T

he ghost of New Order has haunted this nation ever since pro-democracy movements made a mark back in 1998. Slowly but surely, the anti-democratic style of the past regime has shown signs of resurrection. We have seen numerous crackdowns on citizens exercising their freedom of speech over the last few months.

Sadly, the state often perpetrates, or sponsors, these practices, exemplified recently by the raid and attempted banning of the Belok Kiri (Turn left) Cultural Festival at Ismail Marzuki arts center in Central Jakarta over the weekend. Organizers of the event were forced to relocate the festival to the Jakarta Legal Aid Foundation building .

The police said they had banned the cultural event in its planned location because the organizers had failed to inform the authorities of the activity. This explanation is disingenuous. Clearly, the main reason the police shut down the event was connected to the purpose of the festival, which was to stimulate thought about leftist history in Indonesia. The security authorities took the action following a protest from various groups.

Not only have the police, representing the state, failed in their basic responsibility and duty to protect their fellow citizens from possible intimidation, but they have also blown the issue out of all sensible proportion. The raid simply demonstrated the tendency of the police to side with the blind will of the majority against the minority.

There is nothing wrong about a meeting of minds to critically review the history related to the 1965 mass killings that followed an aborted coup allegedly orchestrated by the Indonesian Communist Party. Fostering discussion was all that the organizers of the Turn Left festival wanted to do. Such intellectual exercises have been encouraged since the beginning of Reform Era, although the official version of this dark episode in Indonesia'€™s history, inherited from the New Order, remains in place.

There should be no impediment to attempts to straighten out the history, either by finding new evidence or hearing testimony from witnesses and victims of the tragedy. Who can claim that the existing version of truth is the only form of truth, and that alternatives perspectives should be viewed as a threat?

There is no need to fear an event like the Turn Left cultural festival morphing into a movement and bringing communism back into the country. The so-called leftist way of thinking simply reflects opposition to the establishment and its expression may vary in form.

If any effort to promote critical thinking is curtailed for security reasons, as in the case of the Turn Left festival, we can no longer reasonably claim to be the third largest democracy in the world. Frequent restrictions on freedom of speech, which occurred on 20 occasions throughout 2015 alone according to the Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy (ELSAM), should send a warning that Indonesia is moving toward becoming one of the world'€™s largest anti-democratic nations.

Worse still, oppression will keep us from innovation, which the nation badly needs in order to survive the future of global competition.