Council of God, aka Majelis Ulama Indonesia, a body who got spiritual legitimation from God, the one that authorizes what’s morally wrong, morally good, and act as moral police has just recently condemned the establishment of PKI at Facebook.
The english news about the PKI revival was getting dramatic coverage in internet and local news, one snippet could be read at Jakarta Post.
The power of Facebook to rally for social and political causes has triggered a number of left-leaning Indonesian Facebook users to re-establish the banned Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) in the virtual world.
The existence of a PKI 2010 Facebook group was first reported by news portal detik.com on
Saturday.As of Sunday afternoon, the group had gathered more than 2,000 supporters.
In its information tab, the group claims it will strive to clear false allegations against the PKI, which was declared an illegal party by the New Order regime following an alleged coup d’etat attempt that cost the lives of a number of Army generals in 1965.
Following the alleged coup attempt, millions of people, said to be affiliated with the PKI, were slaughtered by security forces.
Millions were eithered killed, kidnapped or exiled. The children and families of these victims had to state on their identification cards that their relatives were connected with the PKI, and for decades were being discriminated against until the downfall of the New Order regime in 1998.
Ribka Tjiptaning is a victim of the PKI stigma who managed to survive the repressive New Order. She is a Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) legislator at the House of Representatives.
“Back then, we had to survive using whatever means necessary. I went through college working
day and night, doing everything I could from pick-pocketing to working as a bus conductor. I hunted mice and cats for food. The only person supporting me was my mother,” she told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.Ribka also said she considered the criminalization of the PKI was wrong.
“A political party can only die if its members choose to disband through a congress. The PKI, once the largest party in the country, has never been officially disbanded through a congress,” she said.
“If we are a real democracy, then we should allow people to re-establish communist-based parties like the PKI. Let the people judge whether the party’s ideas suit them or not,” she added.
A researcher from Imparsial Human Rights Watch, Bhatara Ibnu Reza, said the existence of a pro-PKI group on Facebook showed that communist ideas had managed to draw the attention of a younger ge-neration, who have sat up and taken notice despite a prohibition by the government.
“This group is a reaction to the government’s policy of banning everything communist-related. The government must realize that banning a party does not necessarily mean it will stop the ideas from developing. Ideas, once absorbed, will never die,” he said.
“So, we should all calm down about communism. I believe Indonesians in general are smart enough to determine which ideologies suit them. Let them choose. I believe freedom of expression should always be embraced, upheld and respected,” he added.
A number of political figures, however, have supported the ban against the PKI, saying it was still relevant.
“We think the [PKI] must be forbidden. Not only because party officials committed treason, but also because communism is antithetical to democratic ideals,” Anas Urbaningrum from the Democratic Party said.
Golkar Party’s Azis Syamsudin said the existence of the PKI was a violation of the Constitution and therefore the ban was not debatable.
A legislator from the People’s Conscience Party (Hanura), Akbar Faisal, said if the government really wanted to prevent communism from growing in the country, it should truly serve the people and fulfill their basic needs.
“The government must be able to resolve the basic issues such as poverty and education, otherwise, Marxist ideologies have plenty of opportunities to take hold in the minds of the people,” he said.
There are also several other groups supporting the PKI in Facebook as well as those critical of communism and the PKI.
In addition to the alleged 1965 coup attempt, the PKI had launched an earlier coup attempt in 1948 against the Indonesian government, which was facing Dutch aggression at the time.
The PKI had also tried to stage a revolt against the Dutch colonial authorities in 1926.
The news is not complete though, they didn’t add the part where Council of God from Sitobondo “encouraged” the people from their faith to cease any friendship of people who has joined facebook, as cited from detik news.
Communism has long story of being demonized in Indonesian history. The G-30S PKI remained the most controversial and darkest period of Indonesian history and still unresolved.
Atheism and agnosticism are forbidden in Indonesia, because 5 principle in Indonesia states explicitly that everyone MUST have a religion officially, otherwise you won’t be recognized as citizen here, no matter how brilliant your brain are. The Council of God has important duty to impose and judge what is good and bad for the society, though they unfortunately, reluctant to prevent FPI sweeping the foreign tourists from Indonesia.
I guess this event solidify my disgust toward these holy men. They are still much better compared the Council of God in Saudi Arabia, the Mutaween, who has amazing record of human right violence in the name of God, but it’s not impossible that they will someday evolve into one if the horrible syariah law applied to our country, because Aceh also has Syariah police, which just recently gang-raped girl in the name of God.
Absolutely right. Couldn’t agree more.
Communism was a humane ideal turned into a totalitarian hightmare whereever it came to power. So it is little wonder some ‘Council of God’ – also followers of an totalitarian ideal- recognizes the danger… Maybe it’s warning also can be interpreted as a warning against themselves.
In my opinion communism ( which by the way is quite different from Marxism) is a thing of the past. But of course this:
“If we are a real democracy, then we should allow people to re-establish communist-based parties like the PKI. Let the people judge whether the party’s ideas suit them or not” sums it all up.
I, by the way, also think the genocide-like crimes of Suharto c.s. in ‘65/66 should be investigated by an international and independent group of renowned men and women of science. I suspect the official account of the events, which has been told over forty years now, isn’t just biased, but even a perverse distortion of what really happened.
The killing, banning, arresting, molesting of hundreds of thousands of people, whether they were “guilty” or only accused of having a conviction or not, is one of the largest crimes against humanity in the second half of the 20th century.
(And Golkar claimed President Suharto should be honored by the title of national hero…)
^to add more controversy… most of Indonesian probably don’t know what communism really is, all they know is communism is = atheism and it’s against the pancasila. Talk about double standard.
I haven’t checked the latest schools’ history books about the g 30 s pki, but I assume it would be just the same. PKI killed the people, put them in Lubang buaya, etc etc. All history books must be approved by the government, just like how japanese hide their history in the curriculum. Indonesia really needs to learn from Germany which is more honest about their past atrocities.
Soeharto is rumored to be chinese descent, maybe it has some degree of truth since his children actually look chinese. If he ever become a national hero, I will never ever recognize him for sure. German didn’t bestow Hitler as their national hero.
oh flash news. Actually the council of God just recently issued that prewedding photo session are forbidden and against morality, they seems planning to issue fatwa to ban prewedding photo session. absurdity couldn’t be more absurd. I guess they are just bunch of people who have too much time. -_-