If GAM is entitled to rehabilitation, why not PKI?

Ribka Tjiptaning Proletariyati is the writer of a book entitled Aku Bangga Jadi Anak PKI (I'm proud to be a daughter of the Indonesian Communist Party, or PKI). She is a politician of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and now heads the House of Representatives Commission IX on health and manpower.

Question: The Central Jakarta District Court has recently rejected the class action lawsuit filed by former political prisoners accused of being involved in the 1965 aborted coup. Would you like to comment on that?

Answer: From the very beginning, I predicted that we would lose the case. How can you win a court battle in a country whose legal system has not changed. We all know that the legal system is the product of the New Order regime. The lawsuit is a good example for this country's political education, and we just have to fight for it no matter what the outcome is.

Even until today, the 1965 tragedy has caused prolonged trauma for all of us -- the plaintiffs and the children and relatives of former PKI members -- as we still have to deal with rights abuses and discrimination. As for me, I am a physician but I couldn't even set up a clinic of my own simply because I am a daughter of a PKI member. The patients were also reluctant to come to me as they have branded PKI as evil.

But, who will testify for us that what we actually see in the 1965 tragedy is gross human rights abuses against us with a record that shows that no less than three million people, most of them PKI members, were killed? Our former president, Abdurrahman Wahid, once admitted the mass killing, and even apologized for it because members of his organization, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), may have been responsible for the victimization of no less than 800,000 PKI members.

Do you have any other plan to fight for your rights?

In conjunction with the commemoration of the Pancasila Sanctity Day on Oct. 1, we are going to make a petition to ask the government to rehabilitate our names. If members of the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) can enjoy rehabilitation, then why can't we? We have never asked for independence. We have never waged an armed rebellion against the government. All we want is the government to rehabilitate our families, our parents, our names.

Besides the rehabilitation, what will you ask for in the petition?

I want the state to provide a clarification of its own history. Don't blame the PKI as the only evil in the 1965 tragedy. How can we sit together and reconcile if we fail to clarify our darkest history? Following the downfall of the New Order regime, most of the history books which tell about the New Order's role in defeating communism were withdrawn. Television stations have also stopped showing the film which tells about the tragedy. Can't we see that we are in a doubt over our own history?

What is the ultimate goal of filing the petition?

I want the government to make a public confession declaring the PKI clean in the 1965 tragedy. The confession will be more than enough, and we are ready to forgive and forget the past and there will be no more place for hatred. No more revenge. That we all are equal as Indonesian citizens.

How valuable is it for your struggle?

The government must provide clarification not because of our own interests, but in the country's interests. And we must do it while many of the political prisoners are still alive. They -- men, women and children -- are witnesses of history. Many former members of PKI's affiliated organization Gerwani (the Indonesian Women Movement) are still alive and they can tell the truth as to whether they received orders to torture the seven Army generals in the Lubang Buaya area. Thousands of former members of other PKI-affiliated organizations, such as the farmers's association BTI or artists' association Lekra, are also still alive and they can testify to tell the truth of the history. They deserve rehabilitation while they are still alive.

The government has come up with the idea of setting up a commission of truth and reconciliation (KKR) for victims of the 1965 tragedy. Could you comment on that?

I initially supported the idea, but later on I disagreed as I learned that the KKR legislation has no single article which referred to the suspects. The legislation merely talks about the victims; that we will receive amnesty, that we will receive compensation, that we agree to offer our forgiveness. How come? Do we have a strong legal basis or valid data or evidence which shows that PKI was proven guilty in the 1965 aborted coup? What about (then president and former New Order ruler) Soeharto's role in the tragedy? How was the United States' intelligence agency CIA involved in the tragedy? Why did the tragedy happen?

As of today, Communism is considered to be a threat to the state. Your comment?

I don't understand why Communism remains the nation's top threat. Isn't it true that the New Order regime and the military as its backbone have always claimed to have defeated Communism right to its roots? I have heard that ever since I was a child. The campaign, however, sounds ironic as on the other hand, I saw that the New Order regime made Communism, as well as PKI, greater and greater by repeatedly accusing the two of being behind any anti-government movements. The authorities used to say that PKI was behind the labor movement as they staged rallies against the government's unjust policies. If the regime and the military had crushed PKI, then why is Communism still a top issue? So, who is behind rampant corruption which implicates the state officials and causes bankruptcy to this state?