LITERATURE REVIEW - THEME: THE SEPTEMBER 30TH MOVEMENT

JULIO CÉSAR MONTES HERNÁNDEZ – FILM AND POLITICS IN SOUTHEAST ASIA

Literature Review
Bibliographic record 1
The 1965 Coup in Indonesia: The CIA’s version
Justus M. Van der Kroef - 1976
This work is a very early one. Was writing in 1970 - 71 and show a very
different sight that I had showed till here. Van der Kroef made a review of the CIA’s
version of the facts in the early days after the events. Besides, refers to official sources
as evidence of the case, like newspapers and government’s reports.

His posture refers that PKI members and Sukarno was the principal suspect of
the coup, and because that, the army must lead a counterattack against the PKI and its
members. In addition, Kroef argues that the PKI already had a negative image in
Indonesian society, so the outbreak of violence towards its members and supporters
was the product of previous confrontations and, even more, it was basically the fault
of the Indonesian communist front for its previous actions. Another interesting point
is the argument of Kroef that PKI members under attack was not passive and had
some previous armed groups of defenses.

Is very interesting how in these early years after the massacre the information
available had the focus on blame of the killings the PKI, also, how through official
sources (not only Indonesian ones), the mass murders get justification from the lack
argument of the communists in Indonesia had a long historical record of negative
behavior in the domestic issues of the country.

Bibliographic record 2
The United States and the Overthrow of Sukarno, 1965
Peter Dale Scott - 1985
Peter Scott talk about the involvement of U.S. in the conflict of September 30th
movement in 1965, shows the interests that matter even before the movement. Had
some information about the relations between CIA and military groups that were
against Sukarno.
 Scott show too the facts that are consistent with the idea of Suharto knows
about the movement beforehand. The evidence according to him, demonstrates that
the decisions of Gestapu were a kind of coordinated. Additionally, presents single
cases about military figures that provided a suspicious role in the movement.

The author also provided evidence about the involvement of the CIA in the
propagandistic affairs for the implication of PKI on the events, besides the allegations
after the massacres from officials of high range in U.S. government related to the
justification of the mass killings. I think this work is a very well demonstration of the
implications of the propagandistic apparatus in both sides; United States government
and military control in Indonesia.

Bibliographic record 3
The dark side of Paradise: political violence in Bali.
Robinson, Geoffrey - 1995
The main subject of this text is to debate the classical image of Bali island, as a
paradisiac and peaceful “paradise” of culture and exotic traditions. In the first part
Geoffrey make a description centered in the classic academic themes and authors that
feed this picture about Bali. In summary, this classical approach shows the society of
Bali as one characterized for been an apolitical one, this idea supports the portray of a
society more interested in cultural and artistic way of life more than in sociopolitical
matters.

After this initial review about the classical Bali’s studies, Geofrey do an
extensive review of the situation in Bali from the colonial period to the events of the
massacres derived from the September 30 movement, and explains the local system of
political organization delimited by a little egalitarian wisdom given the concentration
of power in a few hands.

These antecedents are important to clarify the conflictive situation before and
after the independence process and the internal political factions on the island,
namely those that sought the maintenance of the political organization in the
"traditional" way, and those that demanded a radical change that was based on
democracy.

Despite the above, the role that the armed forces had within the island since
the independence period was very important. In those early years of Indonesia as an
independent nation, there were civilian (voluntary) militias that had basic training
from the national military forces which were aligned to the political right-wing.

Another important feature of the island in Bali was the internal conflicts
between the Islamic political-religious groups, whose role was also important during
the massacres in 1965-66, mainly because they were the faction opposed to the
members of the PKI communist party in Bali. This type of sociopolitical conditions
possibly facilitated the scenario for Bali to be one of the regions with the highest
number of murders during the massacres.

Bibliographic record 4
The Forgotten Years: The missing history of Indonesia’s mass slaughter
(Jombang-Kediri 1965-1966)
Hermawan Sulistyo - 1997
This work is a case of study about the impact of the massacres in the East Java
region. It’s based on two cities: Kediri and Jombang.

Sulistyo make a very complete review of the political context of the situation.
The first part of his research, is a description of the main conditions (internal and
external) which favored the way of the events took place. For example, the internal
situation in PKI by those years, the conflict between then and the armed forces.
Another important aspect for Sulistyo was the various versions of who was the
mastermind behind the massacres and the September 30th movement. For him there
are at least 5 principal way of looking at the responsible:

1. PKI as mastermind
2. Internal struggle for power in the army
3. Sukarno was the responsible
4. Suharto was behind the killings
5. The CIA was the mastermind and uses the internal factor for get these
objectives
 Despite these five ways of observing the phenomenon, Sulistyo focuses more
on analyzing local elements to explain the reason for the massacres. Considers that
the massacres did not follow any general pattern in the country, and that therefore the
most acceptable explanation of them, considering the data on Kediri and Jombang,
was that the emergence of violence and murders has two explanations, the first one is
that the murders were organized by the military forces in some places, in others, they
arose from the manifestation of previous conflicts through violence between factional
groups.

Considering the data provided by Sulistyo I see that the acceptance of the dual
thesis to explain the massacres is not very strong. Although, the existence of previous
internal conflicts in certain areas of the archipelago was an important factor for the
development of the civil militia for perpetrated the murders, but also, I think that in
general terms there are patterns that show the movement and the massacres as an
organized move by the military forces. Yes, there are local differences that
particularize the ways in which the murders were perpetrated, however, as a
generalized phenomenon, the way in which the massacres developed is more vertical.

Bibliographic record 5
On the uses and abuses of the past in Indonesia: beyond the mass killings of
1965
Ann Laura Stoler - 2002
This is a short paper in which the author makes a brief revision (in general terms) of
the most important works that bring up from the 2000. For she there are two
important contribution to the discussion. The first one is that helps to deny the
classical vision over the Indonesian paradise and exotic country, she argues that is
that kind of classical approach to the study of Indonesia has done the efforts to
demonstrate the “reality” during the 1965-66 killings.

The other characteristic of these wave of research about the September 30th
movement, was that provides a very fruitful discussion, apart from clarify (as the
sources available permit) the events, these works come out with new question that
may be helps to go deeper in the matter. For example, discussion about the culture of
violence during the New Order regime as an important characteristic of it for
maintained the control over the society. This argument provides too, a relevant
question: it is possible that a new authoritarian regime come back, and the violence
could come back too in the form of another massacre?

Bibliographic record 6
Pretext for mass murder: The September 30 movement and Suharto's Coup
d'État in Indonesia
John Roosa - 2006
This is a work that describes and compares different perspectives about de September
30th movement. The focus of this book brings up ideas related with the little less
information credible and non-official about the event. That factor for John Roosa is
quite important in the way that the studies about this have been made, it means, weak
sources of information.

This book is divide in seven main parts (chapters) but these are integrated in
some way with a division in three main aspects:

1. The implication of the very lack and weak statement from the official sources;
its incoherence and its interpretations
2. The different points of view from internal actors; PKI, suspected (or guilty)
subjects in the perpetration of the crime.
3. The external factors and actors (mainly U.S.) related with the event.

These aspects were addressing to support a more factual and reliable analysis and
presentation of facts and evidences. Roosa demonstrates that the PKI persecution was
pretext for gained power by the army forces, mainly aligned to the right-wing
countries.

About the sources, Roosa make an exhaustive research and had access to some
documents which bring up a quite valuable information. This effort is crucial to
present a different and new point of view about the interest and actors behind the
mass killings. Those new sources came from his work in oral history with people who
were involved, especially from the officer in charge of the killings of the 6 militarists.
 Additionally, from one of these sources provides for Supardjo, one of the
officials involved in Gestapu, the author makes a revision considering what was
happened internally at the Gestapu, the first days of the failed coup. His testimony, it’s
a partial confirmation of the theories about the role of the armed forces and the
suspicious (des) organization of the movement.

Bibliographic record 7
The “Gestapu” events of 1965 in Indonesia: New evidence from Russian and
German archives
Ragna Boden - 2007
The main subject of this work is the relation before and after the 30th movement
between USSR and Indonesian communist leaders. This brings out information about
the expectations from they (Indonesian communist leaders), in roughly way, these
was that, maybe after Sukarno’s administration there would be a non-left president
and show the confrontation against PNI (Partai Nasional Indonesia). These data
coming out form sources of German and Russian party organization and state
unclassified files.

The author besides, portrayed the domestic and international background of

the movement, like the implications of U.S. government in the internal struggle for
political power, another example is the information about the CIA’s involvement in the
atrocities; helped to identify and chasing the PKI members.

According with the domestic situation in Indonesian about political affairs, the
principal issue to keep in mind was the struggle for power in that period, among,
Sukarno’s government, PKI and armed forces.

Also, is important to remain that by the time between 1962 – 1963 was a very
important epoch for the situation because it is when Sukarno get more aligned with
PKI, more than the armed forces. This aspect is significant because it isn’t shows this
situation as a bilateral confrontation, in fact, there were different factions; religious
groups, religious-political (mainly Islamic), armed forces and the communist (PKI).
Bibliographic record 8
Economists with guns: authoritarian development and U.S. Indonesian relations,
1960 – 1968
Bradley R. Simpson - 2008
This book talks about the role of United States during the decade of 1960’ in the
Indonesia’s political development. This work shows too the interest of westerns
countries for maintaining the new regime in Indonesia (post-independency) and
aligned to the capitalistic bloc.

The importance of Indonesia as a new independent nation was very important

matter in political and economic word situation during this years; framing into the
cold war conflict. About this, Bradley described the financial support from U.S. to
Indonesia clearly with a subjacent interest to gain one more ally and stop the advance
of communism in Southeast Asia. Additionally, the aid given by U.S. to the restoration
of the economic system in Indonesia, functioning to facilitating the intromission of
American enterprises for exploitation of quite large natural resources on the
archipelago.

The discourse for justify the introduction of aid programs and the intromission
in the construction of the economic politics (with implications in domestic aspects) of
Indonesia, was the idea of as new independent country, Indonesia needed the
guidance of U.S. government.

Considering all these issues, the implications of the September 30th Movement
in an international context were quite important. For example, for the countries of
communist bloc (China and USSR) the importance of support the communist
movement in Vietnam get more relevant role, looking at the fall of the leftists in
Indonesia. For United States, improved his anticommunists discourses related with
the conflict of Vietnam’s war, nevertheless, the situation in Indonesia didn’t change
the later defeated of U.S. army. Britain, had interest for the displacement of
Sukarno’s regime. After Gestapu the konfrontasi get a breath, and after that Britain
obtained the victory over Malaysia issue.
 At the end Bradley argues that the relationship between New Order regime of
Suharto and United States after the Gestapu and the mass killings, was a conscious
exchange of interests. In one hand, Suharto’s regime needed international support for
justify the repression and the persecution of PKI and its members, looking at that as
an effort for restore the peaceful in domestic matters and reinforce the discourse
about the development was the main task of this administration.

That discourse was very well accepted by United States, that’s because of it the
economic interest of them (U.S.), had a free pass through the restoration process of
Indonesian’s crisis after September 30th movement.

Bibliographic record 9
Where are the bodies: The hunting of Indonesia
Adrian Vickers - 2010
The main argument of Vickers is that the social repercussions from the mass
killing of 1965-66 in Indonesia never had been officially accepted, and even less, never
had an official “treatment”. Vickers shows how was the impact on the physical
landscape in the affected regions. Present examples of how the people had to deal
with a situation that in the official vision had never be a bad event with traumatizing
effects on the population, or even never happened.

Despite this, Vickers say that in recent years (after Sukarno’s regime) have
been many Non-governmental organization making possible some efforts to a
reconciliate processes. That has provided a kind of start in the process of social
reconciliation, but, as the author demonstrate, this is a complex situation because
even if these kind of activities probably make possible a restoration of some aspects of
the problem, it is necessary to bear in mind that the Suharto regime developed for
more than 30 years a culture in which the idea of a massacre was vetoed, and in
addition, generations of Indonesians, after the massacre, grew up within a political
system that denied any allusion to those killed as victims and portrayed as the culprits
of their own murders.
Bibliographic record 10
Only now can we speak: remembering politicide in Yogyakarta
Mark Woodward - 2011
This is an effort for made a linkage between the theoretical approaches in the
discussion about the mass killings in 1965-66 and the study of cases in local
perspective. Woodward, made a recompilation and description of his field work in
Indonesia during his first visit in 1978, and even he didn’t go to Yogyakarta to
speculate about the massacres and the political violence, the people said to him that
this kind of themes were a sensible issue. Despite this, Woodward said the even
currently the situation is not so longer different.

The author rescues the local experiences, and in fact said that this is an
important contribution from the anthropology (but not only from it). The main
argument derived from this analysis is that the killings took place in a way more
familiar with a politicide, that mean, the army perpetrated a large purge for get out of
the political context its biggest adversary (the PKI) and didn’t care about if in the
processes the civils were the main victims.

Source number 11
The Act of Killing (Documentary film)
Oppenheimer, J (director) - 2012
This film take place in Sumatra portrayed the experiences of the killers and the
political context of the event. The main argument is centered in the testimonies of the
perpetrator. The entire film they boast about his “work” during the coup in those
years. The main character (Anwar Congo) explain how the military forces organized
the local militias, in this case formed by preman (gang members). It’s interesting that
the role of these preman was the justify for the idea of that word comer from the
English word “freeman”, and as a freeman, they have the right to do anything they
want, besides, in political discourse is just the obligation of the government to “lea”
this preman-freeman for do the appropriate for the sake of the nation, how it
happened in the mass killings of 1965-66.
 The documentary shows the process the film shows the process by the
assassins to make a representation of the massacre and their role in them. Through
this, Oppenheimer shows the visualization of them as "national heroes", a discourse
that continues to be an important part of the official history of Indonesia. This work
also portrays the impunity with which these groups of murderers continue to have
power, and their political connections continue to be an important part of their
organization.

As a source of first-hand information, this film is very useful, and by itself

explain so much about the current situation and in Indonesia and the immunity
(impunity) of these groups in power given by the New Order regime.

Bibliographic record 12
The role of propaganda during the Indonesian massacres
Adam Hughes Henry - 2014
This is an analysis of the role played by the western countries during the
conflict of September 30th movement, especially focused in the management of the
official information from three countries: Australia, Britain and United States.

The main intention of the work, is shows how these three nations helped to
maintained two principal aspects about the discourse behind the mass killings: 1)
portrayed the murders of the six officials as a plan for perpetrated a coup by PKI 2)
justify the measures taken by the army to destruct the communist apparatus.

I because the above that the role of international media was not just extend to
outside Indonesia, the notion of the PKI was responsible of the official’s killings,
besides that the Suharto’s regime have the right to do anything necessary for
maintaining the order in domestic issues. Even more, Henry shows that those
discourses were used by high government man in these western countries, and the
agencies of intelligence of each, had much involvement in it.
Source number 13
The look of silence (Documentary film)
Oppenheimer, J (director) – 2014
This is the second work of Oppenheimer about the mass unlike the first film,
the central argument focuses on the confrontation of Adi Rukun, an Indonesian man
whose older brother was killed during the murders of 1965-66, in front of the
assassins and leaders of the "death squads" in the northern region of Sumatra during
the massacres of the river of the serpent.

Adi Rukun questions each one of those involved in the murders, most of them
show their role in the massacres as something that was done for the stability of
Indonesia, and they portray themselves as heroes, and they have no qualms about
showing graphically how they were perpetrated the murderers. The attitude of those
involved in the killings also shows that these events were organized by the military
forces, and that the political apparatus of the New Order regime facilitated the
conditions so that later there were no social demands towards the perpetrators.
killings in Indonesia.

The film also portrays how the propaganda of the Indonesian government
throughout the period of the Suharto regime fueled an anti-communist culture. For
example, in one of the scenes, a teacher is shown pointing out to his students the
events of 1965-66, in his explanation he attributes a heroic status to those who
"detained" (murdered) the communists.

In general, in this film are shown the political and social conditions during the
massacres and at present that have allowed the displacement to a second term this
episode in the history of Indonesia are shown.
Bibliographic record 14
The state of Knowledge about an open secret: the Indonesia’s mass
disappearances of 1965-66
John Roosa - 2016
Roosa get focus on the secrecy around the murders and make an analysis of different
ways of looking at the nature of the facts. He discusses this through the analysis of
what he calls dualistic thesis; the fact that probably in some places the violence’s was
a matter of spontaneous social conflicts between local political groups, and in other
places the killings were organized by the military forces.

Later, Roosa make a revision of two cases of studies; Bali and Aceh. He said that
the cultural condition in these two places, mainly religious (Hinduism y Bali and
Muslim in Aceh) have an important role for explain the organization of the massacres,
but that doesn’t mean that the religious group become organized so quickly against
the PKI.

The author concludes that the way in which the massacres were perpetrated
reveals a unique way of acting, which according to Roosa makes it difficult to think
that it was adopted "spontaneously" by the armed civil groups in different areas of the
country. It is clear from the information and evidence presented by the author that the
murders were organized by the military forces.

Conclusions
For concluded, I will make some emphasis in the similarities and de differences
between these sources.

The similarities:

These sources are studies which try to fill the gap within the official view and
information given by the primary sources, testimonies of the victims during the
September 30th movement. This kind of effort has been quite complex to achieve, for
due to many reasons, I think that there are at least two main of them.
 The first one and principal, I think, was the lack or even more the absence of
primary sources not provided by the official authorities. The second one, was that
besides the insincerity (or its falseness) of the information given, the guiltiness of the
massacre to PKI is underlaying on political affairs, this situation make difficult to bring
out the reality of the events inside authoritarian landscape after it.

Found one or various responsible is a tautological effort, not for thinking abut
to left behind that matter, but to view the killings as a compilation of different causes;
internal confrontation between ethnic groups, external interventions from U.S., the
confrontation of among PKI and military forces and so on.

These all papers and books, works in this frame of situation, and despite the
differences in each one about who was and why the responsible, all tried to provide a
more clearly way of understanding the massacres and its social and political
repercussions.

The differences:

In general terms, the main difference among the work here described is the
approach to the massacres, I mean, some of these provided a wide view about the
situation as the principal effort of it. Some others, put attention in the particularities
provided by an approach through cases of study.

Despite the above, one other difference is that some of these works pointed out
a critical point of view portrayed the culpability on the army forces. Others shows that
there were civilians and military perpetrator in different contexts. Obviously, the most
recent texts provided a much clearly picture about the implications and underlaying
goals of the military forces in move out the communist (and anyone) faction of the
political context in Indonesia.
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