Confronting pain and
shame
Mery Kolimon reckons Indonesian Christians should learn from
the revolutionary socialist Karl Marx.
That statement is a red rag to a bullish government, so
jinxed by the phantoms of massacred victims that it’s distracting public inquiry
with warnings of a return by the communist bogeyman.
The recommendation sounds like the ravings of a ragged-beard
radical yet to understand the nation’s
turbulent history, the lurking fears and the stalking hates.
But Kolimon is a middle-aged married mother of three with a
doctorate in theology. She’s an
articulate advocate, firm but not combative, politically aware and personally
scarified by the brutal past.
Her research so challenges the government’s version of history
that she was bumped off the program at last October’s Ubud Writers and Readers
Festival. If that was supposed to cripple her credibility, it failed. Soon after she was elected leader of two
million Protestants in the Archipelago’s eastern islands.
Had the festival been run by locals like literary giant Goenawan
Mohamad and staged in Jakarta, Kolimon believes it would have been hard for the
police to shut down discussions about the atrocities following the 30 September
1965 coup.
The 12-year old Ubud festival is directed by founder
Australian Janet DeNeefe who has business interests in Bali so more susceptible
to political pressure. Local police chief Farman was quoted as saying the bans
were “for the benefit of the people. The spirit of the festival is not to
discuss things that would just open old wounds.”
Said Kolimon: “Tensions have certainly risen since the forum
was banned where I and others were to address the topic of Bearing Witness.
“But that experience has also told us that we need to build
a global community seeking justice for the victims of violence everywhere.
“I was angry and
disappointed. I wanted people to hear
what I had to say. I know young people in particular are keen to learn the
truth about the past. Strangely we’d
already run public discussions around Nusa Tenggara Timor (NTT – Eastern Islands)
with no interference.”
The sudden police action in Ubud silenced the speakers but
amplified the issues. It shifted stories
about a literary event from the ho-hum arts sections to news page headlines around
the world.
Kolimon was on the bill
as co-editor of the translated edition of Forbidden
Memories – Women’s Experiences of 1965 in Eastern Indonesia published by Australia’s
Monash University.
Kolimon, 44, was born after the pogrom which brought second
president Soeharto to power taking an estimated 500,000 lives in an
anti-Communist purge. But her quest for truth is more than academic; her late father
was a police officer ordered to take part in executions of communists. He
killed 17 men but suffered a tormented conscience.
Kolimon discovered her parent’s awful secret as a
highschooler and later exposed the story as Memecah
Pembisuan (Breaking the Silence) a book which split her family. She said
her siblings have since reconciled following their father’s search for
forgiveness.
Forbidden Memories
is a collection of searing interviews by Kolimon and her colleagues with women
who recalled the horrors. It tells how
husbands, fathers, brothers and sons were rounded up and shot, their bodies buried
or dumped at sea.
Few were party members (communism was not illegal before the
coup) or even active supporters. Many were arbitrarily condemned because informants
claimed they harboured anti-government views. It was also a handy way for
feuding neighbors to settle old scores.
Some women were also found guilty by association, imprisoned,
tortured, sexually abused and then had their heads shaved. The widows were kicked out of their jobs and shoved
back into a fearful society that discriminated for decades.
The book claims the church was complicit in the purge by not
speaking out or ministering to prisoners, and by accepting government claims
about communism. Pastors demanded alleged members publicly confess their ‘sins’
to be allowed communion.
Kolimon said the research had been published to give the
victims a voice, to raise awareness of “this dark shadow over the nation … this
humanitarian tragedy.” She also wants to start reform of the religious
institutions because the church “lost its critical voice.”
Now she is standing on a more substantial platform than the
Ubud festival following her win as Synod Moderator for the Church in NTT against
two male candidates.
In her Kupang office photos of Kolipon’s 11 predecessors
stare down from a wall. Most look sombre
and authoritarian. All are men.
She considers the International People’s Tribunal held at
The Hague last November another reason for the government’s attempts to ignite
anti-communist hysteria.
During the 2014 presidential election campaign successful
candidate Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo offered voters the Nawa Cita (Sanskrit for nine goals) agenda; this included a pledge
to address the claims of victims of historical abuse.
When this didn’t happen the tribunal took evidence. The
panel of judges concluded the Indonesian government was responsible for the
massacres and oppression that followed the coup.
The government has refused to recognize the IPT. Attorney
General HM Prasetyo was reported as saying: “We solve our own issues. There is
no need for other parties to be involved.”
Kolimon believes the army and others are worried by the
overseas attention. “Whatever they say they are facing a big challenge with
people seeking reconciliation,” she said.
“I want to meet the President and ask him to be consistent in his
promise of reformation.
“We will support him in developing a stronger civil society
after decades of an authoritarian state.”
Despite her extra authority as leader of NTT churches Kolimon
says the situation for activists has become “so dangerous” since the Ubud
festival closure.
“There’s been no direct attack, but we can feel the tension,
I’m protected somewhat by my position, but maybe the victims are not so secure. It’s very important to be careful, but not to
panic.
“The authorities say they are against a communist revival.
Radicals and communists and LGBT causes are being bundled together. I’ve even been called a communist. Can you
imagine it? What’s happening? This is crazy – but this is my country now.
“I can’t prove it but I think my phone is being tapped. Just
before my election (as Moderator) the TNI tried to stop us showing films on
Rote (the island next to Kupang). We were so afraid, but we went ahead.”
In the Forbidden
Memories epilogue Kolimon writes: “It is high time that Christianity in
Indonesia …thinks seriously about the possibilities of learning from Marxism
rather than perpetuating hatred towards it.
“Openness to this will allow the Church to become more
sensitive to people’s suffering and to show a clear attitude about where the
church stands.
“Specifically in the context of global capitalism today
which tends to exploit the poor, the Church can take important lessons from
Marxism which will help to enable it to carry out Jesus’ teaching about serving
those who are marginalised.”
Later this month [july] she will speak at a seminar in
Melbourne. She claims that reconciliation is not just an issue for Indonesia
but must also involve the US and Australia.
Both nations applauded the fall of first president Soekarno because they
feared he was getting too close to communism, and may have assisted with names
of members to be targeted.
“Some people think that peace will come so long as we leave
things alone,” Kolimon said. “The opposite is true – we’ll continue to be
haunted by ghosts of the past. We must
try and heal this trauma which is affecting the whole nation.”
(First published in Strategic Review, 21 July 2016)
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