Lifting the lid on truth of 1965 abortive coup attempt

Lifting the lid on truth of 1965 abortive coup attempt

Pancasila Sanctity Day on Thursday commemorates the state's
success in crushing the 1965 coup attempt by the now defunct
Indonesian Communist Party (PKI). Hermawan Sulistiyo, a political
researcher at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences, reflects on a
day which changed the course of the nation's history but still
holds lingering questions.

Question: The government's version of the abortive coup 33
years ago is under renewed public scrutiny. Do you believe there
has been manipulation of historical facts?

Hermawan: Distortion of our history began on Oct. 5, 1965,
when the Army issued its own version of the event in a series of
propaganda vehicles. Unfortunately, those stories were then used
as the basis for writing history.

The late president Sukarno's 1966 letter -- better known as
Surat Perintah 11 Maret (Supersemar or Letter of Instruction of
March 11) -- mandating then Maj. Gen. Soeharto to take over an
operational task to restore order, for example, was later
transformed into a legitimate transfer-of-power document. The
Army, which had political interest in constructing the history,
must be responsible for that.

It seems that no one has countered this version of history?

Some Western scholars have penned various versions of the
event, but no Indonesian historians have had the courage to write
a different version for fear of reprisals.

Some suggest that former president Soeharto was involved in,
or at least was aware of, the plan to kill seven generals, all of
whom he reportedly disliked. What is your opinion?

I believe Soeharto was not involved in the killing because
there is no evidence. Recent media reports quoting PKI executive
Latief as saying from prison that the latter had told him about
the plan on the eve of the killings were not supported by
evidence.

Was the coup attempt merely the eruption of an internal
conflict within the Army?

It was not purely an internal conflict within the Army, but
the involvement of PKI leaders and some Army officers indicates
that there was then a serious conflict among the political elite.
At the same time, the nation also witnessed a serious social
rift, marked by recurring clashes between PKI followers and other
communities in East Java almost every week.

Do you consider the factual transfer of power from Sukarno to
Soeharto, based on Supersemar, as constitutional?

It was unconstitutional because it was not made through
constitutional procedures. I think the Army made a mistake by
supporting the unconstitutional transfer of power and the purging
of the Sukarno regime between 1965 and 1971.

However, Sukarno also made a mistake by refusing to meet the
people's demand to disband the PKI. Only two weeks after the coup
attempt, mass killings of PKI members broke out in Java and Bali,
stirring up a political tension conducive to the transfer of
power. About 400,000 people were killed.

Could the demand be made that the government or the Armed
Forces take responsibility for the mass killings?

Such a demand is possible but difficult to carry out because
the killings occurred 10 years into recurrent social conflicts
involving PKI followers and other societal groups, including the
Armed Forces. If the case was solved legally, perhaps about one
third of the country's population would have to be taken to
court. Producing evidence in court would also be very difficult
because there would be no documents or data supporting the
incidents. Furthermore, no one would have the courage to raise
such an issue in a legal process.

The government often accuses demonstrators of being
infiltrated by PKI members. Do you believe the PKI is still a
latent danger to the nation?

The government uses such a stigma to overcome contemporary
political problems because it does not know how to play the
political game in a more elegant way. The Armed Forces' recent
stigmatization of demonstrating students from Forum Kota was
extraneous because even the most stupid student knows that
communism, as an ideology, has failed to achieve its goals.

What is the political impact of the recent discussions on the
coup attempt with an aim to reconstructing history?

The current heated public discussions indicate that a battle
is still going on among the political elite. The Habibie regime
-- which is widely regarded as a carbon copy of the Soeharto
regime and which lacks legitimacy among the public -- is
apparently trying to distance itself from the former government
by allowing the open discussions to go on with a hope that it may
lead to a conclusion that Soeharto and his supporters made a
mistake.

The discussions also gain support from witnesses of the coup
attempt who are still alive. With the fall of Soeharto, they now
have an opportunity to disclose the facts, some of which have
been manipulated.

However, the discussions, which will make the people more
critical about their civil rights, may boomerang on the Habibie
regime because the public may reach a conclusion that the
transfer of power from Soeharto to Habibie on May 21 was also
unconstitutional. (riz)