Jakarta, Indonesia – The 13 female members of Dialog Choir meet at one of their houses in eastern Jakarta. They laugh during the breaks, but when they sing, tears run on their faces.
“I imagine your face, mom,” go the lyrics. “I hope you are still healthy.”
Utati Koesalah, one of the singers, wrote the song during his 11 -year -old prison in Bukit Duri prison, after being arrested and imprisoned without trial in 1967 during the Indonesian communist purge. During this relaxation, she was worried about her mother, who lived hundreds of kilometers.
“Could she understand what happened to me?” Utati remembers having thought. (Utati, like many Indonesians, prefers to use his first name.)
According to an international popular court reportThe Communist purge, which General Soeharto began in 1965 before becoming president, led to half a million dead, at least 600,000 imprisonment and more than 32,000 forced disappearances. Dialog Choir consists entirely of former political prisoners and their loved ones. Through their songs, they preserve memories that the Indonesian government is now trying to erase.
The Indonesian Ministry of Culture produces a series of 10 volumes which aims to record Indonesian history. But the account takes a “positive tone” and denies documented atrocities, including 1998 mass rape Chinese -indoneia women – contradicting the National Commission on Violence Against Women 1999 report. He also omits other past violations of human rights, including the massacres and imprisonments of 1965. The Ministry of Culture also plans To declare Soeharto – the stepfather of President Prabowo SUBIANTO – a national hero.
These movements have triggered generalized manifestations, but for those who knew the purge of first -hand, the pain remains deeply personal. Nani Nurani, 84, was imprisoned without trials for six years from 1969, accused of dancing in a band at Lubang Buaya, Jakarta, and affiliating the Communists. Before her arrest, Nani worked as a singer for the presidential palace, performing during political events, including a birthday of the Communist Party, although she was never a member of the leftist party or movements.
“I don’t want money or something other than justification,” she says. Despite decades of legal battles, it was not exempt.
Uchikowati Fauzia, 73, another member of Dialog, was 13 years old when his two parents were arrested without trial in 1965. His mother was released after eight years, but his father waited until 1980 to see freedom. He died in 1985. The law, said Fauzia, does not provide that justice is signified to those who were wrongly imprisoned.
“Dialog is one in our ways to express it,” she says.
In another part of Jakarta, opposite the presidential palace, the demonstrators carry banners and photos of people who have experienced atrocities of the Soeharto era. Maria Catarina Sumarsih, 73, attends almost every week, promising to continue until the government deals with the past violations of human rights, including the death of her son during the 1998 reform demonstrations.
“The revision of history,” says Sumarsih, “shows that the current government will continue impunity … denying the historical facts that have occurred in our country.”
