A

reconciliation effort aimed at settling past rights abuses in the country is at a crossroads after anti-communist groups got the nod from the military to reject and boycott activities that may lead to discussions of the 1965 communist purge.

A two-day symposium set up by retired Army generals on Thursday saw Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu and Indonesian Military (TNI) Commander Gen. Gatot Nurmantyo warn of the rise of communism. Both the minister and the general supported action to contain and eliminate the putative resurgence of communism across the country.

Ryamizard referred to the growing use of communist symbolism, the arrest of teenagers in Simalungun, North Sumatra, for sitting on the statues of iconic revolutionary heroes and calls to dissolve existing military territorial command structures (Komando Teritorial) as indications of a revival of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI).

“It is thus right for soldiers to get mad because the Sapta Marga [the soldiers’ commitment] says that we are the citizens of the Unitary State of the Indonesian Republic [NKRI] that upholds Pancasila,” Ryamizard told his audience.

“As Patriots, we support and defend the ideology of the country with full responsibility and perseverance”. Throughout his presentation at the symposium, set up to rival a previous symposium attended by human rights activists, Ryamizard repeatedly stated that communism was a real threat to the country.

He also defended the arrest of any individual caught promoting communist symbols, arguing that other governments, such as Germany and United States, also took legal measures against those promoting controversial symbols such as Nazi or Ku Klux Klan iconography in public space.

The minister disagrees with a plan by President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to apologize for the bloodshed during the communist purge in 1965.

Gatot shares a similar sentiment, and will work to ensure the government does not deliver an apology. He went on to clarify that President Jokowi had never mentioned any plan to deliver a state apology for the 1965 communist purge. “Who said the government would apologize? Which government? It’s just rumor,” Gatot said.

The end of the two-day symposium, which was entitled “Protecting Pancasila from the Indonesian Communist Party and Other Ideologies” concluded with nine recommendations to be submitted to Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan, who is leading a government team assigned to find solutions to settle unresolved cases of gross human rights violations, including those that happened during and after the communist purge.

One such recommendation involved the rejection of the restoration of the rights of victims who suffered during the purge.