U.S. action on book has little effect on Indonesia

JAKARTA (JP): Historians here noted on Sunday that the U.S. government's move to recall books detailing its role in Indonesia's violent anticommunist campaign in the mid-1960s, has little implication on Indonesia.

The United States government scrambled on Friday to withdraw the recently released history of American officials' secret support of the communist purge in Indonesia, which led to the ouster of the country's founding president Sukarno.

Anhar Gonggong of the University of Indonesia said that the publication of such documents did not reveal new information, except the correction of some misperceptions, perhaps, among researchers.

"Because the role of the U.S. intelligence in the anticommunist movement was widely known, although it still had yet to be proven," he told Antara.

Hundreds of thousands of people are believed to have been killed in the anticommunist purge.

Sharing a similar view to Anhar, the head of the National Institute of Sciences (LIPI), Taufik Abdullah, also said that there was nothing that the Indonesian government or people could do about the revelation of the U.S. role in the anticommunist movement in the country.

"The New Order has officially passed, what else can we do? The recalling of the books does not have any impact on us," Taufik, also a historian, told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

Taufik suggested that the government take a more cautious attitude toward the U.S. government.

Both Anhar and Taufik assumed that the withdrawal of the documents was a face-saving measure for the U.S. government.

Taufik said that from an academic point of view, the books should not be removed.

"But I guess it's a very embarrassing moment for them. They were caught interfering in other country's internal affairs," Taufik asserted.

"Another reason, I guess, is it's not the right moment when president George W. Bush is launching his new Asia policy and wants to improve the country's image," he added.

Meanwhile, Anhar said, the recalling of the books is against the country's basic principle that people have a right to access to information.

"Let people have a more mature understanding on the U.S. government following the disclosure of that information," he said.

As far as he remembered, Anhar said, the U.S. government had never recalled such a book.

But the removal, he said, was unlikely due to factual errors, or related to the recent appointment of Megawati Soekarnoputri, daughter of Sukarno, as the country's president.

Anhar feared a repeat of this practice every time a document is declassified and is available to the public.

"A classified document in the U.S. expires within 30 years. Say, there is a document about U.S. intelligence' role in East Timor integration period. When the document is made public, it's possible that it will be recalled too," he said.

"Whoever want to cover such facts, it's pointless. Because other countries have them too," he added.

Separately, Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Director General of Political Affairs Hassan Wirayuda played down the U.S. government's move, saying that the book does not have anything to do with current political issues in this country.

"There are always many versions of history. It is the U.S. government who considers the issue sensitive and not us," Hassan told the Post.

He underlined that the book only concerns an event which happened years ago and did not touch current political issues in Indonesia, so Jakarta would not react to Washington's decision.

"This is a simple matter, this is about history and I am not going to speculate about Washington's reasons for removing the books from the shelves," Hassan remarked. (dja/hdn)