could not possibly pose a danger to the nation anymore.

We are of the opinion that their release is a wise decision,
which deserves praise. With this decision, the president has not
only shown wisdom and statesmanship, but also has sent a message
to the whole nation and the world as well, that we are truly a
humane and forgiving nation.

But, one should not expect similar pardons to be granted to
former communist diehards, such as former Col. Latief. The
message conveyed by top ABRI officials is loud and clear: No
pardon to former PKI diehards. Thus, one can expect that the
phrase "the latent danger of PKI" will remain with us for a long
time to come, although obviously it is becoming more difficult to
find evidence of the perceived danger.

And without the setting forth of clear-cut evidence of the
perceived latent danger, we are afraid that our younger, better-
educated generation, who never experienced the communist threat,
may perceive the idea of a threat as just an obsolete concept
kept alive for unknown reasons.

The question then is, when can the nation fully forget the
trauma of the communist coup? Isn't there a time to hate and a
time to forgive? If we are really committed to the
democratization process, should we not close the book on our
political detainees and prisoners once and for all?

We may not get the answer soon. But, whatever the answer is,
we believe that now the coming celebration of our golden
anniversary will be much happier, for we have made some peace
with our past, and because we know that there will be tears of
joy and happiness for some of our fellow countrymen.