T

he phrase “May ‘98” brings to mind images of burning buildings, demonstrators ducking bullets, roads blocked for months and years to come, stores broken into, mass graves and the silent survivors of rape. There are also those who still feel the stigma that their loved ones killed in the inferno were “looters”.

This weekend marks the 14th anniversary of the riots in Jakarta, Medan, Surakarta, Surabaya, Palembang and Lampung, among others, ahead of Soeharto’s downfall.

The government-appointed fact-finding team that released its report in October 1998 together with that of the “team of volunteers for humanity”, clearly linked the riots to an “elite political struggle” with a rapid process of leadership change and the worsening monetary crisis, a riot that involved “provocateurs”, including thugs, security personnel and members of a youth organization.

The only parties held accountable for the shooting of students on May 12 were low-level members of the security forces, including the police. This means that those responsible for the riots from May 13–15 — as well as the arsons, the deaths in burning malls and on the streets, the gang-rapes — are walking free to this very day.

That is why families and survivors of May 1998 struggle to keep their spirits up, joining the silent Thursday marches every week with their black umbrellas in front of the State Palace, along with survivors of other human rights abuses. The rallies are a reminder to every president and every passerby of their loss and pain that led to the freedom we enjoy today.

The student demonstrations and riots preceded Soeharto’s resignation, which paved the way for democracy, in a spectacle watched from the sidelines by those survivors and families whose demands for justice were drowned out in the euphoria, followed by too many concerns over corruption and other issues.

These include the unresolved cases for which families and survivors of many human rights violations are demanding rehabilitation of their good names, as just one measure of justice. As the NGO Imparsial has stated, a major national project is the unfinished reform of the civil-military ties. The basis of authoritarian rule was the “dual function” of the Indonesian Military (TNI), which used to include the police, granting the security forces its social, economic and political powers.

One clear indicator of this unfinished business of instilling civilian authority over the TNI is the pending bill on the trials of military offenders, so that even if offenders among the military were brought to justice for May ‘98, they would not face civilian courts.

Aspiring leaders for the 2014 elections are pursuing short-term interests, while avoiding trouble with the TNI.
Therefore, it takes public pressure to show both current and aspiring leaders — including President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who doles out promises and tears every May — that people are still waiting for bold leaders, to bring to account those who sacrificed the innocent in the riots found to be, by the joint fact-finding team, “deliberate”.