Adrian Vickers' Indonesia blog

Further to my earlier mention of the wonderfully-named Forum to Safeguard Pancasila and the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesian against the Threat of Neo-Communism, I've had a chance to look at a couple of the publications of the leading historian in the group, Dr Aminuddin Kasdi. He did his PhD at Gadjah Mada University, later published as a book on land-reform in East Java called Kaum Merah Menjarah, The Reds' Looting, no guesses what his position might be. Together with G. Ambar Wulan, listed as a PhD candidate at the University of Indonesia (and author of books published with military sponsorship, one of which is called The Latent Danger of Communism in Indonesia), Kasdi published G.30.S PKI/1965 Bedah Ceasar Dewan Revolusi Indonesia, The 30th September Communist Party Movement/1965, The Indonesian Revolutionary Council's Caesarian (and yes, Caesar is consistently misspelt as Ceasar throughout the book, not just on the cover). I'm not sure where the metaphor of this book is going, but it is a rehash of the New Order's account of the 1965 Coup.

There is certainly nothing new in this, except perhaps on p. 72 where General Umar Wirahadikusumah is listed as a member of the Indonesian Revolutionary Council. Umar's main role in the coup was to suppress it. According to other historical accounts when Suharto turned up in the middle of Jakarta with his troops on 1st October there was an initial meeting with Umar's command, and Umar, after a tense negotiation, agreed to throw in his lot with Suharto. He was later Vice-President. His son Agus Wirahadikusumah was a radical reformer of the military, who died under suspicious circumstances (and here we might think of the Munir affair). Is the inclusion of Umar a way of retrospectively discrediting his son?

In the biographical section at the back of the Kaum Merah Menjarah, Kasdi mentions that in 1965 he was a member of Ansor, the Nahdlatul Ulama organisation's 'Youth Wing'. Those familiar with accounts of the mass slaughter of communists in East Java will know that it was Ansor and affiliated organisations that led the killings, organising events such as mass throat-slittings in which thousands of people were killed in a matter of days. Interesting that Kasdi leaves that detail out of the biographical background of the second book. It tells us a lot about why some people are continuing anti-communist hysteria so long after communism has ceased to have any significance in world politics.