TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Soekarno's daughter wants reconciliation for 1965 tragedy
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Sukmawati Soekarnoputri talks to journalists after a discussion about reconciliation for the 1965 tragedy in South Jakarta on Sept. 30. (tribunnews.com/Nurmulia Rekso Purnomo)
S
ukmawati Soekarnoputri, the daughter of former president Soekarno, urges the government to push for reconciliation between survivors of the 1965 tragedy and non-victims.
She requested a non-judicial process to settle the country's dark past because most of the leaders behind the 1965 failed coup—blamed on the now-defunct Indonesian Communist Party (PKI)—and behind the communist purge that followed are dead.
"Reconciliation is important so that future generations will not be burdened by the need to resolve the 1965 tragedy," Sukmawati told the reporters in Jakarta on Friday.
She said President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo should consider establishing an independent truth and reconciliation commission to speed up the process of granting justice for all people affected by the tragedy.
Even though the government would insist to involve state institutions, such as the National Commission of Human Rights (Komnas HAM) and the Attorney General's Office (AGO), both of whom handled the 1965 case, the establishment of another independent team consisting of non-state officials would help promote comprehensive reconciliation, Sukmawati said.
While the debate on the identity of the real perpetrators behind the 1965 coup, which led to a massacre of more than 500,000 people affiliated with PKI, Sukmawati, who is also the chairperson of Marhaenism Indonesia National Party (PNI Marhaenisme), asserted that the G30S/PKI incident was initiated by then commander Soeharto. (ags)
