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ZNet Commentary
40 Year After Indonesian Holocaust - Silence October 11, 2005
By Andre Vltchek

Jakarta. They came to commemorate the 40th anniversary
of one the most
intensive massacres in human history. Not many, but at
least some 50 or
60 people came. Of all places in Jakarta they gathered
in the modest
complex of German cultural centre - Goethe Haus. There
was a poetry
reading, theatre, talk show with the greatest
Indonesian author Pramoedya
Ananta Toer.

40 years ago - on the night of September 30th and
October 1st -
Indonesian military backed by the West grabbed power,
sidelining progressive
President Sukarno and unleashing campaign of terror in
which between 500
thousand and 3 million people vanished.

Killing was performed by both military and ordinary
citizens in all
major cities of Indonesia as well as in the
countryside. Victims were
members of PKI (Indonesian Communist Party - 40 years
ago the third largest
in the world), members of Chinese minority, atheists,
and Christians.
"Military right-wing coup", say some; "Religious and
ethnic cleansing on
massive scale", say others.

During Suharto's dictatorship, all alternative views
were banned and so
were Chinese language and culture, atheism, and
Marxism. Young
generations were told that in 1965 Communists
attempted to stage the coup and
the heroic Indonesian military intervened and saved
the nation.

40 years after that terrible event, Indonesians are
suffering from
political apathy and fear to look back. There are some
reasons for it:
almost no family in Java is blameless; each has its
skeleton in the closet.
Some have both victims and victimizers in their ranks.
In the culture
of obedience and fear almost nobody dares to revisit
the past and search
for the truth.

Mass media (local and foreign) refused to cover the
anniversary. No
politically motivated demonstrations are rocking the
capital city. Today's
Indonesia doesn't need government censorship - writers
and thinkers
censor themselves - too afraid of oppressive
religious, family, and
society structures which are silencing dissidents
without almost any need for
intervention from the state.

Majority of Indonesians see history as irrelevant.
Unusually low level
of education (even by the regional standards) and
intensive religious
indoctrination prevent the great majority of citizens
from pursuing
independent thoughts. To analyze differently from
established norms is
strongly discouraged and may lead to excommunication
or something worse.

For many men and women of this country there is simply
no time for
history; present problems are too overwhelming. The
country is basically
collapsing - it has become a failed state.

Infrastructure is in total decay - there are no
highways connecting
major Indonesian cities except an insufficient and
expensive 140km stretch
between Jakarta and Bandung. Railways, ports, airports
and
telecommunications are an absolute disgrace, so are
schools and hospitals.

Only 20 to 30 percent of urban dwellers have access to
running water
(lesser than in India) and its quality, after
privatization, nosedived
while prices went up. The country is a major exporters
of child
prostitutes. Beggars, as young as five, can be seen on
all major intersections
in Jakarta and elsewhere.

More than half of the population lives on less than 2
dollars a day;
most of Indonesia's citizens lack basic sanitation.
Cities, due to
corruption and mismanagement, became unplanned
nightmarish sprawls, Jakarta
being the most polluted capital in Asia, after Dhaka.
As there is almost
no public transportation, many people in the capital
have to commute up
to 3 hours each way, breathing poisonous
carbon-dioxide and other
pollutants.

Corruption is omnipresent, on a level unknown anywhere
else in this
part of the world. Government officials are openly
stealing money from
meager projects intended to help the poor. Powerful
and competing military
and police are enjoying complete impunity. Just to
illustrate the
situation, police in Jakarta will not begin to
investigate car theft, unless
paid a bribe of 2.000 USD in the country where GDP per
capita stands
around 700 USD a year.

Intolerance is on the rise. While Indonesia reached
limited agreement
in Aceh, it is still implementing violence in Papua,
basically occupied
territory. The country had been formed along the
geographic boundaries
of Dutch colonial empire in Southeast Asia. Decision
to form Indonesia
had been taken in 1940s by the elites; there was no
plebiscite.

Ryaas Rasyid, former Minister of Decentralization,
claims that
Indonesia is in such a miserable state that it may
soon fall apart, splitting
into at least 9 independent states, while plunging
into a brutal civil
war. "Java is acting like a colonial power", he
explained. "If they
would be allowed to do so, many islands, including
Bali, would opt for
independence."

The Muslim religion (80 to 85 percent of the
population) is taking grip
on the country. Hundreds of Catholic and Protestant
churches are burned
and vandalized every year; religious minorities are
living in fear.
Atheism is still banned - each citizen has to choose
one of five
"officially permitted religions." Religious
indoctrination which allows no
alternative views is on the rise.

That is the state of Indonesia 40 years after the
coup. The most
disheartening part is that there are no positive
changes on the horizon. NGOs
are disorganized, often commercially oriented; lacking
unity and common
goals. The fourth most populous nation on earth,
Indonesia is not
capable of giving birth to strong opposition leaders,
writers, filmmakers,
or thinkers. During our conversation in New York, Dan
Simon - editor of
the Seven Stories Press - declared that once Pramoedya
Ananta Toer (the
most important Indonesian novelist and former prisoner
of conscience)
dies, the last intellectual bridge between Indonesia
and the rest of the
world will collapse.

On October 1st, under pressure from foreign
businesses, government
raised dramatically prices of gasoline and cooking
oil, promising meager
compensations for the very poor (families whose
members live on much
lesser than 1USD a day). Exhausted Indonesian citizens
managed to organize
just a few limited demonstrations protesting the move
which will
further reduce their standard of living.

There was not one demonstration commemorating the
coup; protesting
against the loss and destruction of millions of human
lives in 1965 and in
the following years. Needless to say - almost all
roots of the current
Indonesian nightmare can be traced to that event.

On the same day - October 1st - religious suicide
bombers blew up 3
restaurants in Bali, killing over 20 people in an
attempt to scare off
foreigners who, from the extreme religious point of
view, represent
unwelcome diversity in this country which is becoming
increasingly locked in
itself; intellectually castrated.

40th anniversary of the terrible slaughter and
destruction of
Indonesian nation went unmarked and unreported. The
great majority of Indonesian
citizens accepted official lies and propaganda. The
elites pretended
that they don't know and are hoping that past will
eventually disappear,
as those few survivors of torture and concentration
camps are becoming
too old to speak.

But the past never disappears; it forms foundations of
present
Indonesia; it is underneath almost everything that is
now happening in this
country; its immoral path which terrorizes minorities,
despises the poor,
and eliminates compassion. The only way forward would
be to destroy the
whole structure and begin anew; with an open mind and
without fear.