Commemorating 1965 in election year: New regime, old formula

Rendy Pahrun Wadipalapa
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PREMIUM

Leeds, United Kingdom / Tue, October 8, 2019 / 12:03 pm

Commemorating 1965 in election year: New regime, old formula

Invincible: People visit the Pancasila Sakti Monument in East Jakarta on Monday to commemorate Pancasila Sanctity Day. (The Jakarta Post/Charisa Vanessa G)

Every year, generally around September and October, we have the same debate concerning the revival of communism and communists in Indonesia. As the most anticipated election since 2014 approached, we saw how this old issue could still gain momentum in 2019. The level of trauma following mass persecution and killings in the aftermath of the abduction and murders of six generals and a low-ranking military member on Sept. 30, 1965, will lead to further manipulation by those among
the political elite whenever they see fit. By October last year, amid heated debates regarding the “communist revival”, the National Resilience Institute (Lemhanas) released a statement that communist sympathy had never been proven and was always used by the political elite in election years — a strong claim from a government institute. But communism, regardless of its textbook def...