International: Siauw and Siauw Giok Bie in Cologne in 1980. From Siauw Giok Tjhan, published by Hasta Mitra

The September 30 Movement (G30S) dealt a death blow to Siauw Giok Tjhan's illustrious political career.

He was playing chess with his 9-year-old son on the morning of Oct. 1, 1965, when a friend came to congratulate him for being a member of the so-called revolutionary council, something that Siauw was totally unaware of.

Both men were oblivious of the fact that six army generals had been slain overnight.

As usual, Siauw went to the House of Representatives (DPRGR) before giving a lecture at Economic Operation Top Command (KOTOE) that finished at 7 p.m.

By 9 p.m. he learned that Gen. Soeharto had thwarted the G30S movement.

The rest is history.

The ensuing pogrom against the communists was to become the worst massacres in the 20th century. Between half million to three million suspected communists perished and more than 100,000 ended up in prison.

In July last year, the National Commission on Human Rights (KomnasHAM) announced that events unfolding from 1965 to 1968 amounted to 'mass violence'.

It recorded genocide, slavery, forced displacement, deprivation of liberty, torture, rape, persecution and forced disappearances during the violence.

Like many leftist leaders, Siauw was to spend 12 years in a New Order jail without trial. Siauw was a Marxist but not a member of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI).

The head of Badan Permusyawaratan Kewarganegaraan Indonesia (Baperki) was suspected of supporting G30S, which was blamed on the PKI, a charge that was never proven.

In prison, he had a number of heart attacks and the eyesight in his left was reduced to 10 percent.

Yet, his reaction to his imprisonment was astonishing.

'He did not have any grudge whatsoever,' Siauw Tiong Djin said.

'There was no bitterness at all.'

Tiong Djin was the son Siauw was playing chess with on that fateful day.

He was asked whether his father was a changed man after he emerged from prison in 1978.

'No, he keeps his steadfast commitment [to the nation] and spirit high,' Tiong Djin said in a recent interview in Melbourne. 'He has always been an optimist and a positive thinker.'

The absence of bitterness after such a terrible suffering is telling.

Yet, Siauw was not alone. Thousands of former prisoners were in the same boat, judging from the numerous books coming out following the fall of Soeharto in 1998.

Power meeting: Siauw meets Chi Peng Fei, the deputy premier of the People's Republic of China, in October 1981. From Siauw Giok Tjhan, published by Hasta Mitra

Most encouraging, Nahdlatul Ulama, an organization linked to some the perpetrators of the massacres, had its younger members involved in Syarikat Indonesia offer olive leaves to former prisoners and their families.

Increasingly, people like Nani Nurrachman, the courageous daughter of the slain Gen. Sutoyo, and activists have been voicing the need to bury the hatchets.

Yet, official apologies are hard to come. Jakarta political elites, too preoccupied with the 2014 elections, are likely to shelve the KomnasHAM report.

As calls for reconciliation have fallen on deaf ears while the culture of denial continues unabated, the books published by former G30S prisoners, including those of Siauw's, are a welcome refuge.

Soon after his release in 1978, Siauw went to the Netherlands for medical treatment. Tiong Djin was leaving for Australia to continue his studies.

Defying his doctor's advice, Siauw busied himself with fundraising, helping fellow prisoners afloat while keeping abreast with unfolding events in his motherland. He died three years later on his way to a conference on Indonesia at Leiden University. He was 67.

As a journalist and political leader, Siauw wrote a number of manuscripts during his prison days including Lima Jaman (Five Ages) and For a Brighter Future. They are rare gems that are still relevant today.

Some of these manuscripts had been published in Dutch and Chinese before Tiong Djin compiled them in Reflections of an Indonesian Patriot, published by Lembaga Kajian Sinergi Indonesia in 2010.

Renungan traces the formation of the fledgling nation from the colonial period to independence, up to the G30S and the New Order government.

He believed that a glorius and democratic Indonesia, free from racism, would eventually create a country based on the 1945 Constitution and Pancasila.

A decided departure from the official history, the book is captivating reading. It traces the roots of consumerism in the new government, anti-Chinese policies and the role of Chinese Indonesian community during the struggle for independence, a taboo topic in post-1965.

'It was a complicated period for the community,' said Charles Coppel, an associate professor at Melbourne University referring to pre-independence period.

'There were conflicting claims on their loyalty and identity. Dutch colonial policy had treated them separately from indigenous Indonesians in various ways. Many mainstream Indonesian political parties before independence were unwilling to accept them as members.

'The Chinese government proclaimed all ethnic Chinese as nationals of China, no matter where they were born or how long their families had been settled in Indonesia,' Coppel said in an email interview.

According to Coppel, there was no uniform contribution from the Chinese Indonesian community in 1945.

'That was true of all ethnic groups, of course. Among indigenous Indonesians most ordinary people were not involved at all in the struggle for independence, either politically or in armed struggle.

'Some actively supported the colonial government, like the KNIL or the pangreh pradja. It was similar among the Chinese-Indonesians, but with an additional legal and political complication'China,' he said.

Some Chinese-Indonesians, he said, such as Liem Koen Hian and Yap Tjwan Bing, were members of the committees preparing for independence before the proclamation in 1945.

'Siauw Giok Tjhan held a Cabinet minister position in Yogyakarta in 1947-1948; some, like Go Gien Tjwan, were activists in the struggle against the Dutch, especially in East Java. Some were active in trade or smuggling of supplies to the government,' he said.

Tiong Djin said the community had been instrumental in nurturing the economy since the Dutch colonial period.

'This includes the establishment of village to city distribution network as well as intercity, retail trade networks, transportation and rice mills,' he said.

The community's involvement in book and newspaper publication is well recorded.

'Most of the pre-independence Indonesian language newspapers and magazines were by financed the Chinese-Indonesian community,' said Tiong Djin, now a businessman in his own right.

Some of them, such as Sin Po, Matahari and Sin Tit Po, actively supported the struggle for independence, he said.

David T. Hill, professor and head of Asian Studies at Murdoch University in Perth said that many Chinese-Indonesians were freedom fighters. 'Chinese-Indonesian leaders emerged during the early days of struggle for independence,' he said.

Hill said the role of Chinese-
Indonesians in the media was continued by people like PK Oyong and his Kompas newspaper, Hill said.

'Without their ideas, leadership and energy, it is difficult to find Indonesia's print media the way we find it today,' he said.

Ian Chalmers, senior lecturer of Asian Studies and International Relations at Curtin University in Perth, highlighted the big contribution made by the community to the Indonesian language.

'Most historians agree that Chinese-Indonesians are pioneers in the independence movement in the cultural sector through the promotion of the usage of Indonesian language,' he said.

'What is most interesting is that changes in the level of vision and consciousness had preceded political transformation through the rising confidence in certain groups among the Chinese-Indonesian community,' Chalmers said.

According to Tiong Djin, his father's resolution to support Indonesia's independence was nurtured by the Chinese Indonesia Party (PTI).

'This principle is based on Marxism, which was the 'in thing' during the time to fight against Dutch cruel repression.

'The Dutch were the repressive regime. The Indonesian people should be defended and freed from colonialism and repression,' Tiong Djin said.