Ezra Sihite/Wisnu Cipto – Mass organisations (Ormas) that are part of the Pancasila Front are ready to oppose any follow up on the recommendations by the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) on the 1965 killings.

Golkar Party Deputy General Secretary Leo Nababan is urging for an end to calls for a restoration of the political rights of the victims and the families of the 1965 affair. According to Nababan, Komnas HAM’s recommendation, which stated that gross human rights violations occurred during the affair, do not need to be taken to an ad hoc human rights court.

Nababan argues that the existing 1996 MPRS decree on communist teachings has not been revoked and this is a basis for anti-communism in Indonesia. He added that the mass organisations in the Pancasila Front are ready to oppose any follow up to Komnas HAM’s recommendations.

“The Pancasila Front will be ready to block it, particularly [our] youth generation allies in Anshor NU [Anshor Youth Movement, Nahdlatul Ulama’s youth wing] if for example the affair goes to court”, said Nababan in an email sent to journalists today.

The chairperson of the Mutual Assistance Cooperative (Kosgoro, Golkar affiliated youth group) in the 1957 era stated that the victims and the families of the 1965/1966 affair who are linked with communists do not need to seek further redress. “It is enough that their political rights have been restored”, asserted Nababan.

Komnas HAM’s recommendations on the 1965 affair have indeed been controversial. Komnas HAM proposed several options that could be taken by the government, one of which is reconciliation by means of a presidential apology. One month after the recommendation however, the government is yet to take a position on the matter.

Notes:

1. Tap MPRS XXV/1966: Provisional People’s Consultative Assembly Decree Number XXV/1966 on the Dissolution of the Indonesian Communist Party and Prohibitions on Marxist, Leninist and Communist Teachings.

2. Former PKI members and others accused of involvement in the alleged 1965 coup suffered decades of stigmatisation and discrimination. They were not allowed to become civil servants, military or police officers, teachers, preachers or legislators and their IDs were labelled with “ET” (ex-political prisoner). Following a Constitutional Court ruling in 2004 former PKI members were allowed to contest elections and in 2006 the government deleted the ET label on IDs.

[Wasekjen Golkar Minta Rekomendasi Kasus HAM 1965 Ditolak – Beritasatu. Rabu, 22 Agustus 2012. Translated by James Balowski.]