Rethinking History, Politics and (Human) Rights in Indonesia
CSEAS, 30 November 2013

Abstracts

Politik tentang Sejarah Nasional: Kajian terhadap Kontroversi Serangan Oemoem 1 Maret

Kontroversi tentang “Serangan Oemoem 1 Maret 1949 (SO)” muncul lagi pada sekitar 1 Maret 1999 – pertama kali setelah rejim Orde Baru tumbang. Yang menjadi pokok adalah siapa pemrakarsa SO tersebut. Berdasarkan bukti yang tidak baru, umumnya menyatakan Sultan Hamengku Buwono IX (HB IX) sebagai pemrakarsa, bukan Suharto seperti yang disebarkan sebelumnya.
Sesungguhnya pula, versi Suharto sebagai pemrakarsa baru muncul setelah adanya pernyataan Suharto sendiri di tahun1973. Versi ini disebarkan sejak 1985, walaupun pada waktu itu juga sudah ada tanda tanya. Oleh karenanya, di dalam buku terbitan SESKOAD pun kurang dijelaskan siapa pemrakarsa sesungguhnya. Ini berbeda dengan otobiogorafi Suharto. Dalam zaman Reformasi sekarang ini, versi HB IX diterima secara luas dan sudah dibuat beberapa buku, walaupun masih ada versi lain.
Kajian ini akan menggali hal tentang SO yang selama ini kurang dipertanyakan. Yaitu, peran SO sebagai peristiwa dalam sejarah revolusi RI. Sebelum masa rejim Orde Baru, SO dianggap hanya sebagai salah satu aksi militer di masa perjuangan (periode revolusi fisik), dan tidak ada acara peringatan. Kajian ini akan menjabarkan bagaimana peran SO dalam mempertahankan kemerdekaan diperbesar dan ditonjolkan selama masa rejim Orde Baru. Meski demikian, hal ini tidak mengurangi peranan HB IX di dalam kemerdekaan RI, karena pokok jasa beliau tidak dari segi militer (beliau bukan tentara). Diharapkan kajian semacam ini akan memperkaya sejarah Indonesia yang selama ini kerap menonjolkan peran militer.

Yokoyama Takeshi is Associate Professor at Chikushi Jogakuen University (Fukuoka Prefecture). He received M.A. from Graduate School of Law, Kyoto University.

Text on September 30th Movement in history textbooks: The 2004 curriculum and social reaction against it

On 5 March 2007, the Attorney General of Indonesia issued a resolution (Keputusan Jaksa Agung No. Kep- 019/A/JA/03/2007) that prohibited the circulation of a number of junior and senior high school history textbooks based on the 2004 curriculum and ordered the withdrawal. It was reported that some public prosecutor’s office in the district level had collected these textbooks, confiscated and even public-burnt them. National and local mass media reported this issue because the 2004 curriculum and those textbooks refer to the 30 September 1965 incident as “G30S (Gerakan 30 September)” without “/PKI” PKI (Partai Komunis Indonesia, Communist
Party of Indonesia) as commonly referred to indicate the PKI as the mastermind of the incident.
The 2004 curriculum itself has some characteristics that may cause confusion in evaluating it. It was considered not in accordance with revision of the Education Act (Act no. 20 year 2003), which put its authenticity in doubt. It adopted a new educational method that encourages self-motivated discussion among students. This in turn often led to bring annoyances to teachers who were accustomed to the conventional method. The reasoning made by some mass media minimalize the impact of this problem, and its meaning in the wider political context after the resignation of Suharto in 1998. The complicated characteristics also make the issue obscured.
This presentation describes how history textbooks of the “official” curriculum were banned, and discusses what the process means in the context of discourse on the 30 September 1965 incident.

Kaoru Kochi is Researcher at the Cultural Symbiosis Research Center, Aichi Prefectural University and part-time lecturer of Aichi Prefectural University, Daito Bunka University and Tokyo University. He received M.A. from Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Tokyo University in 1996.

Figures for the State: The May 1998 Riots and Its Investigative Process

The May 1998 riots left more than 2,000 people dead and countless others injured or missing. National and international media depicted the urban riots as “anti-Chinese” violence, drawing from news of raped Chinese women that had proliferated on the internet. Investigations carried out by a state-sponsored fact-finding team, the police, and independent NGO fact-finding teams revealed that a large number of victims had been trapped and burned alive inside looted buildings. The investigative reports also produced inconclusive data to support an allegation that the riots targeted the ethnic Chinese community.
Shortly after the riots and in responding to international pressures, the government set up a Fact Finding Joint Team (TGPF). In this paper I would discuss how the TGPF’s work has displaced the legal responsibility of security apparatuses to investigate the riots, in so doing allowing a “state of exception” to exist amid the deteriorating structure of state sovereignty. I will discuss an account in the investigative work of a social figure called “the Chinese”, and suggest that the account of the figure does not represent how Indonesian Chinese experience the event.
Instead, the account narrates the idea of the state as an arbiter of citizenship, a social imagining of the state called upon to make a judgment on how proper citizen in a post-authoritarian time should look like and behave. Such a discursive debate continues until now.

Fadjar I. Thufail is an anthropologist and senior researcher at the Research Center for Regional Resources of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (PSDR-LIPI). Currently he is Visiting Professor at the ILCAA, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. He received M.A. in ecological anthropology from Rutgers University and Ph.D in cultural anthropology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He edited (with Martin Ramstedt) a special edition of Asian Ethnicity (Vol.13:4, 2012) and Kegalauan Identitas (Jakarta: Grasindo, 2011). He is now working on a book manuscript tentatively titled The Impossible Moral State: Figure of the Chinese and Urban Riots in Indonesia.

National Integrity System and KPK

This year marks the 10th anniversary since the establishment of KPK. Ever since its establishment, much of the public attention and concern have been on tackling corruption and its performance. The presentation will look at the history and politics of Indonesia, rather than reflecting on its performance and achievements, show how it was formulated from behind the scenes, and observe the changes in the society (or: evolution of the society) as a result of KPK’s achievements throughout the past 10 years. Furthermore, the presentation will review the Indonesian Anti-Corruption Policy and Strategy (both the mid-term (2012-2015) and long-term (2015-2025)), and elaborate on KPK’s next milestone, to establish the National Integrity System, which is to evaluate key ‘pillars’ in the country’s governance system, both in terms of internal corrupt-ion risks and contribution to fighting corruption in society at large.

Eiji Oyamada, Ph.D (Nagoya University), is a Professor at the Graduate School of Global Studies of the Doshisha University in Kyoto. Prior to this position, he worked for the United Nations and the World Bank (1991-2007: Palestine, Timor-Leste, Indonesia, Japan), University of Paramadina (2005-2010) and others. He was a Visiting Professor at the Gadja Mada University (2005-2011), University of the Philippines (2000-2003: Adjunct Professor), Hong Kong University (2006-2008: Part-time Lecturer). His field of expertise is governance and development.

MP3EI and Politics of Energy and Power: a Case of Central Java Power Plant (CJPP) Project

Issued at the end of 2011, the MP3EI (Masterplan Percepatan dan Perluasan Pembangunan Ekonomi Indonesia) is the newest economic development policy formulated based on the economic corridor concept. By using the “not as business as usual” slogan, this policy mainly uses debottlenecking principle to reinforce investment flows in six designated Indonesian economic corridors (IEC): Sumatra corridor, Java corridor, Bali-Nusa Tenggara corridor, Kalimantan corridor, Sulawesi corridor and Maluku-Papua corridor. The IEC mostly relies on the private capital that simultaneously gives way to privatization of public services.

This paper observes one main large-scale development project, which is also the pilot project for the implementation of IEC policy: PLTU Batang (Central Java Power Plant/CJPP) in Batang regency, Central Java. The PLTU Batang is established to provide electric supply for industries in Java. This paper describes the politics of energy and collaboration of government and private sector on the so-called “acceleration of Indonesian economic transformation through the IEC policy.” It argues how the debottlenecking principle and the public-private partnership (PPP) scheme as in the project will lead to the privatization processes of public assets and services.

Hilmayati Safitri works at Agrarian Resource Center (ARC), Bandung. She received MA from International Institute of Social Studies (The Netherlands) in 2012.

Human Rights in the Transition Indonesia: Political Paradox and the Challenges for Komnas HAM

The values of freedom, respect for human rights and the principle of holding periodic and genuine elections by universal suffrage are essential elements of democracy. In turn, democracy is supposed to provide the natural environment for the protection and effective realization of human rights. After 1998 Indonesia has been experiencing a more democratic statehood. Some progress in democratic life has been achieved. However, ironically, in the midst of this democratization, the respect to and the enforcement and promotion of human rights are not improving significantly. Continuous violations to civil and political rights, especially against the freedom on religion and belief, have been occurring. Likewise, the condition of economic, social and cultural rights; its fulfillment status is worsen. Paradox of democratization is taking place in Indonesia today: democracy with less respect to the human rights. Komnas HAM (National Commission on Human Rights) as the independent state institution mandated by laws to be the core element in enforcement and promotion of human rights in Indonesia, has to face this paradoxical political life. In order to overcome this paradox, several proposals to strengthen the Komnas HAM, such as revision on human rights law and institutional rearrangement, were proposed.

In this presentation, I would like to explore that political paradox. I would explain that neither the strengthening of Komnas HAM as an institution nor revision of the law on human rights is the correct way out to that political paradox. I would propose that a serious law enforcement action against the illegality and violence, including state violence, should be recognized and implemented as the appropriate solution for that political paradox. I believe this way, in turn, will achieve the democracy in a substantial sense of the word. And this substantial democracy could create the arena to discuss common interests and resolve public problems.

Dianto Bachriadi, Ph.D. is Vice Chair of the National Commission on Human Rights of Republic of Indonesia

more information about this event can be seen on CSEAS