I

t is said that '€œhistory is written by the victors.'€ In essence that implies history is an object of power, propaganda and self-justification.

As a nation, Indonesia has never been good at reconciling its history. The passing of the 50th anniversary of the failed Sept. 30, 1965, coup and today'€™s annual commemoration of Kesaktian Pancasila (Sacred Pancasila Day) has become the annual summit of debate for political dogmatists, resurgent leftists and historical revisionists.

Within the agora of public conversation, the pages of opinion pieces and rambling of commentators, each has adopted their own version of the proceedings of one of the most tragic episodes of modern Indonesian history. It forever changed Indonesian politics and became the seed of all that was both good and harmful over the next three decades.

Some will focus on the massacres. Others will insist that history needs to be rewritten as the coup and Sacred Pancasila Day were actually a ruse to launch the rise of the military and New Order. There are those who will insist that the history we have been taught, written about and put into movies is an unrelenting truth.

Is it worthwhile to continue this painful exercise? Yes.

As an academic exercise and for the sake of historical clarity, there needs to be a permanent account of all aspects of this bleak episode. But the purpose of such an exercise is not to identify guilt, nor to justify the victors. It is an exercise of understanding how events unfolded, the pain they caused and the sacrifices made during that time. Ultimately, in the field of chaos and in the heat of battle, there is no absolute right or wrong.

There were offenses on all sides, and felonies that were both premeditated and inadvertent. The farther we are from that era, the more difficult it is to grasp the pliant truths of pre- and post-1965. Context and circumstance should never be forgotten, and unfortunately most people today cannot truly appreciate these two aspects.

For the majority of the younger generation of Indonesians, 1965 is but a mere footnote in their history class, something to memorize, or a school assignment to get out of the way. It has largely become irrelevant. History has no future. What is pertinent to them is that they should have the opportunity to explore with an open mind the wounds and courage of that day, whatever they unearth. Whatever conclusion they arrive at will become a part of the national dialectic that encourages us to reflect and become better Indonesians.

Furthermore, it is a reminder of the significance (not necessarily the sacredness) of the Pancasila, which is able to cut through political, religious, ethnic and material divides as a framing ideology that unites but celebrates diversity and even respects adversarial points of views.

Revisiting the events of the Sept. 30, 1965, coup isn'€™t about reviewing the scene of a crime, but about reconciling our points of view. Sacred Pancasila Day isn'€™t about illuminating a despotic point of view, it is about celebrating the frame that keeps us all together.

So let there be debate, let us revisit. But let us also unite.