Challenges of Political Rehabilitation in Post-New Order Indonesia: The Case of Gerwani (McGregor and Hearman, 2007)

=== [PDF page 1] === South East Asia Research ISSN: 0967-828X (Print) 2043-6874 (Online) Journal homepage: www.tandfonline.com/journals/rsou20 Challenges of Political Rehabilitation in Post-New Order Indonesia The Case of Gerwani (the Indonesian Women’s Movement) Katharine E. McGregor & Vannessa Hearman To cite this article: Katharine E. McGregor & Vannessa Hearman (2007) Challenges of Political Rehabilitation in Post-New Order Indonesia, South East Asia Research, 15:3, 355-384, DOI: 10.5367/000000007782717759 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.5367/000000007782717759 Published online: 18 Oct 2018. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 297 View related articles Citing articles: 4 View citing articles Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=rsou20 === [PDF page 2] === Challenges of political rehabilitation in post-New Order Indonesia The case of Gerwani (the Indonesian Women’s Movement)1 Katharine E. McGregor and Vannessa Hearman Abstract: Due to the strong stigma associated with Gerwani (the Indonesian Women’s Movement), very few women imprisoned in connection with the 1965 coup attempt have published their memoirs, despite the demise of the Suharto regime. Through an analysis of the memoirs of two Gerwani women, this article analyses how these authors re-evaluate Indonesian history. It assesses how they have negotiated dramatic changes since the time when they were politically active. In the last 40 years, Indonesia has largely rejected socialism and embraced capitalism. Religion has also become more prominent, thereby making it imperative for these women to rebut allegations of immorality. Keywords: women; memory; violence; rehabilitation; Gerwani; Indonesia State-produced versions of official history demonized former members of the Indonesian Women’s Movement (Gerwani) for their alleged role in the 1965 coup attempt in which seven senior army officers were kidnapped and killed at Lubang Buaya in Jakarta. The military blamed the coup on the PKI, the Indonesian Communist Party, and its affiliates including Gerwani, and began to spread stories of the involvement of Gerwani women in the torture, genital mutilation and murder of the military men killed in the coup attempt. Negative images of Gerwani were circulated through the military’s newspaper reporting and through This research was supported under the Australian Research Council’s Discovery Projects funding scheme (Project Number DPO772760). We would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for South East Asia Research and Hue-Tam Ho Tai for her helpful suggestions on this paper following presentation of this work at the 2007 Association for Asian Studies Conference in Boston. South East Asia Research, 15, 3, pp. 355–384 === [PDF page 3] === 356 South East Asia Research film footage; they were written into the school curriculum and carved into the reliefs adorning the Sacred Pancasila Monument, the monument erected at the site at which the bodies of the attempted coup victims were found. This propaganda resulted in effective pariah status for former Gerwani members throughout the New Order period (1966–98). Saskia Wieringa has suggested that the reason Gerwani women were targeted in this smear campaign against all leftists was that they pushed the boundaries of existing gender norms, and in particular the idea that women should not be politically active. She also suggests that Gerwani members specifically antagonized sections of the Islamic community in their opposition, for example, to polygamy.2 From the inception of Gerwani, originally founded with the name Gerwis (Movement of Conscious Indonesian women) in 1950, members of this organization focused on improving the daily lives of women by combating illiteracy and supporting education for women, setting up childcare facilities and kindergartens, establishing cooperatives and working to improve women’s wages and working conditions. They also focused on defending the rights of women in marriage and defending women victims of male violence. In the 1960s, Gerwani members began to follow the Communist Party more closely by espousing a militant version of motherhood whereby mothers became advocates for President Sukarno’s ongoing revolution against the remnants of colonialism and feudalism.3 The relentless propaganda against Gerwani had real effects for members of this organization who were imprisoned following the coup attempt, at both the time of their detention and long after their release. When detained, Gerwani women were punished brutally because of their alleged sexual depravity. Many were sexually tortured, raped by interrogators, raped with objects or publicly humiliated in a variety of other ways.4 Other Gerwani women, especially in more rural areas, were killed in the nationwide purges of leftists from 1965–68. The military and religious vigilantes killed approximately half a million communists and members of PKI-affiliated organizations throughout Indonesia.5 At the same time, between 600,000 and 750,000 people Saskia Wieringa (2002), Sexual Politics in Indonesia, Palgrave McMillan, New York, p 7. Wieringa, supra note 2, at p 237. Wieringa, supra note 2, at p 300; Pipit Rochijat (1985), ‘Am I PKI or non-PKI?’ Indonesia, Vol 40, October, pp 44–45; Fransisca Susanti (2006), Kembang-Kembang Genjer, Lembaga Sastra Pembebasan, Jakarta, pp 12–13, 19–20, 32. Robert Cribb, ed (1990), ‘Introduction’, The Indonesian Killings 1965–1966: Studies from Bali and Java, Centre of Southeast Asian Studies, Monash University Press, Clayton, Victoria, p 14. === [PDF page 4] === Political rehabilitation in post-New Order Indonesia 357 were arrested and imprisoned for their alleged links to the PKI.6 Gerwani was outlawed and expelled from the Indonesian Women’s Congress (Kowani) on 29 October 1965.7 Some women’s groups acquiesced to the purge of Gerwani due to fear, but also due to ideological differences. Through negative images of Gerwani, the New Order’s message was also to equate politically active women with sexual deviance.8 Since the fall of Suharto, many former political prisoners have seized the opportunity provided by new freedoms of expression and information to challenge dominant versions of history that stigmatized all former leftists for their alleged involvement in the 1965 coup attempt. Leslie Dwyer claims, however, that the gendered aspects of the violence of 1965 have ‘made it difficult for women to imagine enacting political agency’ and that they have not ‘figured prominently in projects to re-evaluate or straighten out Indonesian history’.9 We argue that, while this may be true for many former women political prisoners, some of whom are afraid, for example, to join any kind of organization for fear of possible future ramifications,10 there are some exceptions. Sulami and Sudjinah are two out of a very small number of Indonesian women political prisoners who have published their memoirs since the fall of Suharto.11 In this article we present a critical analysis of the memoirs of these two former members of Gerwani, both of whom were imprisoned following the 1965 Indonesian coup attempt.12 These memoirs are very similar in content, and both works attempt to offer a re-evaluation of Indonesian history as presented by the New Order 10 11 12 Greg Fealy (1995), The Release of Indonesia’s Political Prisoners: Domestic Versus Foreign Policy, 1975–1979, Monash Asia Institute, Clayton, Victoria. Kongres Wanita Indonesia – Kowani (1978), Sejarah Setengah abad Pergerakan Wanita Indonesia, Balai Pustaka, Jakarta, p 174. Wieringa, supra note 2, at p 2; and Sylvia Tiwon (1996), ‘Models and maniacs: articulating the female in Indonesia’, in Laurie Sears, ed, Fantasising the Feminine in Indonesia, Duke University Press, Durham, pp 47–49, 64–70. Leslie Dwyer (2004), ‘Intimacy of terror: gender and the violence of 1965–1966 in Bali’, Intersections: Gender, History and Culture in the Asian Context, Vol 10, Website: http://wwwsshe.murdoch.edu.au/intersections/issue10_contents.html, p 5. Interview with Rumekso Setyadi, Yogyakarta, 21 May 2007. An earlier work by a female former political prisoner imprisoned in Indonesia during this period was that by Carmel Budiardjo (1996), Surviving Indonesia’s Gulags: A Western Woman Tells Her Story, Cassell, London. More recently, another female former political prisoner, Mia Bustam, has published a work focusing on her life up to the 1950s: Mia Bustam (2006), Sudjojono dan Aku, Pustaka Utan Kayu, Jakarta. The second forthcoming volume will deal with her life in Plantungan Prison. Sulami (1999), Perempuan – Kebenaran – Penjara: Kisah Nyata Wanita Dipenjara 20 Tahun Karena Makar dan Subversi, Cipta Karya, Jakarta. === [PDF page 5] === 358 South East Asia Research regime. Our aims are to explore the meanings these two formerly prominent political women seek to attach to their experiences, to analyse how these authors re-evaluate Indonesian history and to assess how they negotiate the vast gaps between the time during which they were politically active and the present-day audiences they address. In the last 40 years, for example, Indonesia has embraced capitalism and largely turned away from socialism. Since the inception of the New Order, the role of religion has become more prominent in the lives of Indonesians in general, and they place even greater emphasis on religious belief and morality. Despite an expansion in political space for women since the fall of Suharto, ideas of kodrat, or gender-specific codes of conduct, persist and are reinforced by increased religiosity. We also examine other efforts to rehabilitate the image of former members of Gerwani and societal responses to these efforts. To date there has been limited commentary on the memoirs. Pohlman’s work focusing on the experiences of women and political imprisonment examines these two memoirs and features interviews with other women who were political prisoners during the period from 1965–66.13 C.W. Watson examines how Sudjinah’s memoir functions to counter dominant versions of history in a larger work on the broader genre of autobiographies of different kinds of political prisoners of the New Order regime.14 In contrast to Watson’s analysis of Sudjinah’s memoir, we read this work from the perspective of her position as a former Gerwani (Indonesian Women’s Movement) member, mindful of the ideals for which Gerwani stood and the ways in which she and Sulami negotiate the task of representing their past to an audience of people with very different experiences from their own. An introduction to the authors and their works At the time of the coup attempt, Sulami was the second Vice-Secretary-General of Gerwani and Sudjinah was a staff member of its education and culture board. Their stories share many similarities because of their history of activism during the Indonesian independence struggle against the Dutch in the 1940s and with Gerwani. They were arrested in 1967 and detained in the same prisons around Jakarta, including Bukit Duri 13 14 Anne Pohlman (2004), ‘A fragment of a story: Gerwani and Tapol experiences’, Intersections, Issue 10, August, Website: http://wwwsshe.murdoch.edu.au/intersections/issue10/pohlman.html. C.W. Watson (2006), Of Self and Injustice, KITLV Press, Leiden, pp 78–85. === [PDF page 6] === Political rehabilitation in post-New Order Indonesia 359 and Tangerang – for 16 years in the case of Sudjinah and 17 years in the case of Sulami. In 1975, they were brought to trial, unlike so many others. They were tried for subversion due to their involvement in an underground publication, the Bulletin to Support Commander Sukarno, in the post-coup period. They were never charged with involvement in the 30 September 1965 attempted coup, which according to the regime was the main reason hundreds of thousands were imprisoned. The women remained close following their imprisonment. Before Sulami’s death in 2002 and Sudjinah’s in 2007, they often spoke to researchers and young people who were interested in their experiences and comments about the New Order period.15 Both the works were begun in gaol and published during the postSuharto era. Sulami completed her memoir entitled Woman – Truth – Jail: The True Story of a Woman Who Was Imprisoned for 20 Years on Account of Being Accused of Treason and Subversion in 1991, approximately four years after her release.16 The memoir was not published until 1999, one year after the collapse of the Suharto regime.17 After Suharto fell, Sulami became active in advocating for the rehabilitation of victims of 1965 by founding YPKP, the Foundation for the Research into Victims of the 1965–66 Killings, in 1999 together with novelist Pramoedya Ananta Toer, who was himself a former political prisoner. YPKP’s initial activities included collecting testimonies, investigating and digging up mass graves and producing publications. It aims to challenge the historical orthodoxy of the killings, which suggested that they constituted justifiable revenge for communist ‘betrayal of the nation’ and to bring perpetrators to account. Most members of YPKP, which has representative offices in many parts of Indonesia, are former political prisoners. Many are naturally bitter towards the New Order regime, not only for the treatment they received during imprisonment, but also for the prejudice their families were subjected to on the basis of being related to a political prisoner.18 Since the fall of Suharto in 1998, a small number of the thousands of former political detainees from 1965 have published their memoirs.19 15 16 17 18 19 Wieringa, supra note 2, at p 337. Sulami, supra note 12. Sulami, supra note 12, at p 77. Interviews with YPKP members, Jakarta, May 2005. Apart from the works above, these include Kresno Saroso (2002), Dari Salemba ke Pulau Buru: memoar seorang tapol Orde Baru, Institut Studi Arus Informasi, Jakarta; and Hersri Setiawan (2003), Aku eks-tapol, Galang Press, Yogyakarta. === [PDF page 7] === 360 South East Asia Research Many more former political detainees have written up their autobiographies as complete manuscripts, but these have not yet been published due to a lack of personal funds to support the publication and a lack of interest from publishers.20 Those who have written or recorded their stories are certainly outnumbered by those who were killed in 1965 and by those who chose not to record their stories publicly in memoirs or oral history projects.21 As a result, few people, and very few women, have written their memoirs related to this time, perhaps due to the trauma and continuing social unease about the violence of 1965 and whether it should be re-examined. This unease is felt by many sections of Indonesian society. These include members of the government and the bureaucracy who benefited from the 1965 transition and who are products of the New Order22 and most sections of the Indonesian military who have prided themselves on their role in crushing the communists in 1965. Some Islamic organizations or sections within them, which participated in – or supported the violence of 1965, have been strong opponents of historical revision and efforts on the part of former political prisoners to open up the past.23 Although there has been greatly increased political space and freedom to talk about this time, there is little political will within the government to deal with it at a national level. This was most clearly demonstrated by the 2006 Constitutional Court decision to reject the law for the establishment of a truth and reconciliation commission in Indonesia. The government is reluctant to address this part of the past because there is no shared consensus that the New Order, especially its inception, was a shameful period in Indonesian history. Depending on their perspective, for some the New Order period represented economic prosperity, political stability and personal success. The implementation of transitional justice mechanisms for past human rights abuses has experienced many obstacles in Indonesia. Unlike the case of post20 21 22 23 Confidential interviews with publishers and former detainees, April–May 2007. Oral history projects include John Roosa, Ayu Ratih and Hilmar Farid, eds (2004), Tahun yang Tak Pernah Berakhir: Memahami Pengalaman Korban 65: Esai-esai Sejarah Lisan, Lembaga Studi dan Advokasi Masyarakat, Jakarta; HD Haryo Sasongko and Melani Budianta, eds (2003), Menembus Tirai Asap: Kesaksian Tahanan Politik 1965, Amanah Lontar, Jakarta; and Susanti, supra note 4. Vedi Hadiz (2006), ‘The left and Indonesia’s 1960s: the politics of remembering and forgetting’, Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, Vol 7, No 4, p 554. See Mary Zurbuchen (2002), ‘History, memory and the “1965 Incident” in Indonesia’, Asian Survey, Vol 42, No 4, p 580; and Katharine McGregor (2002), ‘Digging up the past in post-Suharto Indonesia’, Nordic Newsletter of Asian Studies (NIASNyttt), No 4, p 8. === [PDF page 8] === Political rehabilitation in post-New Order Indonesia 361 Mao China, where there has also been slow but measured political change since the rule of Mao, there has been no comparable attempt to acknowledge past political mistakes or attribute them to a particular group, such as the Gang of Four.24 As a result, no clear line has been drawn between the New Order and the current regime, at least with regard to the wrongs of the past. Reflecting on why Sulami was brave enough to publish her memoir very soon after the fall of Suharto and why she became a symbol in the quest for justice, one activist campaigning for victims of 1965 commented that, unlike other former political prisoners, she had few assets and family to risk.25 However, other reasons could be that with the killings of many others, she felt she had a historical debt to repay, to continue the struggle, as a survivor from that period. In the documentary, Indonesia’s Killing Fields, which follows Sulami’s efforts to uncover mass graves from 1965, she recounts the sense of responsibility she feels to those who have died.26 Sulami was subjected to harassment and public condemnation for her work in the post-Suharto period.27 Both her memoir and her work in YPKP were part of a campaign to defend herself and to rehabilitate Gerwani and the left more broadly. Sudjinah, a former journalist, spoke of the compulsion she felt to write down her experiences both during and after her imprisonment. She was able to write in prison when a friend gave her some paper and in turn, smuggled her stories out of gaol.28 Political prisoners were prohibited from owning any paper or writing implements, or from having access to printed or electronic news sources.29 Sudjinah was fearful about publishing her memoir and thereby reintroducing herself to society because of the strong stigma attached to Gerwani. She claimed that it was not until 2002, well after her release, that she gave up using pseudonyms adopted during her imprisonment and returned to using her own name. A year later she gained enough courage to publish her memoir.30 The title, Terempas Gelombang Pasang [Battered by the 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Klaus Muhlhahn (2004), ‘Remembering a bitter past: the trauma of China’s labour camps, 1949–1978’, History and Memory, Vol 16, No 2, p 117. Stanley, interview with the author, Jakarta, 26 February 2007. SBS TV Dateline, Indonesia’s Killing Fields, Dateline, broadcast 25 August 1998. Stanley (2000), ‘Opening that dark page’, Inside Indonesia, No 63, September. See also Hanibal Wijayanta et al (1999), ‘Apa Yang Kau Cari Sulami’, Forum Keadilan, 7 November. Sudjinah, interview with the author, Depok, 21 February 2007. Sulami, supra note 12, at pp 71–72. Sudjinah, interview with the author, Depok, 21 February 2007. === [PDF page 9] === 362 South East Asia Research Waves], captures how one person (and symbolically many others) came to be affected by a dramatic event over which they had no control, and speaks of a sense of powerlessness.31 Sidonie Smith and Julia Watson note that ‘writings from prison often become occasions for prisoners to inscribe themselves as fully human in the midst of a system designed to dehumanize them and to render them anonymous and passive’.32 In the case of Indonesian political prisoners from 1965, this definition is particularly apt, because they were dehumanized not only through the experience of imprisonment, but also in state-sponsored narratives of history or official memory, in which all communists were constructed as nefarious and barbaric for their alleged role in murdering the army leadership in the 1965 coup attempt.33 The loss of many political, social and economic rights has contributed to former political prisoners from 1965 feeling that they have had to struggle to ‘be human again’.34 Both women’s memoirs share many of the features of other prison memoirs from around the world. They focus on the human condition and the extremes of suffering endured in prison through torture, hunger, ill health and isolation. Loosely, the works are structured around life on the run after the coup attempt of 1965 and the stages of arrest and imprisonment. In one chapter of her memoir, Sulami reflects on the overall themes of loss (the loss of each other, of material possessions, of one’s position in life) and the loneliness and separation that affected all the political prisoners and their families, as well as Indonesian exiles abroad. Her stories describe how imprisonment and the events of 1965 affected many women in prison and their children. She recounts how one political prisoner coped with separation from her family by muffling her cries of loneliness with a pillow.35 Sulami also tells of how another political prisoner, a mother, found her son who had escaped their relatives and was loitering outside the gaol. The child could not withstand the relatives’ taunts of him as the child of a political prisoner and had decided to escape and to find his mother at the city’s women’s gaol.36 Sudjinah conveys the 31 32 33 34 35 36 In this article, we have chosen to use C.W. Watson’s English translation of the title of Sudjinah’s memoir. Sidonie Smith and Julia Watson (2001), Reading Autobiography: A Guide for Interpreting Life Narratives, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, MN, p 201. McGregor (2007), History in Uniform: Military Ideology and the Construction of Indonesia’s Past, Singapore University Press, Singapore, pp 61–110. Putu Oka Sukanta, interview with the author, Jakarta, 20 February 2007. Sulami, supra note 12, at p 91. Sulami, supra note 12, at p 92. === [PDF page 10] === Political rehabilitation in post-New Order Indonesia 363 mental pressures of prison life, sharing with readers the story of a male prisoner who longed so much for some semblance of normality in his life, he would walk from one corner of his cell to the other in the morning and late afternoon as if he was going to and coming home from work.37 The tone of both works is not highly personal or confessional, despite the deep pathos in their descriptions of the many aspects of gaol life. There is not a great deal of self-reflection in these memoirs, perhaps because of the works’ aim as counter-histories and because their identities have been very much shaped by their political lives. Both authors were very clear that their target audience was the young generation of Indonesians. Sudjinah claimed that she wrote her memoir primarily for the post-’65 generation in Indonesia. In her opinion, the older generation had already been taught to hate the 1965 prisoners.38 In her memoir, Sudjinah explicitly expresses her hope that her work will ‘enrich national history’, act as a form of historical correction and as a deterrent to prevent a repeat of the kind of treatment she received. She writes: ‘My hope is that the children of our nation in the future will never again be deceived by their fellow citizens to the point that they have the heart to kill thousands of their own people’.39 There is a strong emphasis on the New Order regime’s deception of the people through official history. In order to communicate with their target audience of young Indonesians, however, Sulami and Sudjinah have to negotiate several obstacles. First, former leftists have to be cognizant of an increased emphasis on religion in society since the period in which they were politically active. This leads them to omit certain aspects of their past that resulted in clashes with religious groups. In particular, they seek to distance Gerwani from the Indonesian Communist Party, which is most closely associated with both the coup attempt and suggestions of atheism. A renewed emphasis on religion under the New Order makes it imperative for these women to debunk the myths about their alleged immorality. Second, the ideals for which Sudjinah and Sulami stood in the 1960s have become 37 38 39 Sudjinah (2003), Terempas Gelombang Pasang: Riwayat Wartawati dalam Penjara Orde Baru, Pustaka Utan Kayu, Jakarta, p 29. Sudjinah, interview with the author, Depok, 21 February 2007. Sudjinah used the expression ‘mereka sudah diajar benci sama kam’. Sudjinah, supra note 37, at p xv. === [PDF page 11] === 364 South East Asia Research foreign to many Indonesians and difficult for many in the post-Cold War world to understand. This could result in alienation of the audience they are trying to court. There is, however, some common ground between Sudjinah and Sulami’s lost ideals and those of sections of the younger generation who have turned to socialist ideas as an alternative to the New Order’s capitalist and authoritarian measures. One of the strongest cards Sudjinah and Sulami are able to play in order to appeal to an audience of young Indonesians is to critique the kind of society set up by the New Order after the downfall of Sukarno. They court a broader audience, however, by invoking their nationalist credentials. Distancing Gerwani from the PKI For the duration of the New Order regime, the 1965 coup attempt was referred to by the double-barrelled acronym G30S/PKI referring to the 30 September movement that carried out the coup attempt and its alleged direction by the PKI. Despite open discussion of alternative versions of the coup attempt in the last nine years, including the idea that it was an internal military affair or a Suharto plot, in the minds of many the coup is still inseparable from the PKI. This is due to constant indoctrination through official versions of history with this view. For this reason Gerwani women have been particularly concerned to distance themselves from the PKI, despite the fact that ideologically they shared some common ground with the PKI. Another possible reason for asserting this distance is that the PKI is most closely associated with threats to religion. In 1964, Aidit, Chairman of the PKI, was accused of saying that once Indonesian socialism had been implemented, the Pancasila would no longer be needed as a unifying philosophy.40 The New Order government replicated this belief that the communists would have discarded the Pancasila and hence the first principle of belief in One God, for the duration of the regime. Under Sukarno’s Nasakom ideology, a blend of nationalism, religion and communism, all mass organizations were forced to choose allegiance to one of these ideologies, and as a result of this, Gerwani was forced into an affiliation with the PKI, but the decision to affiliate with the party formally was still to be ratified in December 1965, three months after the coup attempt.41 Gerwani women were punished along with 40 41 Rex Mortimer (1974), Indonesian Communism under Sukarno: Ideology and Politics, 1959–1965, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY and London, p 94. Wieringa, supra note 2, at p 191. === [PDF page 12] === Political rehabilitation in post-New Order Indonesia 365 members of the broader PKI family because of the view that the coup was a PKI plot and indeed had a broader aim of eliminating the left in Indonesia. Members of the All Indonesia Labour Unions Organisation (SOBSI), the People’s Youth (Pemuda Rakyat) and the left-leaning arts organization, the People’s Cultural Institute (Lekra), were also punished because of their perceived links with the PKI. The level of complicity of the PKI and its mass organizations is, in the post-Suharto era, a subject of wide and open debate.42 In his recent book Pretext for Mass Murder, Roosa argues that sections of the PKI, such as the Special Bureau led by Sjam and directed by PKI Chairman, D.N. Aidit, had a role in the coup plot, but not even the entire party leadership was involved.43 He argues that at the same time, the ‘upper echelons’ of the Indonesian military were seeking a pretext to attack the PKI, which was becoming detrimental to their business interests through the party’s control of the labour unions, as well as being anathema to the class origins of the military officers.44 Roosa established that some members of these organizations were on standby to mobilize for some kind of upcoming action, but they had no knowledge of the planned action against the military.45 He claims that the movement responsible for the coup attempt did ask members of Gerwani to open communal kitchens around the city to support the movement, although these kitchens probably did not eventuate because of a low turnout.46 Saskia Wieringa also learned through interviews with Gerwani women that some women had been called to the site of Lubang Buaya by the PKI to assist the anti-Malaysia campaign.47 At best, it seems that a handful of Gerwani women were coopted into the movement without knowledge of its larger plans. Sulami and Sudjinah rebut the New Order’s charge that all elements of the PKI were guilty of involvement or complicit in the 30 September 1965 coup attempt. Both authors tell of their complete surprise at the events of the coup attempt of 1965. In her memoir, Sulami points out that, while the Gerwani central leadership met three times in 42 43 44 45 46 47 Ruth McVey and Benedict Anderson’s theory that the coup attempt was an internal military affair, for example, was frequently outlined after the fall of Suharto: Tajuk, No 15, 17 September 1998. John Roosa (2006), Pretext for Mass Murder: the September 30th Movement and Suharto’s Coup d’État in Indonesia, University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, WI, p 203. Roosa, supra note 43, at p 203. Roosa, supra note 43, at p 220. Roosa, supra note 43, at p 102. Wieringa, supra note 2, at p 292. === [PDF page 13] === 366 South East Asia Research September 1965, the coup attempt was never discussed.48 The women’s memoirs seek to demonstrate that Gerwani was not responsible in any way for the coup by differentiating themselves from the PKI and by rebutting the propaganda about Gerwani. After years of indoctrination with the official version of the coup, this is a momentous task. The moral rehabilitation of Gerwani women With many young Indonesians, their target readership, familiar only with the New Order version of Gerwani’s history, Sudjinah and Sulami have focused on rebutting the longstanding perceptions of the immorality of Gerwani women. Wieringa notes that young women in the immediate post-Suharto era still considered Gerwani as evil.49 Within Gerwani women’s own families, children or grandchildren have accepted the regime’s propaganda.50 A central part of the Gerwani mythology, replicated in the relief of the Sacred Pancasila Monument and in the propaganda film, The Betrayal of the 30 September Movement/PKI, screened annually for the duration of the New Order, was that the women were dancing naked in the ‘Fragrant Flowers Dance’ and taking part in a sexual orgy while torturing the generals.51 In their memoirs, Sulami and Sudjinah point out, however, that it was in Bukit Duri prison that young women were forced to pose, sometimes unclothed, for the army photographs and video footage. These images were circulated publicly as if the events had occurred at Lubang Buaya. Sudjinah recounts sharing a cell with the women who were forced to dance around naked and whose images then appeared in the army newspaper Angkatan Bersendjata in 1965 to bolster the Gerwani mythology.52 Sulami wrote that a similar video was made by the authorities in the prison and used in the trial of one of the PKI leaders to demonstrate the degenerate nature of the party and Gerwani.53 The video was entitled ‘The Genjer Genjer dance in the midst of a pornographic life’. Genjer-genjer (a type of water hyacinth, which was eaten during times of hardship) was a song popular in the 1960s and became closely associated with the communists. It describes 48 49 50 51 52 53 Sulami, supra note 12, at p 2. Wieringa, supra note 2, at p 342. Rusman (2005), ‘Ex-prisoners ostracised by children’, The Jakarta Post, 6 October. See McGregor, supra note 33, at pp 78–84. Sudjinah, supra note 37, at pp 47–49. Sulami, supra note 12, at p 61. === [PDF page 14] === Political rehabilitation in post-New Order Indonesia 367 the hard life of peasants in East Java during the Japanese occupation.54 Sulami and Sudjinah reveal how the potrayal of Gerwani as sadistic and sexually depraved affected the treatment of women prisoners. Both authors include detailed accounts of the humiliation and torture of women prisoners, particularly in the military detention centre (referred to as ‘Satan’s house’) where they were first detained.55 They write of the plight of young women who were wrongfully detained, forced to sign false confessions and branded with the Gerwani stigma. The degree of embellishment in the mythology surrounding Gerwani has provided fertile means for political prisoners and their advocates to challenge New Order historical orthodoxy. Many victims’ advocacy groups, for example, focus in films and exhibitions on the lies told by the New Order regime about these women for the purposes of revealing the suffering and stigmatization of these women.56 At the same time, they work to challenge the legitimacy of this regime. One effect of the New Order’s rejection of socialism was to increase the emphasis on the personal observance of religion. This, combined with the international trend towards Islamic renewal and indeed the New Order regime’s increasing political accommodation of Islam, has resulted in greater emphasis today on piety, chastity and moral fortitude. These values were certainly present in the 1960s, and this is one reason why the propaganda of Gerwani’s sexual deviance was so effective, but the changed social backdrop means that it is even more important for former members of Gerwani to counter the slander against them. Despite more opportunities for women’s organizations to counter regressive discourses of gender, there have also been efforts by the government and some Islamic groups to focus attention on women’s behaviour and dress through the gradual implementation of regional syariah codes involving women’s dress and the proposed Anti-Pornography Bill (2006).57 Asserting moral fortitude is thus for these women a prerequisite to gaining social acceptance. To counter the negative images of the organization, Sulami and Sudjinah provide some information on Gerwani’s activities. Their 54 55 56 57 Susanti, supra note 4, at p xxi. Sulami, supra note 12, at pp 16–18, 20–25: Sudjinah, supra note 37, at pp 21–26. One film that discusses this mythology alongside victims’ testimonies is Putu Oka Sukanta’s film Perempuan yang Tertuduh, Lembaga Kreatifitas Kemanusiaan, 2007. See Lyn Parker (2005), ‘Uniform jilbab’, Inside Indonesia, July–September, pp 21– 22; and Pam Allen (2007), ‘Challenging diversity: Indonesia’s Anti-Pornography Bill’, Asian Studies Review, Vol 31, No 2, June, pp 102, 106–107. === [PDF page 15] === 368 South East Asia Research accounts of Gerwani’s activities prior to the coup attempt are brief. The choices as to what to include or exclude in these memoirs are also, however, a product of both authors’ awareness of their audience. Sulami, for example, recounts setting up a kindergarten in a village near Surabaya, running courses in lace-making, sewing, embroidering and cooking, conducting literacy and general education programmes, organizing services for women and children who were neglected by their husbands and fathers, and setting up childminding facilities at markets to enable women to work.58 By 1965, Gerwani had set up and was running a number of kindergartens throughout Java. All these activities listed by the authors focus on feminine areas of activism in which Gerwani was involved. More masculine activities with which Gerwani women were engaged, such as military training for the Crush Malaysia campaign and involvement in confrontational land seizures in 1963–64, are not mentioned. One reason for this omission is the association of both these actions with the rise of the PKI, but this could also be read as an effort to neutralize images of the militancy of Gerwani and the perception that they were ‘unfeminine’. Sunindyo argues that in the early 1960s, images of female warriors including women volunteers for the anti-Malaysia campaign became prominent, but she attributes this gender blurring to the sense of crisis of this period and a national effort to demarcate Indonesian women, and hence the Indonesian nation, as progressive.59 Although women were allowed into the military in the New Order period, women warriors were no longer celebrated and even greater emphasis was placed on female domesticity and their duties to the nation.60 Another important issue for Gerwani that is not mentioned in the two memoirs is polygamy. In an interview, Sudjinah noted that the stance taken by Gerwis (the predecessor of Gerwani) was one of the main reasons she was attracted to this organization. She revealed that one of her aunts was forced to become the forty-fourth wife of Sultan Pakubuwono (of the royal court of Solo, Central Java) and that this direct experience of observing polygamy led to Sudjinah’s strong objections to the practice.61 The memoir is focused on Sudjinah’s experiences as a political prisoner, but it is curious that no mention is made of the 58 59 60 61 Sulami, supra note 12, at p 13. Saraswati Sunindyo (1998), ‘When the earth is female and the nation is mother: gender, the armed forces and nationalism in Indonesia’, Feminist Review, No 58, International Voices, spring, pp 8–11. McGregor, supra note 33, at pp 80–82, 148–151. Sudjinah, interview with the author, Depok, 21 February 2007. === [PDF page 16] === Political rehabilitation in post-New Order Indonesia 369 reason she joined this organization. Former leftists have had to negotiate Islamic sensitivity to past communist–Muslim antagonism carefully. Under the New Order regime, communists and leftists were accused of being atheist and anti-religious.62 To reclaim their opposition to polygamy could lead to claims of them being ‘un-Islamic’ or anti-religious. Although most Indonesians disapprove of polygamy, Muslim women within polygamous marriages find that they themselves have difficulties challenging the practice without being accused of being anti-Islam.63 Watson notes a wider tendency in memoirs concerning 1965 to play down the person’s life prior to their imprisonment and their political activities in the 1960s.64 He suggests that there is ‘a worrying uniformity’ amongst these works, suggesting a kind of ‘dictated version of events’ in the memoirs.65 The focus of both works on arrest and thereafter is, as Watson also notes, mandated in part by the expectations of the reader of what a prison memoir should contain.66 The same factor may be an explanation for the fact that many memoirs of 1965 start with imprisonment. Another factor could be the ambiguity with which Indonesia’s pre-New Order history is treated by successive governments following Suharto. To speak of one’s particular activities before Suharto remains a risky activity even today, partly because there is uncertainty about the nature of the democratic space that has opened since the fall of the New Order. Former political prisoners who have made public their demands for justice have at times met violent resistance. In 2005, when Sudjinah joined together with other members of the victims’ organization Institute for the Research into Victims of the 1965–66 Killings (LPKP) to bring a class action against the current and all the former presidents, she and other elderly defendants were violently intimidated by members of the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI).67 Critiquing the New Order’s capitalist system In the 1960s, Gerwani women supported the Sukarnoist slogan of creating 62 63 64 65 66 67 Adrian Vickers and Katharine McGregor (2005), ‘Public debates about history: comparative notes from Indonesia, History Australia, Vol 2, No 2, June, pp 44.1–44.13. Nina Nurmila (2007), ‘Negotiating polygamy in Indonesia: between Islamic discourse and women’s lived experiences’, PhD thesis, Gender Studies Program, Melbourne University, Melbourne. Watson, supra note 14, at p 7. Watson, supra note 14, at pp 6–7. Watson, supra note 14, at p 24. Hera Diani (2005), ‘FPI members stage protest during PKI court session’, The Jakarta Post, 4 August. === [PDF page 17] === 370 South East Asia Research ‘a fair and just society’. This is a term we have heard several Gerwani women use when referring to the ongoing challenges Indonesia faces today.68 Many such women continue to believe that Indonesia’s leaders made a grave mistake in abandoning socialism and embracing capitalism. This belief is evident in the ways in which they analyse their own imprisonment and that of female criminal prisoners with whom they lived. Whereas in the 1960s, many countries such as Vietnam, China and those of Eastern Europe had embraced socialism, 40 years later most countries in the world had turned to capitalism. Emphasis on the need to create greater social justice, however, has specific appeal for some young Indonesians because of their own concerns about growing disparities in wealth between Indonesians and because of their involvement in social movements to address these problems.69 In a chapter entitled ‘The froth of capitalist society’, Sulami critiques the New Order regime and its capitalist model of focusing on attracting foreign investment and increasing debt levels.70 Consistent with the anti-imperialist direction of the Sukarno government in the 1960s, which Sulami supported, she calls for capitalist society to be replaced with one that is more progressive, democratic and humanitarian.71 Although they had both worked closely with many women from various sections of society and had been advocates for poor women, living side-by-side with criminal prisoners was a confrontational experience.72 Sulami writes that she thought at first, ‘how can I survive in the midst of criminals, in the midst of the hard life of killers, thieves, pickpockets, addicts, deceivers and those who abandon their babies’, but then she came to accept the criminal prisoners with whom she lived, and even to thank them for the favours they did for political prisoners.73 Their experiences of living with these women and learning of their fates led them to further critiques of Indonesian society based on their own ideals. 68 69 70 71 72 73 Interview with Lestari (former staff member of the East Java branch of Gerwani), Jakarta, February 2007; Kartinah Kurdi, former Secretary General of Gerwani (2006), Interview in the film Perempuan yang Tertuduh, Lembaga Kreatifitas Kemanusian, Jakarta. Watson, supra note 14, p 24, has made a similar point about the links between the political ideas of sections of the younger generation and former political prisoners. Sulami, supra note 12, at p 95. Sulami, supra note 12, at p 96. Sudjinah, supra note 37, at p 66. Sulami, supra note 12, at p 32. === [PDF page 18] === Political rehabilitation in post-New Order Indonesia 371 In their memoirs, Sudjinah and Sulami argue that the fates of criminal prisoners are linked to the failure of capitalism. Sudjinah’s short stories about these fellow prisoners, written in prison, were assembled into a book and published under her own name.74 In the chapter of her memoir devoted to the stories of criminal inmates, she writes of Tarsem, a woman from a coastal area in West Java known for its extreme poverty. Tarsem had not known her father, who had died of hunger when she was a small child. Tarsem’s mother worked in the market, carrying vegetables. To improve the family’s life, Tarsem went to Jakarta to look for work, where she ended up working as a prostitute for several years. She then ended up in gaol after stealing money from a client. Sudjinah suggests that for Tarsem, gaol was the most secure place she had known, ‘at last she could now sleep in peace’.75 Among her stories, Sudjinah also includes a story about the pickpocket Keling (a nickname and a derogatory word for a person of darker skin) who went to gaol for stealing a few cans of sardines from the market. Her foster-mother was a pickpocket. Keling, who could not afford to go to school, slept in the market, in front of shops or sometimes under bridges.76 Through these stories and her memoir, Sudjinah encourages readers to question the state of Indonesian society. She comments on the extremes of poverty and its impact on women in particular classes, on the lack of compassion for other social outcasts such as the mentally ill, and on the injustice of a legal system in which one can buy freedom. Similarly, Sulami analyses the recidivism, or recurrent imprisonment among women prisoners as a by-product of a capitalist society, in which structural inequalities pose barriers to women’s ability to survive. She mentions the flood of women workers into big cities and how some of these women were then sold into the entertainment industry to be exploited.77 She notes that in prison, women prisoners are taught literacy, religious consciousness and vocational skills in order to prevent recidivism, concluding that unless the social context is transformed, women will be ensnared within recurring criminality. Embedded within these works are critiques of social and gender 74 75 76 77 Sujinah (2000), In a Jakarta Prison, Lontar Foundation, Jakarta. In this Englishlanguage publication, her name is spelt ‘Sujinah’ using the Indonesian modern revised spelling; cf ‘Sudjinah’. These stories were earlier published in the Indonesian press under pseudonyms. Sudjinah, supra note 37, at p 68. Sudjinah, supra note 37, at pp 68–69. Sulami, supra note 12, at pp 99–102. === [PDF page 19] === 372 South East Asia Research inequalities, which they suggest are the effects of the New Order regime’s choice to follow the ‘capitalist road’. In this way, the two memoirs revive many of the socialist critiques of the need for greater equality that Gerwani put forward in the 1960s, when the emphasis was on selfreliance and living simply. In the 1960s, for example, Gerwani held ideals that the implementation of socialism would mean an end to prostitution.78 Susan Blackburn notes that Gerwani was the only women’s organization in Indonesia during this period that represented poor women workers and peasants.79 Many former members of Gerwani note the absence of a similar women’s organization in Indonesia today.80 The writing of both authors shows the values and ideals that motivated them in their activities in Gerwani, including the possibilities they saw for Indonesian society, particularly women in the 1960s, and in turn, their truncated struggle for social change. Sudjinah and Sulami continue to promote socialism indirectly as an alternative system, even though the PKI’s brand of Marxism served to marginalize feminist issues. Wieringa notes that there was always a tension between the three pillars of Gerwani’s ideology of nationalism, communism and feminism, and that although the PKI expected full political solidarity from Gerwani, the party itself paid scant attention to feminist demands.81 Sulami and Sudjinah’s memoirs target the younger generation as their potential audience. The use of Sukarnoist anti-imperialist discourse in these memoirs is something with which many Indonesians under 60 would not be familiar. This is due in part to the ban on leftist literature and ideas, and the depoliticizing of the Indonesian language after 1965. Indonesian journalist Goenawan Mohammad argues, however, that these bans have created a ‘mystique of the left’ in which Marxist books ‘became a new kind of pornography’.82 Many went on to apply the radical ideas inspired by Marxism and the leftist student movements of the Philippines and South Korea in the Indonesian student movement of the 1990s.83 78 79 80 81 82 83 Wieringa, supra note 2, at pp 247–248. Blackburn, S. (2004), Women and the State in Indonesia, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 178–181. Susanti, supra note 4, at pp 62–63. Wieringa, supra note 2, at pp 193–212. Goenawan Mohammad (2001), ‘Remembering the left’, in Grayson Lloyd and Shannon Smith, eds, Indonesia Today: Challenges of History, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore, p 127. Edward Aspinall (2005), Opposing Suharto: Compromise, Resistance and Regime Change in Indonesia, Stanford University Press, Palo Alto, CA, p 130. === [PDF page 20] === Political rehabilitation in post-New Order Indonesia 373 At the centre of this movement was the People’s Democratic Party (PRD). This section of the student movement believed that students needed to be anchored to – and form links with the masses of workers and peasants to defeat the Suharto dictatorship.84 In the late 1980s, the PRD’s mass organizations were involved in defending farmers in land dispute cases against the Suharto regime’s development plans. They also mobilized thousands in labour protests.85 For their class-based advocacy and fiery discourse, the Suharto regime branded the PRD as the new PKI and banned the party in 1997, imprisoning many of its leaders. Pramoedya Ananta Toer joined the PRD in 1999 in a gesture showing the linkages between the old and the new left. Because they were also branded communist and punished for political subversion, some young Indonesians felt a stronger bond with former political prisoners. As a result of the economic decline that in part triggered the collapse of the Suharto regime, evidence of economic and social inequities pointed out by Sudjinah and Sulami would also be increasingly apparent to young Indonesians. Some women’s NGOs from the 1980s onwards worked to improve the plight of poor working women.86 The politically tamed Indonesian Women’s Congress (Kowani) was concerned chiefly with the contributions poor women could make to development and to ensure they complied with family planning initiatives. In response, the efforts of the younger generation of Indonesian feminists to reconstruct gender relations have sparked renewed interest in Gerwani, as Wieringa has noted.87 Through these memoirs, both authors keep alive the spirit and possibility of taking up the struggle again. Highlighting their nationalist credentials Whereas socialism and feminism appeal only to some young Indonesians, Sulami and Sudjinah are aware that many more Indonesians share a commitment to nationalism. They evoke their nationalist credentials in their memoirs in several ways, while at the same time challenging the New Order’s assertion that members of Gerwani were national traitors. They also attempt to demand that the contributions of both Gerwani and other leftists be written back into national history. Central to these 84 85 86 87 Aspinall, supra note 83, at p 130. Aspinall, supra note 83, at p 131. Blackburn, supra note 79, at pp 178–186. Wieringa, supra note 2, at p 8. === [PDF page 21] === 374 South East Asia Research efforts is the claim made by both authors to be pejuang, or independence fighters who participated in the 1945–49 independence struggle against the Dutch. First, Sulami and Sudjinah draw upon historical links between imprisonment and nationalist credentials to question the image of all former leftists as traitors to the nation, suggesting instead that they suffered imprisonment like many nationalists before them. The Dutch colonial regime imprisoned many prominent nationalists, such as Sukarno, Hatta, Sjahrir and Tjipto Mangoenkoesoemo, and this experience added to their legitimacy as nationalists. When communist Tan Malaka wrote his prison memoir in 1946–47, Watson notes that the word penjara (prison) ‘had a highly charged and symbolic and metaphorical value’.88 Watson argues, ‘the experience of enduring imprisonment’ had by this time become a familiar trope and was seen as ‘a necessary rite of passage, a ritual of political legitimacy in the eyes of the people fighting for independence’.89 Having lived through this period as young revolutionaries, this association of imprisonment with heroism would be familiar to Sudjinah and Sulami. They play on this historical association by pointing out that the Dutch colonialists had built Bukit Duri, the Jakarta gaol where they were held as political prisoners, and noting that it had previously housed many nationalists during colonial rule.90 Although the historical image of Sukarno was downplayed during the Suharto years, most Indonesians were made aware through history textbooks of the famous Dutch prison camps in which Indonesian nationalists were held, and hence are aware of the association of prison with nationalist credentials. Second, Sulami’s memoir condemns what she considers a betrayal by former comrades-in-arms in the 1945 revolution, who later turned against the communists.91 Sulami compares her ill-treatment at the hands of the Indonesian military with that of the Japanese during the occupation. She notes, ‘The same cruel treatment (as under the Japanese) has been happening since the eruption of the 30th of September Movement. How ironic, that the cruelty of the Japanese was now being replicated by 88 89 90 91 C. W. Watson (2000), Of Self and Nation: Autobiography and the Representation of Modern Indonesia, University of Hawai’i Press, Honolulu, p 81. Watson, supra note 88, at p 81. Sudjinah, supra note 37, at p 35. Sulami, supra note 12, at p 17. === [PDF page 22] === Political rehabilitation in post-New Order Indonesia 375 the Indonesian military against the people of Indonesia, who earlier had stood shoulder to shoulder (bahu membahu) with the soldiers fighting against the colonialists. Remarkable!’92 In the case of 1965, she claims that Indonesians proved themselves capable of worse abuses of ‘fellow nationalists’ than the former Japanese and Dutch colonialists. She reminds her readers of an earlier period during which leftists cooperated with others in the national struggle, to reinforce her status as a pejuang. Building on this, Sulami does try to reflect on what went wrong in the 1960s and how the PKI could have been so violently suppressed by presumed allies. As she wrote of watching the destruction of the Central Committee building of the PKI in Jakarta by demonstrating masses, she critiqued Sukarno’s policy of Nasakom and the party’s adherence to it. She concluded that such a non-class-based alliance, contrary to revolutionary theory, would backfire against the PKI, once the military attacked the party.93 These thoughts support the idea that the PKI was torn between its radical nationalist and Marxist ideas. Ruth McVey observed that the PKI’s ‘nationalist and Marxist ancestry was never truly reconciled’.94 McVey suggests that there was a degree of naivety amongst the PKI leadership then as to the level of unity with other social forces and the faith vested in President Sukarno. This illusion came about in part because of their shared participation in the 1945–49 struggle against Dutch colonialism. She writes that communists in the mid-1960s ‘shared their treasuring of the revolution and of the nation’ with what might have been seen as the embryo of a new ruling class.95 The communists largely felt that ‘the danger lay not in a failure to draw class lines clearly, but in splitting the common struggle for liberation’.96 Sulami concludes that the failure to demarcate class lines was highly damaging. Indonesian historian and activist Hilmar Farid goes further than this to suggest that the violence of 1965–66, which resulted in land seizures from peasants (formerly claimed in the land actions of 1963–64) and the use of 92 93 94 95 96 Sulami, supra note 12, at p 17. Sulami, supra note 12, at pp 4–5. Ruth T. McVey (1979), ‘The enchantment of the revolution: history and action in an Indonesian communist text’, in Anthony Reid and David Marr, eds, Perceptions of the Past in Southeast Asia, Asian Studies Association of Australia, Heinemann Educational Books (Asia) Ltd, Kuala Lumpur, p 357. McVey, supra note 94, at p 357. McVey, supra note 94, at p 356. === [PDF page 23] === 376 South East Asia Research political prisoners as slave labour, was critical to the establishment of the capitalist system underpinning the New Order regime.97 Both these works can be read as attempts to reinstate the left and inaugurate women into Indonesian national history. The New Order’s military-directed history curricula and military control of official history led to women’s national contributions and the achievements of the women’s movement, such as the 1974 marriage law, being given scant attention in its histories. Watson notes that during the New Order, in addition to the erasure of Sukarno’s historical contributions, the contributions of Marxists to nationalism in the four decades between 1920 and 1960 ‘were simply cordoned off’.98 Those who had fought against the Dutch and who were then imprisoned in 1965 lost their veteran status and their entitlements. The Army’s 1972 seminar on the transfer of 1945 values produced an array of history projects that promoted the idea of the military as the exclusive guardians of the so-called ‘45 spirit’.99 By narrating their participation in the significant 1945 independence struggle against the Dutch and the contributions Gerwani made to many nationalist campaigns,100 Sudjinah and Sulami undermine the military and the right’s exclusive claims to the history of Indonesian nationalism. There are tensions between the attempts to promote women’s nationalist and feminist credentials. Susan Rodgers has posed the question of, ‘How do Indonesian women’s personal memories relate to nationalist discourse? Is the linkage between autobiographical memory and public historical memory different for Indonesian women writers than it is for men writers?’101 In these two memoirs, Sudjinah and Sulami’s personal accounts are closely linked to nationalist discourse. It is the ‘nationalist self’ and the political self that both women emphasize in these works. Based on his analysis of eight autobiographical texts, Watson argues that ‘autobiographical narratives in Indonesia all to a degree position themselves 97 98 99 100 101 Hilmar Farid (2005), ‘Indonesia’s original sins: mass killing and capitalist expansion 1965–1966’, Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, Vol 6, No 1, March, pp 11–12. Watson, supra note 88, at p 72. McGregor, supra note 33, at pp 119–171. Sulami, supra note 12, at p vii. Susan Rodgers, ed (1995), Telling Lives, Telling History: Autobiography and Historical Imagination in Modern Indonesia, University of California Press, Berkeley, CA, p 74. === [PDF page 24] === Political rehabilitation in post-New Order Indonesia 377 in relation to the evolution of the nation in the last ninety years’.102 This pattern is also predominant in the memoirs of the two women, who contributed to one of the most significant and defining periods in the nation’s history, the independence struggle. The nation and nationalism are continually evoked as reference points, also because the nationalist aspect of Gerwani’s ideology is possibly the most likely to strike a chord with potential audiences. Although the writers refute the idea of members of Gerwani as national traitors and portray themselves as resilient and strong, they do not attempt to cast themselves as heroines. They thereby reject the dominant trend in the wider genre of Indonesian biography and autobiography in both the New Order and post-New Order eras of hagiography or self-promotion. Throughout the period of the New Order in Indonesia, many prominent political figures wrote their autobiographies or indeed sponsored their own biographies. In the 1972 Army seminar on the transfer of values between older and younger military generations, military men from the 1945 generation who fought in the independence struggle were encouraged to publish their memoirs.103 The tone of these autobiographies was celebratory and focused on the sacrifices and contributions of these military men to the nation in the 1945 independence struggle, but also in crushing the communists in 1965. The tradition of hagiography has continued in the post-Suharto era. Many prominent military and political figures such as former military commander Wiranto, former chairman of the National Mandate Party Amien Rais and president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono have published their biographies in the last five years.104 Many Indonesians are using biographies and autobiographies in the post-Suharto era as way of remaking their image in the public’s eyes. In recent years, there have also been several biographies of former President Suharto that attempt to remake his image in a positive light, such as the authorized biography by Retnowati Abdulgani-Knapp, the daughter of former Indonesian statesman, Ruslan Abdulgani.105 These biographies have been a source of inspiration for former detainees to counter valorized versions of Suharto’s past in their own memoirs. 102 103 104 105 Watson, supra note 88, at p 15. McGregor, supra note 33, at pp 144–146. ‘Ramai-Ramai Unjuk Diri Melalui Biografi’, Kompas, 22 May 2004. Retnowati Abdulgani-Knapp (2007), Soeharto: The Life and Legacy of Indonesia’s Second President: An Authorised Biography, Marshall Cavendish Editions, Singapore. === [PDF page 25] === 378 South East Asia Research Sudjinah and Sulami’s memoirs can also be seen as attempts to remake or challenge the very negative image of former political prisoners from 1965 in Indonesia. They focus less, however, on reinstating or elevating an individual, and instead illuminate the position of political detainees collectively. This may in part be a product of the fact that the memoirs are written by women who, because of their gender, do not see themselves as key historical actors. In rejecting hagiography, these works focus on the role of the collective and on social forces, rather than on the individual. Sulami and Sudjinah’s memoirs constitute a call for the victims of 1965, and especially Gerwani, to be written back into the ‘common project’ of the Indonesian nation. Anderson notes that many continue to reject entry for the victims of 1965 into this project.106 They are also a call for their identities, and in turn dignity, to be restored. In the foreword of her memoir, Sulami emphasizes that her prison experience is but a segment of the writer’s life, a life also made up ‘of struggling for independence, democracy, justice, human rights and eternal peace’.107 The broader rehabilitation of female former political prisoners Memoirs are only one means by which female former political prisoners, assisted by advocacy groups, have tried to rehabilitate their names in the post-Suharto period. The publication of these two works in 1999 and 2003 may well have had ripple effects. These and other memoirs of former political prisoners have emboldened others to tell their stories either in the form of memoirs or as oral histories. Children of former political detainees have begun writing their memoirs and talking more openly. Two examples are the works of Ribka Tjiptaning Proletariyati, Aku Bangga Jadi Anak PKI [I am Proud to be a Communist Party Child] and her subsequent book Anak PKI Masuk Parlemen: catatan harian [PKI Child Enters Parliament: A Diary], both of which resulted in protests.108 Collections of interviews with former women political prisoners and regional-based interviews were published in which informants 106 107 108 Benedict Anderson (1999), ‘Indonesian nationalism today and in the future’, Indonesia, Vol 67, April, p 8. Sulami, supra note 12, at p vii. Ribka Tjiptaning Proletariyati (2002), Aku Bangga Jadi Anak PKI, Cipta Karya, Jakarta; (2005), Anak PKI Masuk Parlemen: catatan harian, Proletar Press, Jakarta. Other anthologies and oral history collections have also included the voices of political prisoners’ children. These include Heri Latief, Ratih Miryanti, and Daniel Mahendra, === [PDF page 26] === Political rehabilitation in post-New Order Indonesia 379 speak more openly about their political activities.109 In 2006, journalist Fransisca Ria Susanti published a collection of histories of women victims from 1965, previously published in shorter form as a series of articles in Sinar Harapan newspaper. She named the book KembangKembang Genjer [Flowers of the Water Hyacinth], a direct and provocative reference to the Genjer-Genjer song and thus the mythology surrounding Gerwani and its alleged acts of debauchery in the 1965 coup attempt.110 This collection also includes a chapter about Sudjinah. The publication of an Indonesian-language version of Saskia Wieringa’s key work on the history of Gerwani in 1999, and the public discussion that accompanied this, also played a role in rehabilitating the image of Gerwani.111 The experiences of Gerwani women prior to 1965 give them a special appeal to some as a potential source of alternative visions of history and society and its gendered dimensions. Some former political prisoners have received invitations from students to talk about 1965.112 Former Gerwani members including Sudjinah joined together in 2006 with the National Commission on Violence against Women and women’s organizations to talk about the wider issue of violence against women. Former Gerwani members and members of the Jakarta-based Women’s Discussion Circle (Lingkar Tutur Perempuan) plus members of the Yogyakarta-based Islamic organization Syarikat and the National Commission on Violence against Women, at the centre of reconciliation efforts for the victims of 1965, have also come together to create a taskforce on ’65 and have written a report for this commission on violence against women in 1965.113 One specific project resulting from this cooperation was to hold a competition for high school students from Bandung and Yogyakarta to write an opinion piece about the history of women in Indonesia. The winning entrants were invited to a workshop where they made six short documentary films on female former 109 110 111 112 113 eds (2005), Antologi Puisi – Cerpen – Esai – Curhat: Tragedi Kemanusiaan 1965– 2005, Lembaga Sastra Pembebasan and Malka Bandung, Indonesia; Abdullah Saleh et al, eds (2003), Usaha untuk Tetap Mengenang. Kisah-kisah Anak-anak Korban Peristiwa 65, Yappika and Jendela Budaya, Hidup Baru, Jakarta and Yogyakarta. Hersri Setiawan (2006), Kidung Para Korban, Pakorba, Solo. Susanti, supra note 4. The Jakarta Post (2000), ‘Truth commission urged to unveil 1965 bloodshed’, 12 April. Sudjinah, interview with the author, Depok, 21 February 2007. Sudjinah, interview with the author, Depok, 21 February 2007. See also ‘Pengaduan ke Komnas Perempuan’, posted on Website: www.syarikat.org/si/index. === [PDF page 27] === 380 South East Asia Research political prisoners, which were then screened in Indonesian high schools.114 Some women still oppose the re-involvement of former Gerwani members in the women’s movement. In May 1999, a chair of the Indonesian Women’s Congress (Kowani) publicly restated the accusations that Gerwani took part in organized prostitution and ‘lesbianism’.115 Older members of these organizations may feel the need to hold on to official versions of history, because to let go of them would require facing up to their own role in suppressing Gerwani in 1965. The rehabilitation of Gerwani and its members necessarily involves a wider re-examination of the women’s movement that some are not yet ready to make. Steps have, however, been made to overcome these barriers. In 2006, on 8 March, International Women’s Day, a day once central to the Gerwani calendar, the National Commission on Violence Against Women tried to bring together different generations of women’s organizations to sit down and talk in order to find shared causes in the future struggle for women’s rights. There was still resistance from some members of Kowani and Dharma Wanita (Women’s Duty), an organization for wives of civil servants, to acknowledging the cruel treatment many members of Gerwani had experienced.116 Others, such as Djamalul Abidin, the Assistant Director for the Television Staff Training Centre, suggest that former Gerwani members are attempting to whitewash their history. In an article published in Republika in January 2003, Abidin expressed his relief that the foreign documentary film Shadow Play had been banned. According to Djamalul, the film was offensive because in one scene Carmel Budiardjo, a well known advocate for former political prisoners who was also imprisoned with Sulami and Sudjinah for three years, approached young children at the Sacred Pancasila Monument in Jakarta, and pointed to the relief in which the Dance of Fragrant Flowers is portrayed and told the children ‘it was all lies’. Djamalul equated this scene with memories of the PKI or Gerwani-run kindergartens in which, according to him, children were led astray from their faith by Gerwani women and told to believe in Chairman Aidit, as opposed to God.117 Claims of 114 115 116 117 Interview with Rumekso Setiyadi, Syarikat, Yogyakarta, 21 May 2007. Wieringa, supra note 2, at p 3. Maria Hartiningsih (2006), ‘Mungkinkah Merajut Kebersamaan’, Kompas, 18 December. Djamalul Abidin (2003), ‘Laundry Kejahatan Politik Lewat Media’, Republika, 12 January. === [PDF page 28] === Political rehabilitation in post-New Order Indonesia 381 memories about the left’s actions in the past have resurfaced to confront the efforts of leftists to write their history and to gain society’s acceptance. C.W. Watson has speculated over the question of to what extent memoirs of 1965 are being used to manufacture a sense of guilt in Indonesia about the events of 1965.118 Some degree of public guilt is perhaps necessary for the purposes of acknowledging the suffering of the victims of this period and to begin talk of justice. Worldwide, efforts to generate national guilt, such as the Australian Sorry Day Movement, a public initiative to offer an apology to indigenous Australians for their appalling treatment in the past, have backfired. In the Australian case, those who wanted to address the past were similarly faced with sections of the public who were unwilling to re-examine the past from which they had also benefited and a government who did not want to concede to groups they saw as politically marginal or likely to demand compensation. In March 2007, after nine years of relatively open discussion and research in Indonesia into the events of 1965 and the victims of this period, the Attorney General’s office banned a number of textbooks released in 2004 that failed to mention the PKI as the conspirator behind the 1965 coup attempt.119 There is now a growing reluctance from some to allow more than one version of the 1965 events, sensing the implications that could result from historical revision. This ban is a worrying sign for the future of historical research and knowledge in Indonesia, but it has been met with firm protest from several sections of the Indonesian community.120 There is now more than ever a great degree of scepticism about history and a refusal from some quarters at least to be fed only the Suharto government’s version of the national past. The works of Sulami and Sudjinah and other efforts to make public alternative versions of the history of Gerwani have contributed in important ways to this new scepticism. The cooperation of former Gerwani members with younger members of society in efforts to expose past injustice and to reinvigorate feminist agendas is also a positive step for democracy and for women in Indonesia. 118 119 120 Watson, supra note 14, at p 6. ‘Buntut Kontroversi G30S: Buku Pelajaran Sejarah Dilarang Beredar’ (2007), Kompas, 10 March. ‘Indonesian history community condemns prohibition on textbooks’ (2007), Tempo Interactive, 19 March. === [PDF page 29] === 382 South East Asia Research References Abdulgani-Knapp, Retnowati (2007), Soeharto: The Life and Legacy of Indonesia’s Second President: An Authorised Biography, Marshall Cavendish Editions, Singapore. Abidin, Djamalul (2003), ‘Laundry Kejahatan Politik Lewat Media’, Republika, 12 January. Allen, P. 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