Sexual Slander Revealed: The Story of Jamilah-Jemilah and The Act of Killing (Wieringa, 2015)

=== [PDF page 1] === UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository) Sexual Slander Revealed: The Story of Jamilah/Jemilah and The Act of Killing Wieringa, S.E. Publication date 2015 Document Version Final published version Published in Indonesian Feminist Journal Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): Wieringa, S. E. (2015). Sexual Slander Revealed: The Story of Jamilah/Jemilah and The Act of Killing. Indonesian Feminist Journal, 3(1), 14-22. http://www.jurnalperempuan.org/uploads/1/2/2/0/12201443/ifj_vol_3-article_2saskia_wieringasexual_slander_revealed_the_story_of_jamilah_or_jemilah_and_the_act_of_killing.pdf General rights It is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Disclaimer/Complaints regulations If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: https://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, P.O. Box 19185, 1000 GD Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible. UvA-DARE is a service provided by the library of the University of Amsterdam (https://dare.uva.nl) Download date:14 Oct 2026 === [PDF page 2] === ISSN 2338-9362 Volume 3, Number 1, August 2015 The Remaking of Tradition: Sex, Lies & Politics “Gold and Silver, Branded Horses, and Well-Tilled Land”: Gender and Hadrami Migration (4-13) Ismail Fajrie Alatas Sexual Slander Revealed: The Story of Jamilah/Jemilah and The Act of Killing (14-22) Saskia E. Wieringa Culture, Sex and Religion: A Review of Temporary Marriages in Cisarua and Jakarta (23-30) Gadis Arivia & Abby Gina How Does One Purchase a Woman? The Status of Christian Batak Women in Wedding Traditions (31-38) Nurseli Debora Manurung Profiles, Statuses and Performance of Female Local Leaders: Impact Study of Direct Local Elections (39-59) Kurniawati Hastuti Dewi Indigenous Women and Land Rights in Indonesian Agrarian Conflicts (60-68) Sapariah Saturi Feminist Ethics Against the Stigma of Theocracy-Patriarchy: Reflections on the 2014 Presidential Election (69-75) Rocky Gerung Understanding the Ties that Bind: Early Marriage in Yogyakarta (76-84) Tracy Wright Webster Women as Other in the Narrative of the 2014 Legislative and Presidential Elections (85-92) Dewi Candraningrum www.indonesianfeministjournal.org === [PDF page 3] === INDONESIAN FEMINIST JOURNAL Vol 3 August 2015 www.indonesianfeministjournal.org ISSN 2338-9362 Cover shows a detail of “Wounded Body” by Dewi Candraningrum (water color on paper, 2015) Indonesian Feminist Journal (IFJ) is an annual interdisciplinary publication in the English language that aims to circulate original ideas in gender studies. IFJ invites critical reflection on the theory and practice of feminism in the social, political, and economic context of Indonesian society. We are committed to exploring gender in its multiple forms and interrelationships. The journal encourages practical, theoretically sound, and (when relevant) empirically rigorous manuscripts that address real-world implications of the gender gap in Indonesian contexts. Topics related to feminism can include (but are not limited to): sexuality, queer and LGBT questions, trafficking, ecology, public policy, sustainability and environment, human and labour rights/ issues, governance, accountability and transparency, globalisation, as well as ethics, and specific issues related to gender study, such as diversity, poverty, and education. Publisher: YJP Press Address: Jl. Lontar No. 12 - Menteng Atas, Setiabudi - Jakarta Selatan 12960 Telp. (021) 8370 2005 (hunting); Fax: (021) 8370 6747 EDITORIAL TEAM Chief Editor Dr. Phil. Dewi Candraningrum Executive Editor Lea Šimek Editorial Board Dr. Gadis Arivia (University of Indonesia) David Hulse, PhD (Ford Foundation) Dr. Pinky Saptandari (Universitas Airlangga) Prof. Saskia Wieringa (Universiteit van Amsterdam) Prof. Sylvia Tiwon (University of California, Berkeley) Katharine McGregor, PhD. (University of Melbourne) Prof. Jeffrey Winters (Northwestern University) Yacinta Kurniasih (Monash University) Tracy Wright Webster, PhD. (PSW, UIN Kalijaga Yogyakarta) Prof. Rachmi Diyah Larasati (University of Minnesota) Dr. Phil. Ratna Noviani (Universitas Gajah Mada) Prof Merlyna Lim (Carleton University) Prof. Ayami Nakatani (Okayama University, Japan) Assoc. Prof. Muhamad Ali (University California, Riverside) Assoc. Prof. Paul Bijl (Universiteit van Amsterdam) Assoc. Prof. Patrick Ziegenhain (Goethe University Frankfurt) Editorial Secretary Anita Dhewy Editorial Assistants Andi Misbahul Pratiwi (Universitas Gunadarma, Jakarta) Courtney Reid (Monash University) Aris Huang (Monash Univ & RMIT) Clarice Campbell (Monash University) Titis Pratiwi (RMIT) Andika Wijaya (RMIT) Arinta Dea Dini Singgi (LBH Masyarakat) Anthony Taylor (Monash University) === [PDF page 4] === Sexual Slander Revealed: The Story of Jamilah/Jemilah and The Act of Killing Saskia E. Wieringa AISSR, University of Amsterdam sewieringa@xs4all.nl Abstract Following the murder of six generals and one lieutenant in the night of October 1, 1965 by the G30S group, a military–organised psy war followed to incite rightwing militias to help murder probably one million people. At a global scale this genocide is one of the least known massacres after the Second World War. Nationally, it is still surrounded by silence, fear and stigma. A core element in this campaign of hate propaganda was the sexual slander against young women allegedly belonging to Gerwani. Though to most people the details are lost in the abyss of history, the association of the death of the generals with castrating and sexually promiscuous women that the girls were falsely accused of lingers on. In this article, I discuss first the account of Jemilah who was mistaken for Jamilah; her forged testimony proved most inflammatory. Then I analyse a modern-day echo of this story in the sexual and murderous nightmares of Anwar, the protagonist in Joshua Oppenheimer’s film The Act of Killing. Keywords: Jemilah, Gerwani, sexual slander, military. Introduction main insurgents were imprisoned. President In the night of October 1,1965 six generals Sukarno had always managed to keep the nation and one lieutenant were abducted and killed, together. But this time hell would break loose. by a group that called itself G30S (Gerakan 30 The times were different, the economy was in September, 30 September Movement), composed a chaos, and the tensions between the army and of some army colonels and a few members the Communist Party (PKI) ran high. Nobody of the Special Bureau of the PKI, Indonesian could foresee the genocide that would follow, Communist Party). Nobody at the time could Indonesians killing other Indonesians by the fathom the horrendous consequences this would hundreds of thousands. Immediately after the have for millions of Indonesians, for the nation action of the G30S group, which was stopped as a whole. The young Republic had dealt with on the order of President Sukarno, immediately worse crises. There had been inter-army clashes after he learnt the generals were killed, General in the 1950s which had not resulted in wide Suharto jumped in the fray and accused the public unrest.1 Following the regional unrest PKI of having organized the murders. He let it in the 1950s some parties were banned and the be known that the PKI had to be exterminated to ‘save the nation’. In a highly successful 1 See for instance Harold Crouch (1988) The army and politics in propaganda campaign, the PKI was framed Indonesia. (rev. ed) Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press and Ulf as atheist and hypersexual. That infuriated Sundhaussen (1982) The road to power: Indonesian military politics 1945-1967. Oxford: Oxford University Press. religious groups (both Muslim and Christian) so 14 Volume 3, Number 1, August 2015 === [PDF page 5] === Sexual Slander Revealed: Saskia E. Wieringa The Story of Jamilah/Jemilah and The Act of Killing much that they helped the army slaughter their the president. The actual coup is the mass neighbours. murder of anything between 500.000 and three Sexual slander was a core element in this million leftist people culminating in the handing campaign. The young girls who had been present over of power to General Suharto in March 1966. in the field where the generals were killed and President Sukarno could be pushed aside as buried in a disused well, in the neighbourhood his position was weakened by the eradication of Crocodile Hole, were accused of having of a major group of supporters and constant performed an erotic dance, and of having allegations that he was involved in planning the seduced, castrated and killed the generals who first putsch. were not yet dead when they were brought to To date it is not known who exactly can be the field, as well as the lieutenant. They were held responsible for these absurd lies about also said to have gouged out their eyes.2 Three depraved Communist women prostituting generals had been killed right away. The field themselves and raping, castrating and mutilating belonged to the Air Force and was used for the generals murdered by the G30S group in the the training of young leftwing volunteers for night of October 1, 1965 but they were widely Sukarno’s anti-Malaysia campaign. At that believed and incited the religious and other moment it was designated to primarily young right wing militias to mass murder.5 female members of the PR; the training was held One such highly inflammatory story was the for the third time.3 Similar training camps were alleged confession of Jamilah, a leader of the established all around the country by various Jakarta branch of Gerwani. Actually, the name other mass organizations. They were undergoing of this leader was Atikah, but when she heard voluntary training for President Sukarno’s of the mass arrests of leaders of organizations anti-Malaysia campaign, as thousands of other associated with the PKI, she managed to run volunteers had been doing. away. She has never been captured and to this Most present day scholars agree, though day nobody has heard from her. On her flight differing in details, that the affair was organized she allegedly changed her name to Jamilah. The by a group of left-leaning army officers, military started searching for a Jamilah. They fierce supporters of President Sukarno, with found Jemilah, not Jamilah. Early November political backing from a few members of the four army-related newspapers published her PKI Politbureau.4 From this perspective, the ‘confession’. The wording of these four stories first skirmish, the abduction and murder of the is almost the same, which suggests that the generals, was mainly based on inter-army rivalry statement was prepared beforehand and handed and should not be seen as a coup, but a purge. It out to the press. was never intended to topple the president – in The story of Jemilah is corroborated by fact the plotters stated they wanted to protect women who had been in the same prison, Bukit Duri, and who had known Jemilah. I 2 See Saskia E. Wieringa (2002) Sexual Politics in Indonesia. interviewed Ibu Sujinah in the early 1980s. Houndmills: Palgrave and MacMillan. 3 See also Josepha Sukartiningsih (2004) Ketika perempuan She has since passed away. Ibu Utati, whom I menjadi TAPOL. In John Roosa, Ayu Ratih & Hilmar Farid (eds) interviewed recently, also confirms the story. Tahun yang tak pernah berakhir; memahami penngalaman korban Jemilah herself has passed away. After her death 65. Jakarta: ELSAM pp 87-113. 4 See John Roosa, (2006). Pretext for mass murder; the September her second husband, R. Juki Ardi, a writer who 30th movement & Suharto’s coup d état in Indonesia. Madison: himself was imprisoned on Buru Island, wrote University of Wisconsin Press. For the role of the US see Brad her story down. Ardi was a friend of Jemilahs’s Simpson (2008) Economists with guns: authoritarian development and US – Indonesian relations 1960-1968. Stanford University first husband, Pak Haryanto, a leader of SOBSI, Press. Recently Coen Holzappel analysed the trials of Njono the PKI-associated trade union. Before Haryanto and Untung and concluded that the role of General Soeharto may have been much greater than supposed elsewhere: Coen Holzappel (2014) Professional blindness and missing the mark. http://roz enbergquar terly.com/professional-blindness-and- 5 In my novel Crocodile Hole which deals with this episode in missing-the-mark-the-thirtieth-september-movement-as-seen- Indonesian history I propose a possible version of who was behind by-the-perpetrators-between-registered-facts-and-authoritative- these lies. Saskia E. Wieringa (2015) Crocodile Hole. Jakarta: Volume 3, Number 1, August 2015 15 === [PDF page 6] === Sexual Slander Revealed: The Story of Jamilah/Jemilah and The Act of Killing Saskia E. Wieringa was murdered on Buru island he made his This dehumanisation campaign provided a friend promise that in case Ardi would be justification for the genocide and other mass released he would try to find Jemilah. They met crimes against humanity that followed. and eventually married, had two children and Even when Ibu Sujinah, one of the only four managed to survive in great poverty. women ever tried in court (but not for anything Jemilah was not the only woman to be related to what happened at Lubang Buaya) picked up by the military for having a name pointed this mistake out during her trial in 1976 that resembled a Gerwani leader on the run. no attempt was made to rectify these grave The women imprisoned with Jemilah know of judicial errors.8 The military apparently never two other such cases, both of them in Central trusted the women to tell their own stories in Java. One of them committed suicide after being court. raped. The other one was finally released but she The autopsy (which took place in the army was crippled for life.6 hospital and was signed by both Sukarno and Suharto) details the causes of death: gun shots, Crocodile Hole traumas possibly caused by blows from guns Apart from some 60 young volunteers of and the damage done to bodies which have been the KPI’s Youth wing Pemuda Rakyat (PR), a lying for a few days in a wet place in the tropics, few members of Gerwani were present at the a reason why the eyes were badly affected. The training field where progressive young women findings of the autopsy however were ignored were trained for the Confrontation campaign and only after Anderson published them in 1987 with Malaysia on which President Sukarno did they re-appear in the public arena.9 had embarked. These included Saina, Emy The army propagated a very different and Atikah. They ran away when they learnt account to the outside world. In this version the the false stories that the army was circulating girls had seduced the generals in a lurid, naked about the night the six abducted generals and dance (Fragrant Flower Dance), accompanied one lieutenant were killed. In their place, two by singing the ‘Communist’ song genjer-genjer, prostitutes were picked up who happened to after which they proceeded to castrate them and have their workplace at the air base. They were gouge out their eyes.10 In this way, progressive, also called Emy and Saina. They were illiterate politically active women, and by association and had never heard of Gerwani. The ‘real’ the PKI, were linked with unspeakable sexual Emy fled the country, Saina was later captured, perversions. but their two prostitute substitutes were never So what did the army newspapers say about released until 1978, when most women political Jamilah? The four articles mentioned above prisoners were set free. Atikah/Jamilah managed carried almost the same story about the ‘honest to escape. But the military had to provide ‘proof’. confession’ of ‘Jamilah, the ‘Srikandi of Lobang So in Jakarta both an Atikah and a Jemilah were Buaya’. This young woman (15 years), they picked up somewhere. All substitute Gerwani reported, was three months pregnant when she members were horribly tortured, and the two was arrested, and both she and her husband illiterate sex workers were made to thumbprint were alleged to be members of PR in Tandjung stories they never even read. Jemilah refused to Priok. According to these newspapers she was sign any story, but a report of her activities was picked up by a PKI leader on September 29 for printed anyway. These ‘stories’ of ‘ Jamilah’. exercises in Cililitan: ‘That day and the following Saina’ and ‘Emy’ were highly inflammatory day we exercised…and at about three o’clock in and helped frame Communist women and by extension all progressive people as barbaric, 8 See Wieringa 2002: 297-8. atheist and morally and sexually depraved.7 9 Ben Anderson (1987). “How did the generals die?” Indonesia 43 (April) 109/34. 10 See for details of this media campaign Wieringa (2002) and 6 R. Juki Ardi (2011) Aku bukan Jamilah. Jakarta: Kompas Saskia E. Wieringa (2003). The Birth of the New Order State in Gramedia. p 101. Indonesia: Sexual Politics and Nationalism. Journal of Women’s 7 See for the full stories Wieringa 2002. History Vol. 15 (1, Spring): 70 - 92. 16 Volume 3, Number 1, August 2015 === [PDF page 7] === Sexual Slander Revealed: Saskia E. Wieringa The Story of Jamilah/Jemilah and The Act of Killing the night of October 1st we were woken up…we would have to leave her for some time. Politically were instructed to crush the kabir and Nekolim.11 astute he apparently realised immediately he There were about 500 people collected there, was in danger. Later, when mass arrests had 100 of whom were women. The members of already started, he came back and informed her Gerwani, including Jamilah, were issued small that she herself better had return to her native knives and razor blades…From afar we saw a village without explaining why. He left her some short fat person entering: he was in his pyjamas.. money for the trip. He brought her halfway to His hands were tied with a red cloth and a red the bus station but then became very anxious cloth was also tied over his eyes. Our leader Dan and disappeared. She never saw her husband Ton ordered us to beat this person and then we again. He was later arrested, imprisoned, and started stabbing with those small knives at his ultimately sent to the infamous slave labour genitals. The first, as we noticed, to beat and camp on Buru island where he was murdered. stab the genitals of that person was the chair of Jemilah had already taken a seat in the Gerwani in Tandjung Priok, called S and Mrs minibus on her way to the bus station when she Sas. Then other friends followed…after that we was intercepted by soldiers. When they asked ourselves joined in torturing that person. All 100 her name, she answered Jemilah. They had of us joined in this activity. Then he was dragged orders to look out for a woman called Jamilah to the well by men in uniform…but he still wasn’t and arrested her immediately, in spite of her dead. Then a uniformed man ordered Gerwani protests that she was called Jemilah, not Jamilah. to continue. The Gerwani women continued as The soldiers (with red berets) stole her money before, stabbing and slicing his genitals and his and all her possessions. She was brought to the body until he was dead’.12 office of the Komando Operasi Tertinggi (KOTI), beaten till she was almost unconscious and Jemilah’s Own Story as Told by her Husband ordered to sign a statement as Atika Jamilah, A few years after the death of his wife, which she refused. Later she was brought to Jemilah’s husband wrote down her story. At the the Corps Polisi Militer. There again she was age of 14, still in the second grade of junior high terribly beaten, undressed and humiliated. school in Pacitan, East Java, she was married off Several rape attempts were made, which she to a neighbour, Haryanto. It was early 1965, and somehow fought off successfully, Ardi reported. Haryanto was an attractive party in the eyes of She was tortured so badly that she had given up her parents, as he was a successful young man, all hope to live and indeed had rather died. She a leader of the progressive trade union SOBSI in almost went mad. Women imprisoned with her Jakarta. He was well-respected both in Jakarta tried to support her. Ultimately she was sent to where he lived, and in his natal village, where he the women’s prison Bukit Duri where she stayed had gone in search of a wife. Immediately after for 14 years without ever being tried. This is the marriage they left on the arduous journey to remarkable and demonstrates that the military Jakarta. Jemilah had no idea about Jakarta, nor were afraid their fables would be exposed in about the work of her husband. He often left her court. alone for long stretches of time. By September The case of Jemilah is one of several in which he came home even less often and clearly was people were imprisoned because of a mistaken becoming nervous. By late September she was identity. Jemilah had no idea about politics. three months pregnant. Her husband had been Her first husband did not feel it necessary to away again for the night of October 1st and when enlighten her about national politics and his role he came home he burned papers and told her he in that. She was so young and inexperienced. She had never even heard of the PKI, let alone 11 Common terms at the time. Kabir stands for kapitalis birokrat, Gerwani, yet during her interrogations she was bureaucratic capitalists, Nekolim is a term Sukarno coined, neocolonialism and imperialism. often called ‘lonte Gerwani’, Gerwani whore. 12 Wieringa (2002: 306-7). The newspapers were: Angkatan Her interrogators tried to make her confess Bersenjata November 5 1965; Duta Masyarakat November 6 1965; that she had joined the exercises at Lubang Sinar Harapan November 6 1965; Berita Yudha November 7 1965. Volume 3, Number 1, August 2015 17 === [PDF page 8] === Sexual Slander Revealed: The Story of Jamilah/Jemilah and The Act of Killing Saskia E. Wieringa Buaya, and that she had received an award as kind of knife the generals were said to be killed a Gerwani heroine. They tried to force her to with. Her torturers told her: ‘…Gerwani dog… admit that she had participated in lurid dances you can choose… I rape you or you follow our while torturing the generals. Even when heavily orders´.16 Jemilah had never seen this kind of beaten by soldiers she refused to sign any knife. It resembled the kind of knife her father statement of the sort. Her interrogators groped used for cutting the rice, but it was smaller. her thighs and belly (‘I bent over so that he ‘Take it. This is the tool you used to cut out couldn’t grope my parts which I so value … my the eyes of the generals in Lubang Buaya’, the prohibited parts… but I couldn’t resist him, my soldiers snarled.17 She had no idea what was strength was all gone’.13 She was tortured so expected of her, but picked up the knife and was badly that her baby was stillborn. brought outside under a rambutan tree, where Rapes were common in prison, although the she was photographed as ‘proof’ that she had women resisted it as much as they could: ‘All participated in the events at Lubang Buaya.18 political prisoners got their turn. Mbak Endah When Jemilah was finally discharged, she was tortured in the worst way. She had to be was only 28. She had lost her baby, her husband, brought to the hospital. She tried to defend her all her possessions and was heavily traumatized. chastity against five soldiers who interrogated Only when she had been released she realized her. Her face was scratched open with bayonets that the story that the military had made up when they tried to subjugate this young mother. about her and that she had refused to sign had Their anger was showered over her whole body gone viral. All over the archipelago people were ’.14 Mbak Endah later committed suicide. told that Gerwani women had castrated the At one time Jemilah had decided that she generals. Even until now there are many who would let herself be killed by her torturers. So believe that Gerwani women were depraved. they would carry the sin of killing her and she would not have to kill herself, which was strongly The Act of Killing19 prohibited by religion. So she had resigned Oppenheimer’s 2012 documentary The herself to dying when she was again brought to Act Of Killing (TAOK) provides a rare insight the ‘abattoir, where five low class soldiers were into the psyches of some mass murderers awaiting me. I knew what that meant… “take off involved in the Indonesian genocide of 1965-7. your clothes…so we can have a party together, It also demonstrates that in far away Medan and my Srikandi…”’ A thin soldier approached her separated in time by at least 40 years, the myth but she fought him off, refused to take off her of the castrating Gerwani women, symbolized underwear and at one stage managed to kick by Jamilah/Jemilah still lives. him in his crotch (successfully, it is torn - sobek) A major part of the film consists of a filmand bite the hand of another till it bled profusely. within-a-film, with the main characters, such as She was then beaten so heavily that she became self-confessed mass killer Congo Anwar, acting again unconscious. She was saved by an officer out a fictional, at times surreal story based on coming in who told the soldiers to stop, as she their experiences and Anwar’s nightmares. This was ‘a special prisoner who was still needed.’15 story centres around Arsan and Aminah; Arsan, Several bones were broken and her feet crushed a rightwing young man, is played by Anwar and shattered; she bled profusely from many while Aminah, his communist girlfriend, is wounds, her hair was torn from her head, she played by his potbellied assistant Herman, in couldn’t see as her eyes were too swollen. grotesque drag. The script is written by journalist Apart from the heavy torture inflicted on her, including sexual torture, Jemilah was also 16 Ardi 2011: 77 forced to hold a rubber knife (arit). This was the 17 Ibid. 18 Ardi 2011: 78 19 See for a fuller account of my analysis of sexual politics in The 13 Ardi 2011: 70-1. Act of Killing: Saskia E. Wieringa (2014) Persisting silence: 14 Ardi 2011: 92. Sexual Slander, ass Murder and The Act Of Killing. In Asian 15 Ardi 2011: 93-5. Journal of Women’s Studies. Vol. 20 no. 3 pp 50-77. 18 Volume 3, Number 1, August 2015 === [PDF page 9] === Sexual Slander Revealed: Saskia E. Wieringa The Story of Jamilah/Jemilah and The Act of Killing Ibrahim Sinik, presently the editor of the Medan of the putsch that signalled the beginning of the Post. Sinik was responsible for a large number of genocide was given, he felt better, he explains. If death sentences back in the 1960s which would this film relieves his conscience almost 20 years be executed by Anwar and his team of butchers. after the killing started, his motivation to start The scenes consist of fragments of the doomed slaughtering his fellow citizens is revealed when love affair of both protagonists, framed in he watches the scene in which he, just murdered cheerful dance sequences and a grand finale, in as Arsan, lies beside his crony Herman, who is which Anwar is pardoned by two of his victims dressed as an evil, sexually depraved communist and presented with a medal for having sent woman, Aminah, mouth smeared with the red them to paradise. In between Anwar and Adi juice of some berries. Aminah laughs loudly, (another mass killer and still a successful gang madly, and eats a piece of raw liver, shouting it is leader in Jakarta) explain how they tortured Arsan’s liver which she has just ripped out. Next and murdered, and where they dumped the she produces an oblong piece of stuffed cloth, bodies. Anwar is plagued by nightmares, while approximately 20 cm in length, also dripping Adi informs us that he would do the same thing with berry juice and proceeds to stuff that into again, given the right justification for it. the mouth of Arsan, (who, though dead, is Anwar relives and re-enacts the past he gagging) shouting ‘this is your penis, eat it’. is still so proud of and which he wants future Later, when Herman and Anwar, comfortably generations to remember. How does the man seated on Anwar’s porch, watch this scene explain his actions to himself? In the long being screened, Anwar muses that this should version of TAOK (director’s cut) Anwar gives be shown at the beginning of the film, so that three justifications. The first one is economic people would understand why he murdered. and political. They were petty criminals in 1965, Apparently he became inflamed when he was scalping cinema tickets; the PKI threatened their told of the stories of wildly singing and dancing livelihood by banning the popular Hollywood women, seducing and then castrating the army’s films. They were also members of the rightwing top brass, the nation’s symbol of masculinity. youth group Pemuda Pancasila which engaged With millions of other Indonesians he came to in violent clashes with the Communist Pemuda associate the PKI with depravity, as the evil to Rakyat (People’s Youth). More widely, they be ripped out of society. Strangely enough this were caught in a situation of great political last scene is edited out of the short version and turmoil and as members of the rightwing militia only appears in the long version of TAOK. In the they joined the murdering of leftists that was short version the audience is thus left with two going on (and that was impelled by the military justifications for the killings. in Medan, but that is not spelt out in the film). The brutal murderers Anwar and Adi and They and their co-butchers won this struggle their cronies represent an aggressive form and are thus living with impunity, backed up by of masculinity, the type called jago (literally the laws their leaders designed, as Adi bluntly rooster).20 Fearless, callous, swaggering, boastful, explained to Joshua. womanizing, this is the kind of masculinity that The two other justifications provided by of old has been sported by the musclemen of Anwar are related to two major aspects of the power holders. propaganda campaign of the military: the 1983 From this angle the sexual orgy invented film which blamed the PKI for the coup, and by Suharto and his advisors epitomized in the smear campaign against Gerwani from mid- the hate-inspiring picture of the aggressive, October 1965 onwards, with all its gory, perverse sexually promiscuous women of Lubang details. This films was compulsory showing Buaya can be read as a tactical move in a wider for school children and was regularly aired. struggle, a clash of masculinities. The female Whenever Anwar watched Arifin C. Noor’s counterpart of the gender order in which the 1983 film on the ‘treachery of the September 30th Movement’ in which the military version 20 See Onghokham. 2003. The thugs, the curtains thief and the sugar lord. Jakarta: Metafor. Volume 3, Number 1, August 2015 19 === [PDF page 10] === Sexual Slander Revealed: The Story of Jamilah/Jemilah and The Act of Killing Saskia E. Wieringa masculinity of jago thrives is a docile, sexually gangster movie, musical and sinetron (Indonesian subservient woman – this figure belongs within TV series). The lines between myth, fantasy, the patriarchal, militarist New Order of Suharto. boasting and truth-telling are obscured as well. Gerwani belonged to the realm of the patriarchal The sexual politics underlying the pre-1965 Old Order of the PKI and Sukarno. At construction of the PKI as evil and barbaric are that time women’s emancipation was ostensibly portrayed most clearly in the lurid scenes in applauded, but the social struggle was seen as which Anwar’s pal, Herman Koto, is dressed up more important (Wieringa 2002; 2011).21 Sukarno as an aging transvestite (modelled after popular had stimulated women to become political transvestite TV actor and comedian Tessy, full actors, fighters in the war for independence. The name Kabul Basuki, typically portrayed with PKI had joined this course, which corresponded heavy makeup, thick protruding lips, glittering with socialist ideas of women’s emancipation, jewellery). His/her acting is associated with although PKI chairman Aidit never paid much srimulat, a humorous, low-brow Javanese form attention to women’s issues. The progressive of theatre (particularly popular in cities as women’s organisation Gerwani enthusiastically Surabaya and Solo) which is transgressive of promoted such topics as women’s education, both class and gender.23 political visibility and independence. They Herman, who in TAOK is shown to be opposed violence against women and polygyny. subservient to Anwar, in drag becomes even In the post colonial Old Order conservative forces more his ‘wife’, exposing a same-sex intimacy tried to restore what they saw as women’s pre- which suggests another layer to the homosocial independence role based on what was defined atmosphere of the film. Herman as ‘spouse’, as women’s kodrat (religiously ordained nature). murdering and castrating his boss and ‘husband’ Thus Gerwani in its insistence on women’s public Anwar, eating his liver, mouth dripping with visibility and agency came to symbolize not only blood, evokes the overthrow of the normative all that was un-Islamic, but by extension also as gender order, which Gerwani was accused of. curtailing post colonial newfound masculine Herman adds gaudy revealing clothing power, in other words as castrating. The PKI, to his character (though in his case his huge though patriarchal in its relations with Gerwani, stomach and thick coarse legs don’t suggest precisely by its support of Gerwani, in this view feminine attractiveness). He is cast playing represented the kind of abjected masculinity that the communist girl Aminah, swaying a sickle, the army and rightwing Islamic groups despised as the communists were alleged to have used. (Wieringa 2003 and 2011).22 The grotesque drag of Herman/Aminah sends In TAOK this struggle is acted out on various another message as well. The multicoloured levels. Several dance sequences are shown, as feathers and his revealing clothing suggest a part of the film-within-the-film on Arsan and vulgar kind of sexuality which is all the more Aminah. The association with the Dance of the repellent by the boorish masculinity of Herman. Fragrant Flowers (which immediately sprang He is never convincing as a woman character; to my mind and to that of former Gerwani it rather seems as if his rudeness is exaggerated members who watched it with me) is imbricated to demonstrate that Gerwani women were by allusions to present day TV shows and actually crude masculine characters. So instead by the Hollywood dreams of Oppenheimer’s of just a MTF (male-to-female) gender reversal protagonists. TAOK is almost a genre in itself, we also watch an FTM (female-to-male) drag blurring the lines of documentary (the killings, scene: evoking the alleged masculinity, or at the making of the fictional film) feature film, least unfemininity of the castrating, murdering Gerwani members. Another association is that Herman/Aminah, madly shouting, portrays the 21 Wieringa 2002 and Saskia E. Wieringa, 2011. Sexual Slander and the 1965/6 Mass Killings in Indonesia; Political and Methodological Considerations. Journal of Contemporary Asia 23 See also Barbara Hatley, (2008) Javanese Performances on Volume 41, nr 4, 544-66. an Indonesian Stage: Celebrating Culture, Embracing Change. 22 Wieringa 2003 and 2001 Honolulu: University of Hawaii. 20 Volume 3, Number 1, August 2015 === [PDF page 11] === Sexual Slander Revealed: Saskia E. Wieringa The Story of Jamilah/Jemilah and The Act of Killing PKI as out-of-control, and therefore as unmanly there is more. The Indonesian public still shies and feminine (and in a witchlike way capable of away from these very unpleasant truths. performing gory, outrageous acts of perversity). These images are juxtaposed with scenes Conclusion portraying actual sexual torture. If the Arsan/ A better understanding of the country’s Aminah story is fantasy, the scene in which gruesome past cannot grow without realizing the gangster Safit Pardede reminisces about his full impact of the myth of the singing, dancing, raping young socialist girls (‘hell for you, but castrating Gerwani members, as Anwar himself heaven for me’) reminds one only too well of stressed. This myth is the core of the army’s the actual horrors of the time (we did this ‘back propaganda campaign which transformed an then, when we were the law… I fucked the shit apparent inter-army clash (with heavy political out of everyone I met’). The cheers by his mates meddling) into a gruesome genocide, targeting with which this revelation is greeted suggests the PKI and leftwing people in general, sweeping their complicity in or at least approval of such away the Old Order of President Sukarno. The crimes. sexual moral panic created by the army shamed Straddling the divide between fact and fiction, the nation into silence. TAOK exposes the echoes of the horrendous The genocide and other mass crimes against mythmaking that still haunts Indonesian humanity committed after the actions of the society. We are provided with an insight into G30S group are the major watershed in post the justifications Anwar Congo gives for his colonial Indonesian history. The nationalist and becoming a mass killer. Material benefits played socialist politics of President Sukarno which a role; his position as a leader of a death squad had forged the nation but had caused economic transformed him from a broke petty criminal to chaos were replaced by a militarist, brutal a feared militia member with coins in his pocket style of governing, based on capitalist values. to indulge his tastes of alcohol, drugs (and sex?). Generations of people grew up in terror, fed Watching the 1983 film produced by the Suharto on lies of sexual slander. Not only the political regime makes him feel better about his atrocious climate changed drastically, the cultural and acts. But the slander against Gerwani, he admits, intellectual scene became very impoverished – incited him to kill. not only because many intellectuals, artists and Oppenheimer’s film provides a chilling teachers were murdered or imprisoned, but portrait of present day Indonesian society, also because liberal, creative, free thinking was the banality or normalcy of which is based on declared suspect. The Reformasi period after the violence and sadism of the massacre, and the fall of the dictator has not fundamentally particularly on the persistent silence surrounding challenged this. Still women who resist the it. The film is an eye-opener internationally; masculinist ideology can be labelled ‘new it has bagged many awards and is shown to Gerwani’. A term that conjures up images of have shocked audiences worldwide. However unspeakable perversity. in Indonesia, where the lies of the military are The campaign of sexual slander against still widely believed, the impact of the film is Gerwani has not only affected those directly disappointing. It does not break the silence that accused. They were imprisoned, raped, starved, still surrounds the 1965-67 genocide. tortured, murdered. When Jemilah was released In that sense Oppenheimer’s second film on her life was ruined. She died in abject poverty, 1965, The Look of Silence, is more effective.24 It the stigma of ‘Gerwani whore’ still upon her – is watched much more widely. Though, both and on her children. This happened to so many films still cannot be screened in the major movie thousands of women who didn’t even know theatres, as happened in so many countries. where the Crocodile Hole was located but were Brute censorship is mainly responsible. But nonetheless accused of having danced there. The campaign of sexual slander against them 24 In this film the younger brother of one of the victims of the death incited the genocide and other crimes against squads confronts the murderers with their deeds. Volume 3, Number 1, August 2015 21 === [PDF page 12] === Sexual Slander Revealed: The Story of Jamilah/Jemilah and The Act of Killing Saskia E. Wieringa humanity committed by the military and their Anwar demonstrates, these slanderous fables henchmen in the form of the many militias that still work in the fantasies of the murderers. But assisted in murdering their own neighbours. wider than that, they are also engraved in the It has also changed the texture of society. As collective consciousness of Indonesian society. Bibliography Anderson, Ben. 1987. “How did the generals die?” Indonesia 43 (April) 109/34. Ardi, R. Juki. 2011. Aku bukan Jamilah. Jakarta: Kompas Gramedia. Crouch, Harold. 1988. The army and politics in Indonesia. (rev. ed) Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. Hatley, Barbara. 2008. Javanese Performances on an Indonesian Stage: Celebrating Culture, Embracing Change. Honolulu: University of Hawaii. Holzappel, Coen. 2104. http://rozenbergquarterly.com/professional-blindness-and-missing-the-mark-the-thirtieth-septembermovement-as-seen-by-the-perpetrators-between-registered-facts-and-authoritative-opinions Onghokham. 2003. The thugs, the curtains thief and the sugar lord. Jakarta: Metafor. Roosa, John. 2006. Pretext for mass murder; the September 30th movement & Suharto’s coup d état in Indonesia. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. Simpson, Brad. 2008. Economists with guns: authoritarian development and US – Indonesian relations 1960-1968. Stanford University Press Sukartiningsih, Josepha 2004. Ketika perempuan menjadi TAPOL. In John Roosa, Ayu Ratih & Hilmar Farid (eds) Tahun yang tak pernah berakhir; memahami penngalaman korban 65. Jakarta: ELSAM pp 87-113. Sundhaussen, Ulf. 1982. The road to power: Indonesian military politics 1945-1967. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Wieringa, Saskia E. 2002. Sexual Politics in Indonesia. Houndmills: Palgrave and MacMillan. Wieringa, Saskia E. 2003. The Birth of the New Order State in Indonesia: Sexual Politics and Nationalism. Journal of Women’s History Vol. 15 (1, Spring): 70 - 92. Saskia E. Wieringa, 2011. Sexual Slander and the 1965/6 Mass Killings in Indonesia; Political and Methodological Considerations. Journal of Contemporary Asia Volume 41, nr 4, 544-66. Wieringa, Saskia E. 2014. Persisting silence: Sexual Slander, ass Murder and The Act Of Killing. In Asian Journal of Women’s Studies. Vol. 20 no. 3 pp 50-77 Wieringa, Saskia E. 2015. Crocodile Hole. Jakarta: Jurnal Perempuan. 22 Volume 3, Number 1, August 2015