SUPER SEMAR and Its Relevance Into Today’s Indonesia

March 11 is one of the crucial dates that shaped the history of Indonesia; it marks the day Soeharto claimed legitimacy on his behalf or what we know now as the beginning of the New Order. It was 55 years ago, yet the whereabouts of the document remains a controversy; which one is the authentic one and which one the copies, given that there are 3 versions of it now, and where do they keep the original one, all is missing from this country’s history profile nor its biggest museum.

Indonesia was still in a state of total shock after the tumultuous Gerakan 30 September 1965 chaos during March 1966 when Surat Perintah Sebelas Maret took part in. It was said to be the then president, Soekarno’s instruction to Lieutenant General Soeharto, who was then acting as Panglima Angkatan Darat, to take immediate control in restoring national defense stability.

However the implementation of the said document was way beyond the line. It remains unclear until now to what extent did Soekarno ask Soeharto for; just to restore the national stability, or a green light to take over his whole power as the highest man in the government? Soeharto assumed the latter, and so did his 32 years of reigning in power begin that day, even when all our eyes were and are still blindsided with no truth.

What happens when we do not recognize what actually truly happened during one of the biggest turmoils of Indonesia’s history? Why does it still matter now?

This short article will talk about the impact of the uncertainty of Super Semar in the current Indonesia’s nation building, with 2 main issues; (1) why the reality of history should not be perceived only through a single political lens, and (2) how it leaves a permanent disadvantage into today’s society.

First, it was the incumbent government’s bias that drove all the narrative that we listened, the educational textbooks that we studied, even the movies that we saw every September 30, were all framed, dictated, propagated to be in favor of what they desire. Soeharto accused Soekarno and the Communist Party to be the lead behind the G30S chaos, and that’s exactly what the infamous movie of G30S PKI, that he forced us to watch every year, always tells us. Humans are subconsciously influenced by the things they hear everyday, so the minds of the majority of Indonesians are already wired into buying the only narrative that they have heard for the 32 years of the New Order, with very limited to no counter perspective from the media and opposition.

Quoting Robert Cox when he talked about theories, I think narratives are also made for some purposes and for some people, which exactly explains why the narrative that we heard all through the New Order is in line with how Soeharto perceived the turns of events. This is not to say that their narrative is wrong, maybe they do have some parts of the truth, but exactly that narratives are never right or wrong, it’s dangerous to only be presented with one over the years, because they make it seem like everything about G30S was cut and dry; the men behind, the motives, the victims- when the reality has so much more shades of color. Then again, it’s a topic for another day, but there are even 4 versions of G30S that doesn’t involve PKI nor Tjakrabirawa as the main actor but that rather involve the United States and CIA, so this shows that the movie doesn’t depict the entire, ultimate truth. This approach, blaming communism and Soekarno, has been entrenched in the majority of Indonesian minds that they subconsciously set it as the truth, when in fact, history is simply created by the winner, so then what happens to the truth of those less fortunate that they lose? Don’t they deserve some part of the truths too?

Truth only becomes a truth when it is talked about, because only being mentioned is not enough for the public to process it as a truth. Here’s some part of the other truths that have long been forgotten; 2 things that the New Order erased from history, making it look like a strange thing to talk about, let alone acknowledging their existence; (1) Indonesian intellectual exiles during the 19651966s, and (2) Indonesian 1965-1966 mass killings; both happened only on the grounds of the military’s assumption that they’re communist, and the military wasn’t fond with that ideology. I’m talking about the number of Indonesians that are being stripped off of their citizenships and couldn’t find their way back to Indonesia and whose passports were disbanded following Soeharto’s order. They were the generation whose in the early 1960s were sent abroad by President Soekarno to continue their studies, as Indonesian representative in an organization or as a diplomat, who later when Soeharto took power, they fell under the suspicion of Soeharto’s regime that since they were sent by Soekarno and majority were studying in a communist country like Moscow and Czechoslovakia, they were assumed to be as procommunism and a threat to the country hence they can’t go back here. They’re the brilliant generation that we lost because of an unfair, baseless assumption.

The second thing is the bigger deal as it involves killing lives. It’s the 1965 massacres that even the majority of highschool history books never talked about. In 2017, the US government released a declassified embassy paperwork, part of US National Archives and Records Administration, revealing that US diplomats were documenting tens of thousands of killings by the military and paramilitary groups of suspected members of PKI, ethnic Chinese, teachers, activists, artists. It was said that starting in October 1965, Indonesian army officials, led by then-Major General Soeharto, giving free rein to a mix of soldiers and local militias to kill anyone they considered a communist.

The same person that took advantage of the Super Semar to reign in power.

So the first answer to the main question, why history shouldn’t be perceived within only one perspective, is because it’s very easy to frame it as an absolute truth, when it is not. When one of the most crucial parts in our history has only been perceived within one single lens, it has the potential for a misguided policy and misguided approach.

One of the most prevalent examples is recently, Indonesian police officers are hell bent on eradicating the whole discussion on communism and Marxism. Even a harmless academic discussion

regarding the school of thought that Karl Marx wrote. But more than that, it is leaving those innocents, the victims in those tumultuous years of 1965-1966 unfair because their truths have never been given a space to be told, or even a room for them to exist. They deserve a better reconciliation on their part and the Indonesian government has never done this. Even in October 2012, thenCoordinating Minister of Political, Legal, and Security Affairs Djoko Suyanto justified the mass killings as a necessary defense against the PKI. Without truth, no reconciliation can come into being, but it’s needed to address these crimes against humanity; to acknowledge their lives and to apologize. Because ignoring things does not exempt us from our dark mistakes.

Constantly demonizing communism and its theory is not only putting our nation-building process on a stagnancy because we are not open to discussions, but it also exaggerates polarization in our country. Take a recent example when there was a rumour saying Joko Widodo is a member of the Communist Party, irregardless that this was a mere rumour, it’s a sign of polarization having its root in how we perceive communism. For as long as Indonesia hasn’t yet tolerated a free market of

ideas, some people can always twist it for their benefit because we are still chained by Soeharto’s framing that that particular word is still a threat that can tear our country apart. A good nation-building requires an openness, an inclusivity of knowledge, a free market of school of thoughts. One will finally have a sense of community, not because they shield their communities from every other existing ideology and treating different ideologies as threats, but because they are able to discuss it and to still know that there’s common ground between every Indonesian, and not to allow that perceived threat (that requires further reexamination of all the New Order’s claims that started with Super Semar) be the reason we see division.

And this is why the uncertainty of Super Semar is still relevant today. It holds a big portion of the perceived truth that shaped our reality and values of today. We might or might not know whether or not the Communist Party is the one to blame for all the instability during the 1960s like what Soeharto picturized to us, we may never know either. But all of this is never about taking sides. We should not let the illusion of an unchecked truth divides us as a nation, and chain us into a certain fear that comes from nowhere but a politician’s propaganda.

Polarization might still exist, but at least we don’t add another fuel to the already polarized minds. But more than anything, the Indonesian government owes it to those innocents who were killed for a groundless assumption, a reconciliation and acknowledgement. And if we can’t rewrite the history nor eradicate the decades-old narratives from the New Order, we owe those innocents who were killed and the intellectual exiles who were thrown away from this country, a room for their truths to co-exist.

REFERENCES Bevins, Vincent. “What the United States Did in Indonesia,” October 21, 2017. https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2 017/10/the-indonesia-documents-and-the-usagenda/543534/.

Dewi, Dinda Silviana, and Iswara N Raditya.

“Kontroversi Sejarah Supersemar Yang Diperingati Setiap 11 Maret.” Tirto.id, March 11, 2020. https://tirto.id/kontroversi-sejarah-supersemaryang-diperingati-setiap-11-maret-eEjg. Kine, Phelim. “Indonesia: US Documents Released on 1965-66 Massacres.” Human Rights Watch, October 28, 2020. https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/10/18/indonesiaus-documents-released-1965-66-massacres.

“Kisah Para Eksil 1965: Mereka Yang 'Dibui Tanpa Jeruji'.” BBC News Indonesia. BBC. Accessed March 10, 2021. https://www.bbc.com/indonesia/berita_indonesia/2 015/09/150928_indonesia_lapsus_eksil_bui.