Honoring our very own heroes with major medals

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.