Jakarta – An event organised by the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) titled “Prayer for the Salvation of the Nation” at the National Monument (Monas) in Central Jakarta on the evening of Saturday September 29, closed with a public screening of the G30S/PKI film.
The majority of participants however, showed little enthusiasm for the film and elected to return home instead.
The call to stay and watch the G30S/PKI film was a direct order from fugitive FPI “Great Leader” Rizieq Shihab in a voice message played just before the screening was to start.
“So I call on the Islamic congregation, this evening or tomorrow wherever you are to again screen the G30S/PKI film so that our younger generation who do not yet understand, will know about the dangers of the PKI”, said Shihab in the recorded message.
Not long after the voice message was played, the organising committee began screening the film titled The Betrayal of the September 30 Movement/Indonesian Communist Party by director Arifin C. Noer.
The film presentation was prepared by FPI Jihad (Holy War) Department head Subhan Amir who said that he wanted young children to know that there was a group which tried to replace Indonesia’s ideology.
“I myself am responsible for the screening of the film. Crush, crush, crush the PKI. Crush the PKI now”, shouted Amir imitating the tune of the children’s song Planting the Corn (Menanam Jagung).
Few however paid any attention to Rizieq and Amir’s call. Most of the participants elected to return home because it was already approaching midnight. Only a small number remained to watch the film.
The departure of most of the audience created a traffic jam in the vicinity of Monas. The participants, which organisers claimed numbered some 200,000 people, spilled out onto the roads creating congestion in the vicinity of Gambir train station.
There was also a traffic jam on Jl. Silang Merdeka in front of the exit because congregation members walked on foot to their vehicles parked nearby. There was also congestion on Jl. Merdeka Timur which was unable to cope with the volume of traffic.
The joint prayer at Monas was attended by a number of religious and political figures including Islamic scholar Abdul Somad, FPI general chairperson M. Shobri Lubis and FPI Jakarta leader Muchlis Alatas.
Several members of the political elite were also present including the secretary general of Tommy Suharto’s Working Party, Priyo Budi Santoso, the secretary general of Prabowo Subianto’s Greater Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra), Ahmad Mujani, House of Representatives (DPR) Deputy Speaker and Gerindra politician Fadli Zon, and the second-daughter of former president Suharto, Siti Hediati Hariyadi (Titiek Suharto). (jnt/wis)
Notes
In September 1998, the government dropped the requirement for all TV stations to broadcast the film Pengkhianatan G30S/PKI (The Betrayal of the September 30 Movement/Indonesian Communist Party), a dramatisation of the New Order’s version of the events surrounding the alleged communist coup in 1965. The film, one of the most effective pieces of propaganda produced by the Suharto dictatorship, had been a compulsory program for all stations every September 30 since its release in 1984.
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was Rizieq Ajak Nobar PKI, Sebagian Jemaah Memilih Pulang.]
