Buru Island: Still Much More to Reveal (Hearman, Archipel 99, 2020)

ISSN: 2104-3655 Publisher Association Archipel Printed version Date of publication: July 15, 2020 Number of pages: 29-33 ISBN: 978-2-910513-83-2 ISSN: 0044-8613 Electronic reference Vannessa Hearman, “Buru Island: Still Much More to Reveal”, Archipel [Online], 99 | 2020, Online since 02 June 2020, connection on 11 July 2026. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/archipel/1651; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/archipel.1651 The text only may be used under licence CC BY-ND 4.0. All other elements (illustrations, imported files) may be subject to specific use terms. === [PDF page 2] === -— Etudes interdisciplinaires sur le monde insulindien — ARCHIPEL 99 2020 —Revue publice par l’Association Archipel, h¢bergée au Centre Asie du Sud-Est,— sous le patronage de l’Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales === [PDF page 3] === Etudes interdisciplinaires sur le monde insulindien Publiées avec le concours de l'Institut des Sciences Humaines et Sociales du CNRS, de l’Ecole francaise d’ Extréme-Orient, de |’Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales et de |’Institut francais d’Indonésie (Ambassade de France en Indonésie) Fondateurs: Pierre LABROUSSE, Denys LOMBARD, Christian PELRAS ARCHIPEL 99 Comité de rédaction Delphine ALLES, Elsa CLAVE, Véronique DEGROOT, Elsa LAFAYE DE MICHEAUX, Rémy MADINIER, Daniel PERRET, Dana RAPPOPORT, Jéréme SAMUEL, Christina WU Comité scientifique Henri CHAMBERT-LOIR, Andrée FEILLARD, Arndt GRAF, Arlo GRIFFITHS, Robert HEFNER, Claude GUILLOT, Claudine SALMON, James SIEGEL, Luis Filipe THOMAZ, Monique ZAINI-LAJOUBERT Directeur de la rédaction Henri CHAMBERT-LOIR Secrétaire de rédaction Sophie HENON La Rédaction exprime ses sincéres remerciements 4 Madame Diah Novitasari (EFEO Jakarta), qui a assuré la mise en page de ce numéro dans les difficiles conditions de la pandémie de Covid 19. Editeur Association Archipel EHESS, bureau 740, 54 boulevard Raspail, 75006 Paris 2020 ISSN 0044-8613 === [PDF page 4] === Sommaire 5–11 Hélène Njoto et Andrée Feillard In Memoriam Merle Calvin Ricklefs (1943-2019) Échos de la recherche 13–18 Charles Coppel Chinese Indonesians: Identities and Histories (Monash University, 1- 3 October 2019) Dossier 1965 and Cinema II 19–21 Elsa Clavé Filmed Memories of 1965 23–27 Saskia Wieringa The Women and the Generals: Unraveling a Myth of Sexual Perversion 29–33 Vannessa Hearman Buru Island: Still Much More to Reveal 35–40 Soe Tjen Marching Forty Years of Silence: The Insanity of Society 41–45 Grace Leksana A Daughter’s Memory: 1965 in Animation 47–73 Gilang Desti Parahita and Vissia Ita Yulianto The Treachery on YouTube: The Politics of Memory on New Media in Indonesia Études 75–105 Robert Wessing The Maiden in the Forest: Reflections on Some Southeast Asian Tales 107–141 Arlo GrifÏths Rediscovering an Old Javanese Inscription: Mpu Mano’s Donation in Favor of a Buddhist Dignitary in 888 Śaka 143–151 Merle C. Ricklefs Music and Dance Go to War in Java 153–188 G. Roger Knight An ‘Indies’ couple: Colonial Communities and Issues Surrounding Identity in the Dutch East Indies, ca. 1890-1930s 189–213 Syamsul Rijal Performing Arab Saints and Marketing the Prophet: Habaib and Islamic Markets in Contemporary Indonesia Lectures Critiques 215–261 Jean-Louis Margolin 1965: L’Heure de l’histoire? 261–264 Kuncoro Hadi, dkk. Catatan Hari Per Hari G30S Sebelum Hingga Setelahnya (1963-1971) Archipel 99, Paris, 2020, p. 1-3 === [PDF page 5] === Comptes rendus Préhistoire et Asie du Sud 265–271 Wolfgang Marschall und Markus Wäfler, Felsmalereien Indonesiens, Borsdof: Winterwork, 4 vol., 2012-2017 (Antonio Guerreiro) 271–276 Michael Feener and Anne Blackburn, Buddhist and Islamic Orders in Southern Asia. Comparative Perspectives. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2019 (Andrée Feillard, Bénédicte Brac de la Perrière) Histoire contemporaine et Société 277–278 Taomo Zhou, Migration in the Time of Revolution: China, Indonesia and the Cold War. Singapore: ISEAS, 2019 (Claudine Salmon) 279–282 Suryomenggolo, Jafar (ed.), At a Moment’s Notice: Indonesian Maids Write on Their Lives Abroad. Copenhague: NIAS Press, 2019 (Laurence Husson) 282–286 Edwin Jurriëns & Ross Tapsell (eds.), Digital Indonesia: Connectivity and Divergence. Singapore: ISEAS, 2017 (Deasy R.P. Simandjuntak) 286–289 Alessandra Lopez y Royo, Contemporary Indonesian Fashion: Through the Looking Glass. London and New York: Bloomsbury, 2020 (Clara Jones) Études régionales 289–293 Fanany, Rebecca & Ismet Fanany, The Elderly Must Endure: Ageing in the Minangkabau Community in Indonesia. Singapore: ISEAS, 309 p., 2018 (Suryadi) 293–295 Richard Fox, More Than Words: Transforming Script, Agency, and Collective Life in Bali. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2018 (Dick van der Meij) 295–298 Agung Wardana, Contemporary Bali. Contested Space and Governance, Palgrave Macmillan, 2019 (Michel Picard) 298–301 Hans Hägerdal, Held’s History of Sumbawa: An Annotated Translation. Amsterdam University Press, 2017 (Henri Chambert-Loir) 301–303 Geneviève Duggan and Hans Hägerdal, Savu: History and Oral Tradition on an Island of Indonesia. Singapore: NUS, 2018 (Gregory Forth) 304–306 Leontine Visser, Sejarah Pertanian dan Kebudayaan Sahu di Halmahera (History of Sahu Agriculture and Culture in Halmahera). Yogyakarta: Ombak, 2019 (Laksmi Adriani Savitri) 307–310 Christopher J. Shepherd, Haunted Houses and Ghostly Encounters: Ethnography and Animism in East Timor, 1860–1975. NUS, 2019 (Frédéric Durand) 310–312 Oman Fathurahman, Kawashima Midori, and Labi Sarip Riwarung (eds.), The Library of an Islamic Scholar of Mindanao: The Collection of Sheik Muhammad Said bin Imam sa Bayang at the Al-Imam As-Saddiq (A.S.) Library, Marawi City, Philippines: An Annotated Catalogue with Essays. Tokyo: Sophia University, 2019 (Mulaika Hijjas) Archipel 99, Paris, 2020 === [PDF page 6] === Littératures 312–314 Andi Muhammad Akhmar, Islamisasi Bugis; Kajian Sastra atas La Galigo Versi Bottinna I La Dewata Sibawa I Wé Attaweq, Jakarta, Yayasan Pusaka Obor Indonesia, 2018 (Faried Saenong) 314–317 Asahan Alham, Dendam Sejarah. Bandung: Ultimus, 2019 (Nico Schulte- Nordholt) 317–321 Ajip Rosidi, Surat-Surat ti Jepang. Bandung, Kiblat, 4 jilid, 2017 (Julian Millie) 321–324 Luis Cardoso, L’Année où Pigafetta boucla son tour du monde. Arkuiris, 2019 (LF Thomaz) Résumés – Abstracts © Copyright Association Archipel 2020 En couverture: Photo du studio Kurkdjian de la famille MacNeill ‒ Bezoet De Bie, c. 1905 (voir l’article de G. Roger Knight dans ce volume). Archipel 99, Paris, 2020 === [PDF page 7] === Vannessa Hearman1 Buru Island: Still Much More to Reveal Pulau Buru: Tanah Air Beta (Buru Island: My Home)1 Documentary, 40 min., 2016 Director: Rahung Nasution Producers: Whisnu Yonar and Dolorosa Sinaga Production: Beranda Rakyat Distributed via buttonijo.com Language: Indonesian with English subtitles Buru Island: My Home follows the journey of former detainees, Hersri Setiawan and Tejabayu Soedjojono to the island in the Moluccas that was used by the Indonesian New Order regime as a prison site. They meet old friends, visit the graves of those who have passed away and tell their part of the island’s history. Hersri, a writer, was a member of the People’s Cultural Institute (Lekra, Lembaga Kebudayaan Rakyat), a leftist cultural group that was linked to the Indonesian Communist Party. Tejabayu was a student activist in the organisation CGMI (Concentrasi Gerakan Mahasiswa Indonesia, Indonesian Student Movement Centre) at the prestigious Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. The two are reasonably well-known publicly as former detainees, Hersri in particular, who has written several books about his experiences on Buru Island. Making use of his creative works, the film 1. Senior lecturer, Charles Darwin University, Australia. Archipel 99, Paris, 2020, p. 29-33 === [PDF page 8] === 30 Vannessa Hearman features a few of his poems as a voiceover and text on screen, evoking island life under the barrel of a gun. The Indonesian government transported and detained about 12,000 men from Java from the time Buru was first used as a place of detention in 1969 until their release in 1978. The camp’s most famous resident was Pramoedya Ananta Toer, who, like Hersri, was a writer and a member of Lekra. Works by former detainees and Lekra writers were banned by the government after the 1965 suppression of the Communist Party. Those sent to Buru Island from 1969 onwards by the army-dominated government led by President Suharto came from all walks of life; the one factor that united them was their actual or suspected links with the PKI and leftist mass organisations. The film opens with a domestic scene of Hersri making himself a hot drink in his home and then listening to a cassette and looking at some notebooks. Shortly after President Suharto resigned in May 1998, which ushered in democratisation for Indonesia, Hersri travelled to several countries where he collected hundreds of interviews with Indonesians exiled abroad as a result of their differences with the New Order regime. Perhaps the cassette was the result of one such interview, although the filmmakers do not make this clear to the viewer. The film opens with mention of ‘30 September 1965’ and refers to a genocide and ‘survivors of crimes of humanity’, but does not provide further explanation. On 30 September 1965, a group of army ofÏcers and soldiers calling themselves the 30 September Movement abducted and killed six generals and a lieutenant, including the highest echelon of leadership of the Indonesian Army. Major-General, later President, Suharto led a violent suppression campaign of this group and the PKI that Suharto alleged was the mastermind of the group. The suppression of the PKI resulted in the killing of half a million members and sympathisers of the party by the army and civilian militias. About 600,000 to three-quarters of a million Indonesians were also detained, mostly without trial, including those on Buru. The Suharto regime, over its 32 years in ofÏce, carefully restricted discussions about the army’s actions to gain power from President Sukarno in those tumultuous years of 1965-1966. By restricting the ability of writers like Hersri to communicate their experiences following their incarceration, the regime ensured that its version of history, provided in the school curriculum and in popular media, was easily transmitted to younger generations born many years after these events. It is this painful work of re-weaving connections with the younger generation and re-establishing contact with the places and people of Buru that the film is preoccupied with showing. Transmigrants, namely settlers from other parts of Indonesia, and indigenous people also live on Buru. The island is facing environmental problems from gold mining on the adjacent island Archipel 99, Paris, 2020 === [PDF page 9] === Buru Island: Still Much More to Reveal 31 Hersri Setiawan and his daughter, Ken Setiawan. of Sulawesi. Hersri undertakes his journey back to Buru also with his wife, activist Ita Nadia, and daughter, Ken Setiawan, an academic at the University of Melbourne, who herself writes and publishes on the 1965 issue. The film crew follows their journey by land and sea to find those former detainees Hersri knew who chose to remain, and to revisit some sites of significance to detainees. There is rich potential here for exploring how the family negotiates a difÏcult and mysterious past, given for many younger people, it has been difÏcult to unearth family histories that entail connections with the 1965 cataclysm. In a poignant scene, the three stand together, while Hersri recounted his early life, including his leadership of a poetry reading association in Yogyakarta and his subsequent placement with the Afro-Asian Writers’ Bureau ofÏce in Colombo, then-Ceylon in the early 1960s. The film’s ‘fly-on-the-wall’ observational style lends an intimacy to the scene above as we observe the three. In several parts of the film, the bond between Hersri and his daughter Ken is readily apparent and made explicit most frequently by Ken’s statements to Hersri’s former fellow detainees about her feelings of being on the island, with meeting them, and in retracing Hersri’s steps with him. However, we do not gain much further insight into the relationship between father and daughter. Similarly, Hersri’s conversations with other former detainees on the island about Indonesian politics lack context, and therefore are obscure for the viewer. In visiting the sites of memory on the island, those places that marked and recalled incarceration, we see a refurbished cultural hall where detainees Archipel 99, Paris, 2020 === [PDF page 10] === 32 Vannessa Hearman used to perform, a modest monument marking the village established in line with the prison camp, Savanajaya, and the grave of one of his closest friends while in exile, Heru Santoso. The movie does not explain the significance of this particular site.2 Heru was a leader of the CGMI student organisation in Surabaya, East Java, and had tried to convince Hersri to make an escape attempt from the island. According to one former exile, Heru died from hepatitis in the camp hospital.3 Regrettably, there is also little explanation here about the sites other than what is voiced by the interlocutors on screen. Without adequate ‘setting up’ and organisation of information by the filmmakers, the significance of these sites is not transmitted adequately to the viewer. For example, a scene where prayers are recited by the group, led by a Father, Baskara (who was not introduced in the film), beside Heru’s neglected grave could have been even more poignant, had we understood something about the deceased. This film provides glimpses of Buru Island, a relatively remote part of Indonesia and the return of men who had years of their lives taken by a faraway ruling regime by being placed there. They returned as free men who are still haunted by memories of those they left behind. This is surely a powerful premise for a documentary. Contrasting with other documentaries which provide more contextualization through interviews and archival images, the director chose to follow the men to Buru without providing background information about the key dramatis personae and the events that impacted their lives. The film may pose some difÏculties for viewers who have little knowledge about Indonesian history, in particular, the history of the Indonesian Left and its destruction by the army in 1965. The observational style leaves the viewer wondering about some of the organisations and individuals mentioned in Hersri’s narrative, about which the film does not provide much explanation. In using mainly impromptu observation as its chief technique, the resulting footage contains many narrative gaps. Owing to the technique chosen ‒ the absence of active intervention such as the addition of interviews and tighter editing, and the lack of context and information provided ‒, it would be hard for younger Indonesians, the film’s purported target audience, to follow the narrative thread in this film fully and to develop more knowledge about the anti-communist violence of 1965-66.4 There continues to be disinformation and confusion in Indonesia and internationally about these events, including 2. Hersri Setiawan, Diburu di Pulau Buru, Yogyakarta: Galang Press, 2006, p. 194. 3. Anonymous, ‘At Australia Bridge’, in Baskara T. Wardaya S. J (ed.), Truth Will Out: Indonesian accounts of the 1965 mass violence, translated by Jennifer Lindsay, Clayton, Vic.: Monash University Publishing, 2013, p. 301. 4. See comment by Whisnu Yonar in Ika Krismantari, ‘Documentary Provides Different Angle on 1965 Tragedy’, The Jakarta Post, 19 March 2016, https://www. thejakartapost.com/news/2016/03/19/documentary-provides-different-angle-1965tragedy.html Archipel 99, Paris, 2020 === [PDF page 11] === Buru Island: Still Much More to Reveal 33 the phenomenon of long-term imprisonment, Indonesia’s major human rights issue of the 1970s. While the film contributes somewhat to our historical knowledge, there continues to be many unexplored possibilities in telling the story of Buru. The survivors of this gross human rights violation are diminishing in number and to tell their stories powerfully and meaningfully would contribute significantly to addressing this past. Archipel 99, Paris, 2020 === [PDF page 12] === [Blank page] === [PDF page 13] === Archipel 99 Héléne Njoto et Andrée Feillard, In Memoriam Merle Calvin Ricklefs — Echos de la Recherche: Charles Coppel, Chinese Indonesians: Identities and Histories (Monash University, 1- 3 October 2019) — 1965 and Cinema II: Elsa Clavé, /ntroduction au dossier — Saskia Wieringa, The Women and the Generals: Unraveling a Myth of Sexual Perversion — Vannessa Hearman, Buru Island: Still Much More to Reveal — Soe Tjen Marching, Forty Years of Silence: The Insanity of Society — Grace Leksana, A Daughter's Memory: 1965 in Animation — Gilang Desti Parahita & Vissia Ita Yulianto, The Treachery on YouTube: The Politics of Memory on New Media in Indonesia — Etudes: Robert Wessing, Maiden in the Forest: Reflections on Some Southeast Asian Tales — Arlo Griffiths, Rediscovering an Old Javanese Inscription: Mpu Mano’ Donation in Favor of a Buddhist Dignitary in 888 Saka — M.C. Ricklefs, Music and Dance Go to War in Java — G. Roger Knight, An ‘Indies’ Couple, Colonial Communities and Issues Surrounding Identity in the Dutch East Indies, ca. 1890-1930s — Syamsul Rijal, Performing Arab Saints and Marketing the Prophet: Habaib and Islamic Markets in Contemporary Indonesia — Lectures Critiques: Jean-Louis Margolin, 1965: L’Heure de I’histoire? — Comptes rendus — Résumés-Abstracts 30,00 € ISBN 978-2-910513-83-2 tar Haunonanen now iA, LECOLE (co MTS STI — des langues SCIENCES EFEO et civilisations orientales SOCIALES

=== [Page 2] === Interdisciplinary studies on the Insulindian world ARCHIPEL 99 2020 Journal published by the Association Archipel, hosted at the Centre Asie du Sud-Est, under the patronage of the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales === [Page 3] === Interdisciplinary studies on the Insulindian world Published with the support of the Institut des Sciences Humaines et Sociales of the CNRS, the École française d'Extrême-Orient, the Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales and the Institut français d'Indonésie (French Embassy in Indonesia) Founders: Pierre LABROUSSE, Denys LOMBARD, Christian PELRAS ARCHIPEL 99 Editorial committee Delphine ALLES, Elsa CLAVE, Véronique DEGROOT, Elsa LAFAYE DE MICHEAUX, Rémy MADINIER, Daniel PERRET, Dana RAPPOPORT, Jérôme SAMUEL, Christina WU Scientific committee Henri CHAMBERT-LOIR, Andrée FEILLARD, Arndt GRAF, Arlo GRIFFITHS, Robert HEFNER, Claude GUILLOT, Claudine SALMON, James SIEGEL, Luis Filipe THOMAZ, Monique ZAINI-LAJOUBERT Editor-in-chief Henri CHAMBERT-LOIR Managing editor Sophie HENON The Editorial Board expresses its sincere thanks to Madame Diah Novitasari (EFEO Jakarta), who did the layout of this issue under the difficult conditions of the Covid-19 pandemic. Publisher Association Archipel EHESS, office 740, 54 boulevard Raspail, 75006 Paris 2020 ISSN 0044-8613 === [Page 6] === Literature 312–314 Andi Muhammad Akhmar, Islamisasi Bugis; Kajian Sastra atas La Galigo Versi Bottinna I La Dewata Sibawa I Wé Attaweq, Jakarta, Yayasan Pusaka Obor Indonesia, 2018 (Faried Saenong) 314–317 Asahan Alham, Dendam Sejarah. Bandung: Ultimus, 2019 (Nico Schulte-Nordholt) 317–321 Ajip Rosidi, Surat-Surat ti Jepang. Bandung, Kiblat, 4 volumes, 2017 (Julian Millie) 321–324 Luis Cardoso, L'Année où Pigafetta boucla son tour du monde [The Year Pigafetta Completed His Tour of the World]. Arkuiris, 2019 (LF Thomaz) Résumés – Abstracts © Copyright Association Archipel 2020 Cover: Photo by the Kurkdjian studio of the MacNeill – Bezoet De Bie family, c. 1905 (see the article by G. Roger Knight in this volume). Archipel 99, Paris, 2020