Blaming the indonesian army for more than 500.000 people killed

I started fieldwork on pesantren, the Muslim boarding schools, in March 1970. During one year of field work, I often talked about being Dutch, of the colonizing nation until the 1940s (although I myself was born in 1942). I never asked about the more recent dramatic period of Indonesia in 1965-6 when probably more than half a million people were killed, suspected or accused or being sympatetic to Communism. Also in the period 1981-8 when teaching at the Islamic Universities of Jakarta and Yogyakarta this dark period seldom was touched upon. Of course, nearly daily there was mention of people who could not become government official, would not be accepted as student of state universities, because in some way related to those terlibat G30S/PKI. Only in 1996 I asked Abdurrahman, in 1986 the translator of my dissertation and for long a close colleague, about his experience in that period. He was a member of the Muslim student organization HMI and they were during a period of several months brought by military trucks to villages. With some 30 students they had to ask in villages who had become member of organizations affiliated to the Communist Party. In the early evening these people would be arrested and during the night executed, killed. The military men urged the students also to be active in the killing. Abdurrahman (no family name, only after his PhD he sometimes used the additional Widyakusuma or 'flower of kownledge') did not join himself  the killing. Some of his fellow students did and they still suffered from nightmare, because of these terrible experiences.

 Only in the 1990s more and more was published about this ferocious time of massacre. A major book was published recently by Geoffrey Robinson as a monument for the probably more than 500.000 victims. In a book of 429 pages many aspects are described: the early history of Indonesian democracy, the growing tensions in the early 1960s, economic decline, the deadlock in parliament and Sukarno as the revolutionary dictator, balancing between various parties. There was an alleged coup of 30 September 1965, when six generals, the absolute top of the army, were killed, probably by accident, and probably in an effort to prevent a coup by generals of the army. Also in this book not all questions about this coup of Untung are answered. What should be prevented, however, happened, albeit slowly; Suharto took over the absolute power step by step and the army orchestrated the annihilation of the Communist Party and whatever was connected with it. It was not a master-plan, it happened step by step, not in all regions identical: first in Aceh, very little in West Java (because the local military commander 'did not like the killings', most brutally in Central and East Java and Bali, between October 1965 until January 1966. In Flores only in April 1966. Many people have given a major role to unrest under the population as if it was a movement from below. Some even blaim the USA and the UK for the anti/Communist actions. But in many pages and clear series of stories and arguments, Robinson again and again puts the blame for all this exclusively to the army. It was not a massacre with religious motivation or based on racial prejudice, but a political process of cleansing region after region the whole nation. Not something like the genocide of the Jews in Europe, but something like what happened in Cambodia.
He questions also the legal responsibility. Will there ever be truth and justice? After 1998 some initiatives have started to initiate a process of restoring the human rights of the victims. In April 2016 a national symposium was organized: Discussing the 1965 Tragedy. In November 2015, IPT, the International People's Tribunal came together in The Hague and some more initiatives were taken. The two movies by Joshua Oppenheimer are well known. But still much need to be done to bring more facts to the world and started a process of healing.
P. 382, note 28 mentions Magnis Suseno, 'a Jesuit scholar who was part of an ardent anticommunist youth group in Java in the 1960s, but now he has advocated a process of reconciliation'. Father Joop Beek is only mentioned in passing, with a new reference to Santamaria: 'Kamerad dalam Keyakinan: Pater Joop Beek SJ dan Jaringan BA Santamaria di Asia Tenggara',  (Harian Indoprogress, 29 September 1016. 1965 is not yet past only.

Female fighters and women warriors in Indonesia

The colonial Van Heutz Square in Batavia was renamed Taman Cut Mutiah in Jakarta after 1949: a move from the Dutch colonial general to the female fighter of Aceh in the early 20th century. Cut Mutiah is not the only female fighter in Indonesian history. Already from the 16th century rulers of Java female fighters were known to the outside world.
Recently this has lead to a sad development in Surabaya. Women who supported the ideas of IS, the Islamic State (in Syria and Iraq, but also for Indonesia), were no longer happy with their role as wife and mother. On 13 May they were active in the attacks on three churches in Surabaya, carried out by a family: husband, wife and two children. In total two women committed suicide bombing, where also children were involved, because on Monday 14 May a police office was attacked in the same way. The munition they used is described in an ISIS handbook as umm al-shaitan or 'Mother of Satan'.
Lizzy van Leeuwen wrote an interesting article in the Dutch weekly De groene Amsterdammer (12.7.2018) on this new development. She also mentioned the great role given in the army reports about the killing of the six generals 30 September 1965 at Lubang Buaya, where it has been mentioned that Gerwani women were ancing naked, as has been invented to incriminate the leaders of the alleged coup.
Van Leeuwen also mentions developments in Indonesian politics where according to her information (much from hear-say, just rumours and gossip so often circulating in Jakarta) 'my old friends, former opponents of Soeharto and the New Order, feminists, now turn to Gerindra and Prabowo, seeking nice jobs.'
She mentions Nursyahbani Katjasungkana (now 'hoping for a position as judge in the Constitutional Court after the election victory of Prabowo'), Edriana Noerdin, director of the Women Research Institute in Jakarta and also Lies Marcoes. The latter was in 1981-3 one of my first students at the IAIN of Jakarta. Lies has since long been working for the Asia Foundation and is one of the most prominent Muslim feminists of the country.

In November 2014 Lies Marcoes was one of the organizers of a seminar in Yogyakarta, a 'Tribute to Martien van Bruinessen and Karel Steenbrink'
I wrote  to Lies for a reaction and she answered immediately that this is the usual gossip of Indonesia. She is since long close to Bianti, sister of Prabowo and a feminist in her own right. Bianti is the leader of Perempuan Indonesia Raya (PIRA), connected to Gerindra 'like Aisyiah to Muhammadiyah'. For training of PIRA members Lies was last year asked to give a talk about gender and poverty. Nursyahbani, Sita Kayam and others were also invited. They are not members of Gerindra. For Lies it is important that people like these have an opportunity to communicate their ideas also to PIRA and Gerindra members. But this does not mean that they now are working under the umbrella of Gerindra. Lizzy van Leeuwen never directly contacted Lies on this issue. Lies has since long good relations with Bianti, but that is not related to recent political developments and she was never urged to become a Gerindra member.
It is not easy to be an 'independent thinker' or activist in Indonesia, definitely not in a year preceding presidential elections!

An Indonesian General in Rome

On 4 July 2018 the Indonesian priest Paul Budi Kleden was elected to become the next General Superior of the SVD, the Societas Verbi Divini (Society of the Divine Word), with his office in Rome. It is the second non-European general superior (after someone from the Philippines) in this original German-European order. The SVD entered Indonesia in 1913 with a first mission post in Timor (Atambua region), but due to World War I only spread broader after 1919.
Now 100 years later the Indonesian branches of the SVD are worldwide the largest for this order. Of the somewhat more than 6000 male members, over 800 are Indonesians.Consequently an Indonesian has now been chosen as their international leader.

The Kleden Clan has its base in Waibalun, a district of Larantuka, East Flores. Perhaps best known is Ignas Kleden (b 1948) who studied social science in Munich, worked with LP3ES, founded in Jakarta the research and lobbying CEIA, Centre for East Indonesian Studies or the Go-East centre.
There is a younger member of the clan, Paul Budi Kleden, born in 1965. He also studied in Germany, Freiburg, 1996-2000, and became a social activist, but also seminary professor. He was already living in Rome since 2012 as a member of the international council of the SVD order, after some academic and leading positions in his home country. The UCAN bulletin (indonesia@ucanews.com) on Asian Christianity quoted a large number of fellow priests who were proud and confident about this election.

Kakatua or cockatoo as a bird of peace

East Indonesia has since long been known for its exotic birds. Around 1900 the feathers of the birds of paradise were very popular worldwide. Hunters came to Papua to chase the birds. They brought the venereal diseases in the Merauke district. This was nearly the cause of the extinction of the Marind tribe and a great stimulus for the spread of the Catholic mission and its strict moral teaching. I described this in the second volume of my Catholics in Indonesia, 1808-1942.

The cockatoo (or kakak tua in Malay/Indonesian) is less colourful than the paradise bird, but since many centuries also known as an attractive bird, used as a gift donated by rulers to other rulers. Recently an early 13th century manuscript has been discovered in the Vatican archives, showing a cockatoo that was donated by the Egyptian Ayyubid Sultan Al-Malik Muhammad al-Kamil (ruled 1218-1238) to Frederic II of Sicily (1194-1250), who also was the emperor of the Sacred Roman Empire of Central Europe. Frederic II was an open minded ruler with many Muslims in his own island of Sicily. Already in 1217 he had began a correspondence with Al-Malik al-Kamil on many subjects. Exotic animals were among the things he loved. In his palace he had some kind of a zoo with a cheeta, an elephant, a giraffe, and apparently as a gift from Egypt also a cockatoo. This animal was donated to him by his Egyptian friend and colleague.

The Australian scholar Heather Dalton has with some colleagues published an article in the journal Parergon, and described the text. She concludes that there must have been an economic and cultural exchange between the major empires of the world (China, India, the Arab world, Europe) where also East Indonesia and perhaps even Australia was involved.

The lover of animals, Saint Francis of Assisi visited the Ayyubid court in 1219, exactly at the time of this connection between Frederic II and the Sultan while the 4th crusade was still going on: they lived in a strange world, with people preaching war between religions and lovers of peace, like in our time!

Arab sources of Ramon Marti, Christian anti-Muslim author of Spain, saved by the learned and pious Egyptian scholar al-Tufi

A few weeks ago I received a small book of 156 pages, considering itself no 4 in a series of transmissions.
1) It starts with an anonymous Coptic Christian in Egypt, writing against Islam, about 1260, when Mongol leader Hulagu had conquered and promised freedom of religion to Christians. But after the battle of  'Ain Jalut, where the Mamluks of Egypt had beaten the Mongols, religious tolerance ended. This first book was entitled Al-saif al-murhaf fi al-radd ala al-Mushaf or 'the whetted sword in refutation of the written word (of the Qur'an)'. No manuscript of it has survived the long history of debates between Muslims and Christians.
2) Book no 1 was used about 1270 by the Spanish Christian scholar of Catalonia, Ramon Marti (died after 1284) in his anti-Muslim apologetic book De seta Machometi (written in Latin)
3) The Hanbalite scholar ibn al-Tufi (died 1316), wrote a book Al-Intisarat al-Islamiyya fi kashf shuban al-nasraniyya, where he discusses book no 1 and includes numerous lengthy quotes in Arabic.
4) To continue the isnad on this polemic, Sjoerd van Koningsveld, Professor emeritus of Leiden University, has published 117 quotes from author no 1 from the writings of al-Tufi, with references to Ramon Marti (who used the same texts for his polemic book against Islam).

Many authors of books and articles do not claim originality, but are only transmitters, sometimes also commentators. In this case we even may say: haddathana P.S. van Koningsveld, 'an al-Tufi, 'an Ramon Marti, 'an nasara min al Misr. The major issue for this book is the idea of Muhammad as a prophet. The polemical author here (and Ramon Marti) formulated four criteria for prophets: he must speak the truth, embody personal holiness, perform miracles, his teaching and practice must be in harmony with the natural law. Most of the text is written here to 'prove' that Muhammad does not respond to any of these four criteria.

In this way the polemic continues and it is for the history of the polemic often interesting to see how scholars are repeating arguments against Islam, not from direct contacts with Muslims, but rather through chains from their own tradition.
In his book about the period 1945-1970 (The Struggle of Islam in Modern Indonesia, 225-230) Ben Boland gave an analysis of Muslim apologetics. He ended with quotes from Mukti Ali, who concluded that 'Apologetics only formulates things that are already known ... its character is therefore negative and conservative, ... it may arouse emotions and give self-satisfaction, but they cannot produce true conviction and discernment.' Like here it is often not exciting, but rather again a sad expericnece of reading.
At the same time I was finishing an historic novel written by a Dutch-Spanish author, Reconquista, about the political process. It is a book full of fighting between Christian and Muslim rulers, much violence, adventure, much change of position: Muslims had a higher culture, Christian were stronger fighters. The latter were often hired by Muslims to fight against other Muslims and also against Christians. In the social and political reality of that period, the theological arguments were not really important or relevant, although the distinction between the two communities was rigorous. In combination one may doubt about the relevance of the usual list of religious and theological differences for the real life of Christians and Muslims living together.

Rahima Allahu anhu: Mas Dawan Rahardjo, rest in peace

Today, 31 May 2018. just mid-Ramadan, we received the message that one of the most energetic, renovating and inspriing Muslim intellectual of Indonesia, Dawam Rahardjo died at the age of 76 years. He was born 12 April 1972, only three months younger than I myself.
Dawam studied economy and always remained inspired by the theories and views of the science of economy. But he was also a concerned Muslim: close to the young, progressive group of Masyumi thinkers asnd later the best of the Suharto/Habibie order. He adored Harun Nasdution, but also had his silly moments with Harun Nasution.
In the period 1981-3 I was a lecturer at the IAIN (now UIN) of Ciputat/Jakarta. Many young students like Din Syamsuddin, Azyumardi Azra, and many others, were close to LP3ES and its mixture of traditional pesantren background and modern social (rather than religious) science in the West. They supported development programmes and liked to receive money from the European and American development foundations. Peter Berger was mor important than forml Christian theologians in their quest for tools to modrnize Islamic thinking.

Once in 1982 he called for a meeting with Harun Nasution, but also the Catholic philosopher Dr. Kees Bertens, myself as a visiting professor ath the IAIN,  as well as a small number of his Muslim friends. Dawam proposed in a long expose that he wanted to develop some kind of Islamic Applied Theology. This should not be about the doctrine of God, which is the subject of Usuluddin and kalam, but a study of how to live religiously in society. His formula was 'applied theologye'. However, this should not be based upon the traditional rules of shari’a. In fact this is what he later did with his magazine Ulumul Qur’an and his book Ensiklopedi al-Qur’an. Immediately after Dawam stopped with his exposition of the ideas, Harun Nasution gave a short but harsh answer: ‘this is the field of shari’a and I am no specialist in shari’a and therefore will not join the programme.’ Bertens and I explained that in Christianity there is a philosophical approach to ethics and also that social science should be taken more seriously in religious studies, especially for social ethics. But in some way Harun Nasution did not like to become involved in a program like this. Maybe he knew already better than I did that there was a suspicion of Communism connected to Theology of Liberation. Somewhat later there was a priest in Singapore taken to prison for subversive activities under the label of Theology of Liberation and there were some problems in Indonesia as well. 
Recently I sent most of the more than 3000 books, I once bought in Indonesia, back to the Theologicalo School, next to the UIN of Banjarmasin. But I kept the book by Dawan: Ensiklopdi al Qur'an, one of his major works, besides the still important  academic journal Ulumul Qur'an. I read again his debate about banking as a gift for a good and socially balanced economy. The banks do not seek money from the poor, but are a meansd to facilitate a just and equal society, at leasst in their better appearances.
We must feel grateful to such a wise and open man, with the abilities of good writing, even more of organizing big projects and defending poor people like the humiliated and condemned Ahmadi people.
God be praised for a gift like Dawam Rahardjo, may his illuminating idea of a modern and just Islamic thinking be continued.

Garuda in Spain

The Garuda, the mount of Lord Vishnu, is part of the image representing the Republic of Indonesia and its iedology of Pancasila. It has already often been stated that it is not really an Indonesian or  Indian magical bird, but rather a European eagly in the way it is represented in the Russian and German nationalist symbolism.
Last I visited the central region of Spain. Most impressing was the visit to the Valle de los caidos, the valley of those 40,000 who died in the civil war between 1936-1939. In a high uninhabited valley, with much forest, the General Fancisco Franco ordered to build a military looking square and the entrance to a 250m long basilica in the mountain itself. No natural light, ony dark granite stone and the usual furniture of a church: images, great carpets hanging on the wall, representing the biblical book of Apocalyps, the war against the army of the Anti-Christ, Dajjal in the Muslim terminology, the devilish enemy of God, fighting against angels.
The entrance the entrance is dominated by Mary sitting as pietà, the mother mourning over her dead son Jesus. The whole atmosphere here is super-Catholic (including a large monastery with a good group of monks who daily pray for the souls of the dead), although the civil war was between Nationalist Catholics and Leftist, Communist-dominated Republicans. Left of the entrance a symbol of the Spanish nation (or the house of the king?) is represented by the shield, protected or even defended by the mighty aegle.

The cross (only partly visible above) is 150m high. The mourning lady Mary, motyher of Jesus represents also a Christian symbol for mourning the dead.
This imaginery is very strongly connected to Chriistian symbolism only. It reminded me of the lack of awareness of the 'leftist' victims of the political struggle in Indonesia: the six generals have received names of streets, monuments and movies, while so many people connected with the 'losers', the Communist Party, sympathizers,  people active in trade unions and women's organizations cannot be mentioned and their stories are often still neglected. Also in modern Spain it is still quite sensitive to start the debate about this one-sided image of the past.