If GAM is entitled to rehabilitation, why not PKI?

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?