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Lest we forget: More May memorials needed
Still fresh in our memory: A man plays a guitar in the 12 Mei Reformasi Park in Grogol, West Jakarta, on May 13
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till fresh in our memory: A man plays a guitar in the 12 Mei Reformasi Park in Grogol, West Jakarta, on May 13. The park was built to pay respects to four Trisakti University students who were killed during a mass demonstration to fight for reforms in May 1998.(JP/Dhoni Setiawan)
Since 1998, the last year of Soeharto’s administration, Indonesia has remembered May as the month when thousands died and some women were allegedly raped. However, activists are worried that the collective memory is fading and they have lobbied the government and the Jakarta administration for more memorials to remind the nation of the tragedy and that so many people have yet to get justice.
Today, the tragedy and riots are memorialized in Jakarta at the Transjakarta bus shelter called 12 Mei Reformasi, which has a statue standing across from it in Grogol, West Jakarta, near Trisakti University, a plaque at the National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan) in Menteng, Central Jakarta, and Pondok Rangon Cemetery in Cipayung, East Jakarta, which dedicated a plot for mass graves and a monument to commemorate the victims of the May 1998 riots.
All memorials were inaugurated by former Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama in 2014 and 2015.
Zaenal Muttaqien of the National Association of Families of the Disappeared (IKOHI) said Jakarta was quite lucky that the riots were remembered through the memorials, after a collaboration with civil society groups especially families of the victims and the city administration.
However, Zaenal wished more could be done by the current city administration to improve public memory of the events.
“We wish that the monuments and graves of victims of the May 1998 riots could become a historical landmark so the city cultural agency could take over. That way, those historical events can become a precious lesson for this nation,” Zaenal told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.
Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy (Elsam) researcher Wahyudi Jafar said that with the dragging of the legal process of past human rights violations, especially in the May 1998 riots, the political scene and public memory of the events and their impacts had begun to slip away.
On May 12, 1998, unidentified gunmen shot and killed four Trisakti University students, Elang Mulia Lesmana, Heri Hertanto, Hafidin Royan and Hendriawan Sie during a demonstration at the campus.
Then on May 13 and 15, 1998, lynch mobs raged in the city, gang rapes targeted Chinese Indonesians and crowds looted grocery stores and malls.
After Soeharto resigned on May 21, 1998, his successor BJ Habibie sanctioned a joint fact-finding team to investigate the violence, and reported 52 alleged rape cases, more than 12 sexual violence cases and nearly 1,190 deaths, apart from the hundreds of buildings, shops and homes that were set ablaze during the chaos.
In 2005, the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) lodged its report of the case to the Attorney’s General Office for further prosecution, but no response was made from the office.
Wahyudi said the political elites tried to avoid the discourse, claiming that the case had yet to be legally resolved through a court of law.
“But that should not close the opportunity of taking care of the collective memory,” he said.
He said there were a lot of spots in Jakarta that were sites of the May 1998 riots that could become memorialized, not just designated sites such as Pondok Rangon Cemetery.
National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan) commissioner Indriyati Suparno said new monuments to commemorate the events by the government especially the Jakarta administration could help the public untangle those conflicting memories.
“That is why we want to encourage the Jakarta administration [to create more monuments] because we want to take care of the memory and to lead the truth based on the victim’s point of view,” Indriyati said.
She said the memorials should become a means for Indonesians to retrace the history of Indonesia’s Reform Era, for example by visiting the sites in a historical tour.
She said Komnas Perempuan had tried twice to contact Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan to have an audience about memorials of the May 1998 riots, but the governor had yet to grant Komnas Perempuan the meeting.
