Scholars and publishers have expressed concern over the government’s escalating campaign against left-leaning literature, deeming the policy misguided and a threat to freedom of expression in the country.

The Attorney General’s Office (AGO) and the Indonesian Military (TNI) are reportedly planning to hold a “large-scale” raid on books tackling the subject of communism and anything related to the 1965 purge, a move which appears to be aimed at preventing any possible revival of the long-defunct Indonesian Communist Party (PKI), which is, nevertheless, perceived by the government as a “latent danger”.

The planned raid is a follow-up to previous raids in Padang, West Sumatra; Kediri, East Java; and Tarakan in North Kalimantan, which took place in December last year. Among the titles confiscated during the raids were Komunisme a la Aidit (Communism a la Aidit), The Missing Link of G30S and Siapa Dalang G30S? (Who was the Puppet Master of G30S?). G30S is an abbreviation for Gerakan 30 September, the name given to the group behind the attempted coup in 1965, which had been blamed on the PKI.

Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu, a former Army chief of staff, has backed the plan, saying that the raid would prevent the possibility of the PKI avenging its defeat in 1965. Ryamizard is convinced that PKI members remain in the country and are holding meetings in restaurants.

“This is a matter of revenge. The PKI’s revenge,” Ryamizard said on Thursday.

Ariel Heryanto, a professor of Indonesian studies at Melbourne University in Australia, said he was surprised by the planned raid and said it might contravene a ruling by the Constitutional Court that requires the government to seek court approval before it can ban or confiscate books.

In the 2010 ruling, the court argued that Indonesia was a law-based country that did not allow the extra judicial confiscation of books.

“I was surprised and puzzled by this. It flies in the face of the recent decree from the Constitutional Court, which clearly stipulates that no publications may be banned without due legal process,” Ariel told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

In the past, the AGO has confiscated dozens of academic texts and books, particularly those highlighting G30S.

Triyono Lukmantoro, a lecturer at the School of Social and Political Sciences at Diponegoro University in Semarang, Central Java, said the government’s arbitrary move to confiscate books could compromise academic freedom on college campuses.

“The books targeted by this raid are the outcome of academic studies. [With this move] the government is limiting academic freedom,” he said.

Meanwhile, University of Indonesia vice rector Bambang Wibawarta said that not all books discussing communism promoted “forbidden ideologies” and the AGO should come up with clear guidelines on which books were deemed harmful.

“They must be careful about the plan [...] They can’t just arbitrarily confiscate books like that,” Bambang said.

Meanwhile, book publishers have dismissed the plan as pointless. “It’s against the rules and absolutely old-fashioned,” Bilven Rivaldo Gultom, founder of Bandung-based leftist publisher Ultimus, said.

Bilven said the raids that had taken place were a continuation of a clampdown on 1965-themed activities, which reached a tipping point in 2012, when American director Joshua Oppenheimer released The Act of Killing, a documentary that inspired many Indonesians to learn more about one of the darkest chapters in the nation’s history.

Bilven cited an incident in February 2016 when the Jakarta Police banned the Belok Kiri (Turn Left) Festival, a festival of leftist thinking in Taman Ismail Marzuki, Cikini, Central Jakarta.

A few months later in May 2016, a book published by Ultimus, Sejarah Gerakan Kiri Indonesia untuk Pemula (A Beginner’s History of Indonesia’s Leftist Movement), was confiscated from several bookstores in Yogyakarta by an intelligence assistant at the AGO.

Ronny Agustinus of publishing house Marjin Kiri said the ongoing raids indicated that the government had absolutely no commitment to literacy.

Meanwhile, National Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Dedi Prasetyo said police would only launch probes into leftist books after receiving referrals from the AGO, adding that so far only the TNI had taken action against anything that could be perceived as promoting communism. (ggq)

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