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Plea from London to end communist stigma

Soe Tjen Marching, 45, sat quietly among around 1,200 Indonesian nationals at the official residence of Indonesian Ambassador to the UK Rizal Sukma in London listening to President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s speech during a presidential meet-and-greet on Tuesday

Haeril Halim (The Jakarta Post)
London/Jakarta
Thu, April 21, 2016

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Plea from London to end communist stigma

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oe Tjen Marching, 45, sat quietly among around 1,200 Indonesian nationals at the official residence of Indonesian Ambassador to the UK Rizal Sukma in London listening to President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s speech during a presidential meet-and-greet on Tuesday.

Unlike other Indonesians, who came to the event to listen to Jokowi’s speech, Soe only waited for the question-and-answer session to convey her disappointment to Jokowi over a recent statement made by one of his coordinating ministers that the government would not apologize for the tragic events of 1965.

Soe is the daughter of a former member of the outlawed Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) from Surabaya, East Java, who was imprisoned by then president Soeharto, the longest-serving ruler in the nation’s history, during the government’s anti-PKI campaign in 1965, which targeted party members and affiliates.

“On behalf of the International People’s Tribunal [IPT], I am very disappointed with Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan’s recent remarks that the country would not apologize to the victims of 1965,” said Soe, whose statement seemed to shock the event organizers.

“The government must correct the history and apologize to the victims. My father was one of them,” said the British coordinator of IPT 1965, a people’s tribunal held in the Hague, the Netherlands.

The IPT is a non-formal process held by civilian groups to bring attention to unresolved human rights abuses. The hearing on 1965 was held from Nov. 10 to 14, and it found the Indonesian government guilty of crimes against humanity during the 1965 atrocities.

The Jokowi administration has promised to resolve past human rights abuse cases, including the 1965 tragedy, and the government held a two-day conference earlier this week to review the events of that time.

Luhut, a retired Army general, said that fewer than 1,000 people were killed during the purge of communists, and reiterated the government’s refusal to apologize.

Soe’s father was detained in Kalisosok prison in Surabaya in 1965 and she was born after his release in 1971. Her family hid the truth about her father to avoid social stigma.

“My father died in 1998, the year Soeharto stepped down. My mom lied to me until 2014 because she was afraid. The fact that I discovered my family had lied to me hurt me very badly. My father was arrested because he was found to be a PKI member in Surabaya. I hated my family very much because of the lies. The lies had a negative impact on me,” said Soe, who has been living in the UK for 11 years. Responding to Soe, Jokowi said the government had not reached any conclusion about the 1965 case and what Luhut said did not represent a final resolution.

“I have yet to hear statements from the Attorney General’s Office, the Office of the Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister or the National Commission on Human Rights [Komnas HAM]. So, if one person made such a statement, please understand that it is still an ongoing process and no decision has been made by the government,” Jokowi said.

“After the government makes a decision on the case then let’s talk about it. For sure, the case must be resolved in order for it no longer to be a burden,” Jokowi added.

Komnas HAM, one of the organizers of the conference, said the government should revoke Provisional People’s Consultative Assembly Decree No. XXV of 1966 on the prohibition of communism or Marxist-Leninist ideology.

“That provision is the legal source of discrimination against members or ex-members, and even families of members, of the Indonesian Communist Party,” Muhammad Nurkhoiron, a Komnas HAM commissioner said.

He added that if the provision continued to apply, there would always be discrimination against anything associated with communism.

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