T

he long-overdue recognition of first president Sukarno and vice president Mohammad Hatta as national heroes came just ahead of this year’s Heroes Day, which falls today. As President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said in his address when conferring the National Hero status to the country’s founding fathers on Wednesday, controversy over Sukarno’s link to the Indonesian Communist Party and an aborted coup blamed on it in 1965 should stop once and for all.

The stigma as a pro-communist has been slapped on Sukarno ever since the Provisional People’s Consultative Assembly (MPRS) endorsed a decree in 1967 that declared the then president’s policy concerning the communist party’s role in the coup inconclusive. The assembly then impeached Sukarno, paving the way for a transfer of power to Gen. Soeharto.

In 1986, President Soeharto named both Sukarno and Hatta the Proclamation Heroes, which did little to end the stigmatization. Even the new status reduced the contributions of Sukarno and Hatta to only proclaiming Indonesia’s independence back in 1945 and failed to pay tribute to their services and sacrifices during the turbulent years the new nation endured while defending national unity, including two Dutch invasions and a number of rebellions.

The state was held responsible for the long-standing stigma, at least by omission. For decades, nation members, particularly students, have been left to guess as to where Sukarno drew line in the critical time he described as years of living dangerously.

That’s why a polemic has loomed over whether the controversial MPRS decree should be scrapped to formally end the stigma on Sukarno, which President Yudhoyono says was done following the state’s recognition of the two founding fathers as national heroes.

While MPRS or MPR decrees are no longer acknowledged as part of the national legal system, revocation of the 1967 decree looks irrelevant. It will be more important for the government to revisit national history, particularly concerning Sukarno’s role during the 1965 tragedy.

What we learn from the Sukarno case is that a national hero title was in the past conferred upon the president’s generosity and sometimes subjectivity, as happened when Soeharto named his late wife a national heroine a few months after her demise in 1996. In fact, both Sukarno and Hatta joined the hall of fame only after 154 other figures had made the roster since 1959.

We have wasted several decades of opportunity to build a great nation, which, according to Sukarno, is characterized by its respect for their heroes.