Film looks at Sept. 30 from different angle

Tantri Yuliandini, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

I remember my mother would advise me not to say "PKI" in public many years ago as I grew up in Malang, East Java. "People might get you wrong," she told me earnestly.

I grew up in the 1980s, almost 20 years since the alleged attempted coup by PKI (Indonesian Communist Party) on the night of Sept. 30, 1965.

At school we were taught that the PKI was a "latent" danger to Indonesian unity, my teachers made sure that we all knew what it meant: that the PKI and communism were lurking everywhere and may strike us unawares.

The PKI was bad, communism evil, and people who embraced the cause were beyond redemption, justifying the government's discrimination against them and their children.

Questions arose, and curiosity peaked, but were suppressed because "people might get the wrong idea", and each year we were required to watch Arifin C. Noer's Pengkhianatan G30S/PKI (Treachery of the Sept. 30 Movement/Indonesian Communist Party) on national television.

Yet nothing opened my eyes more on the reality of these ingrained suspicions and fears than a scene from Chris Hilton's Shadow Play: Indonesia's Year of Living Dangerously.

In 2002 the remains of 23 alleged PKI sympathizers were exhumed from a mass grave in Kaliwiro-Wonosobo, Central Java. Those that were unclaimed by relatives were to be reburied in Kaloran-Temanggung, Central Java.

But in Kaloran they were greeted with hatred. "There is no place here for PKI carcasses" said one banner, and another screamed, "Burn the PKI skulls".

The house where the remains were temporarily placed was blockaded by locals, and the families of the deceased harassed. The mob later destroyed the house.

Such intense hatred and suspicion is the result of years of indoctrination during the Soeharto era. The vilification of PKI and communism was complete.

Shadow Play is a 79-minute documentary produced by Hilton Cordell Productions and Vagabond Films. It highlights the role of the West, particularly the United States, Britain and Australia, in the bloody massacre of 1965.

Much along the lines of the Audrey R. Kahin and George McT. Kahin's Subversion as Foreign Policy: The Secret Eisenhower and Dulles Debacle in Indonesia in the beginning, Shadow Play extended it to the fall of Soeharto, the opening up of several former political prisoners, and the exhumation of alleged PKI sympathizers.

What gives the film authority is the diverse sources it uses, including ex-political prisoners Dr. Sumiyarsi (1966 to 1977), Carmel Budiardjo (1968 to 1971) and Pramoedya Ananta Toer (1965 to 1979).

It quotes former foreign embassy officials such as Edward Masters who worked at the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta between 1964 and 1968 (he later returned as ambassador between 1977 and 1981), CIA head of station between 1964 and 1966 Hugh Tovar, secretary to the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs between 1974 and 1977 Alan Renouf, as well as the Australian Security Intelligence Service (ASIS) Jakarta head of station between 1965 and 1969 Ken Wells.

Foreign correspondents quoted in the film include BBC Southeast Asia correspondent between 1964 and 1969 Roland Challis, journalist Don North who was in Indonesia between 1965 to 1966, correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor John Hughes, and Frank Palmos, Herald Sun correspondent between 1964 and 1966.

On the Indonesian side, Shadow Play quotes noted journalist and publisher Aristides Katoppo, Brig Gen. Kemal Idris of the Indonesian Army's Special Forces, forensic pathologist Prof. Arif Budianto, the Sept. 30 Movement leader Col. Abdul Latief, Chief of the Indonesian Air Force between 1962 and 1965 Omar Dani.

Besides testimonies from the actors themselves, various clips from archives are exploited well to illustrate narrations and bring home the message.

Some clips include that of U.S. vice president Richard Nixon explaining the Domino Theory (if one country falls to communism then the whole region will go "under communist domination or communist influence") in 1953, and that of president Sukarno's speeches and trips to the U.S. and China to attempt a policy of neutrality, which he believed was the best way for Indonesia to gain assistance from both sides.

Various scenes from the Pengkhianatan G30S/PKI were used in the film to illustrate the kind of indoctrination the Soeharto government carried out to instill hatred for the PKI.

The reasons behind foreign support and silence were illustrated by government correspondence including those from U.S. ambassador Marshall Green to the State Department in Washington, from the Southeast Asia British headquarters at Phoenix Park Singapore to the Foreign Office in London, and from Australian ambassador Keith Shann to the Department of External Affairs in Canberra.

Besides following the narrated outline of events, Shadow Play also follows the personal story of Dr. Sumiyarsi, Carmel Budiardjo and Joyo Santoso, the brother of murdered Ibnoe Santoro, all of which give the broad historical events a personal dimension.

Shadow Play: Indonesia's Year of Living Dangerously will be screened on Oct. 6 and Oct. 7, 2003, at GoetheHaus on Jl. Sam Ratulangi No. 9-15, Menteng, Central Jakarta. Schedule: 11 a.m., 1:30 p.m., 4 p.m., and 7 p.m. A discussion will also be held on Oct. 7 at 7 p.m. For more information call Off Stream Productions on (021)-315-0915.