Honoring our very own heroes with major medals

By Amir Sidharta

JAKARTA (JP): The study of history used to be centered around great figures and great events. In 332 B.C. Alexander the Great founded the city of Alexandria near the western arm of the Nile in Egypt. Christopher Columbus discovered America in 1492. Among the most commemorable events in the history of Indonesia are Fatahillah's establishment of Jayakarta on June 22, 1527 and Sukarno's proclamation of Indonesia's independence on Aug. 17, 1945.

This year, in conjunction with the nation's 53rd anniversary of independence, President B.J. Habibie conferred the Bintang Republik Indonesia medal, the country's highest honor, on his wife Hasri Ainun Besari, Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Finance and Industry Ginandjar Kartasasmita, Coordinating Minister for Development Supervision and State Administrative Reforms Hartarto Sastrosoenarto, Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare and Poverty Alleviation Haryono Suyono, Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas, Minister/State Secretary Akbar Tandjung and former finance minister Radius Prawiro.

"The President... decided to confer the Bintang Republik Indonesia award as a special honor for the honorees' extraordinary services to the state and nation, for the sake of the country's unity, existence and glory," Habibie said in the conferment decree dated Aug. 6.

He also presented the second highest medal, the Mahaputra, to 30 prominent figures, including government critics Abdurrahman Wahid and Amien Rais, who did not attend the ceremony, Habibie's brother Junus Effendy Habibie, Armed Forces Commander Gen. Wiranto and a critic of former president Soeharto, H.M. Sanusi.

What was surprising to some was the fact that Habibie has so far done nothing to honor those who have popularly been considered the heroes of Reformasi, the four Trisakti University students who were murdered on May 12; an event which sparked the riots that eventually led to Soeharto's downfall.

It seems that those young heroes have already been forgotten. Many of us no longer remember their names. Fortunately Trisakti University is making great efforts to immortalize them in the form of a monument dedicated to their struggle. Whether or not they will be officially regarded as the heroes of reformasi by the government remain to be seen.

Be that as it may, as mentioned above, the study of history has focused on important individuals (usually men) and events. In doing so, these studies have offered little scholarship about common people who comprise the rest of the population, who certainly also played their part in the shaping of history.

However, in the 1950s what is now known as new social history, the study that is geared toward the interpretation of the lives of the common people, began to emerge. With a new focus on the study of material culture, archaeology, and oral history, the new historiography delved into the lifestyles and mind frames of common people.

This changed the way history was viewed. Scholars came to realize that women, ethnic communities, labor groups, youth organizations and students, who previously were considered marginal vis-a-vis the central development of history, were in fact significant collaborators in the shaping of history. They all took part in determining how society, politics and economy progressed.

We all know that what we consider today as the official history of Indonesia includes the biases of the New Order. We have been led to accept Soeharto's leadership with Sukarno's submission of the Supersemar upon him. Then we were indoctrinated to accept the government's version regarding the G30S/Indonesian Communist Party's abortive coup of 1965 through what is written in the history books, the diorama exhibition at the museum at Lubang Buaya, and the annual broadcast on all television stations and village theaters of a specially commissioned full- length feature film about the event.

After the fall of Soeharto, a few witnesses have come forward to testify that what we have considered history is not how it really happened, confirming people's skepticism about the New Order version of history. Now people are not only questioning whether Sukarno submitted the Supersemar voluntarily or at gunpoint, but even starting to talk about the possibility of Soeharto's involvement in the 1965 attempted coup. Some people are even questioning his heroic role as the mastermind and leader of the successful surprise attack on Dutch-occupied Yogyakarta -- then the Indonesian capital -- in 1949.

All the above shows that our subjective biases shape how history is written and determines who we consider our heroes. Hopefully, the four Trisakti University students who were killed during the struggle to end the Soeharto regime will receive the honor they deserve on this year's National Heroes Day. If they do not receive an official tribute from the government, then let those of us who think that they deserve a hero's distinction have a moment of silence in their honor on that day.

After all, National Heroes Day is meant to honor all the dead people who have made a significant contribution to the country. The government may have their official version of who they consider heroes. However, everyone has their own heroes. Let each of us commemorate our own heroes on Nov. 10.