Nahdlatul Ulama and the Killings of 1965–66: Religion, Politics, and Remembrance

Page range: 37-60The essay examines the narratives Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) promulgated to explain its role in the mass killings of Partai Komunis Indonesia (PKI) members in 1965–66. Drawing on interviews and documents, the authors describe the history of antagonism between the NU and PKI and the role NU members played in the killings. It also shows how the organization perceived and articulated Indonesian communists as a threat to the Muslim community and to Islam itself. In the second half of the article, the authors reflect on how the NU and individuals within the NU have dealt with the legacy of 1965 over the last ten years

“กวาดล้างให้สิ้นซาก”: การเมืองอินโดนีเซีย หนังสือพิมพ์ฝ่าย ขวา และการสังหารหมู่คอมมิวนิสต์ระหว่างปี 1965-1966"

หลังกรณีเกสตาปูในปี 1965 พรรคคอมมิวนิสต์อินโดนีเซียถูกกล่าวหาว่าอยู่เบื้องหลังความพยายามปฏิวัติล้มล้างรัฐบาล และมีการสังหารหมู่สมาชิกพรรคและผู้ต้องสงสัยว่าฝักใฝ่คอมมิวนิสต์มากกว่า 500,000 คน บทความนี้ศึกษาปัญหาคอมมิวนิสต์ใน อินโดนีเซียระหว่างปี 1965-1966 โดยเสนอว่ากองทัพ กลุ่มพลเรือนฝ่ายขวา และองค์กรมุสลิมสายจารีตใช้หนังสือพิมพ์เป็นเครื่องมือ รณรงค์ปราบปรามกวาดล้างสมาชิกและผู้ต้องสงสัยว่าฝักใฝ่คอมมิวนิสต์ สร้างภาพให้คอมมิวนิสต์เป็นผู้ทรยศต่อชาติ พระเจ้า และ หลักปัญจศีล จําเป็นจะต้องปราบปรามกวาดล้างให้สิ้นซาก เป็นผลให้มีการประกาศใช้กฎหมายต่อต้านคอมมิวนิสต์ในที่สุด นอกจาก นี้การสังหารหมู่คอมมิวนิสต์ยังสะท้อนให้เห็นความขัดแย้งทางอุดมการณ์การเมืองและศาสนาระหว่างฝ่ายขวากับพรรคคอมมิวนิสต์ อินโดนีเซียโดยเฉพาะในเรื่องหลักปัญจศีล ซึ่งเป็นอุดมการณ์สูงสุดแห่งรัฐด้ว

RECLAIMING MODERATE ISLAM IN NAHDLATUL ULAMA: Challenging the Dominant Religious Authority in Digital Platform

This article examines Nahdlatul Ulama’s attempts to face three challenges, its internal dynamic within the elite religious circle, the influence of its leadership at the grassroots level, and the rise of the new religious authorities who employ social media to enlarge their influence. Amidst the growth of internet users bridging the gap between rural and urban areas, this rise of new religious authority has steeply eroded NU's domination, which bases Islamic traditionalism in rural areas. This article contends that NU cannot be viewed as a singular face of religious orientation. However, in the level of ideology, NU’s aswaja (ahl as-sunnah wa al-jama>’ah) brings its followers into a moderate view. This religious orientation has been contested respectively amidst organizational structure and different geographical landscapes of NU's people. Meanwhile, the dominance of Islamic conservative groups in the digital platform appears to be quite strong. Because of these challenges, NU struggles to reclaim its religious authority at the level of the youngest circles

Tracing Southern Cosmopolitanisms: the intersecting networks of Islam, Trade Unions, Gender and Communism, 1945-1965

At the end of World War 2, there were high hopes across the Indian Ocean for a new world in which the relationships between working people would mean more than the borders which separated them. This paper will explore the fate of the hopes for new worlds, in the decades after 1945, by following the uneven relationships among working class Australians, Indonesians and Indians in the aftermath of an intense political struggle in Australia from 1945 to 1949 in support of Indonesian independence. They had been brought together by intersections between the networks established through colonialism, like trade unions, communism and feminism, with those having much longer histories, like Islam. The men and women in this Australian setting expressed their vision in 1945 for a future of universal and transnational networks across the Indian Ocean which would continue the alliances they had found so fruitful. Today their experiences as well as their hopes might be called cosmopolitanism they expected that the person-to-person friendships they were forming could be sustained and be able to negotiate the differences between them to achieve common aims. Although these hopes for new futures of universal alliances and collaborations were held passionately in the 1940s, all seem to have died by 1970, diverted by newly independent national trajectories and defeated by the Cold War. Yet many of the relationships persisted far longer than might be expected and their unravelling was not inevitable. This paper will trace the course of a few of the relationships which began in the heat of the campaigns in Australia, 1943 to 1945, in order to identify the continuing common ground as well as the rising tensions which challenged them

IN BETWEEN FACTUAL TRUTH AND SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION – DR. FRANJO TUĐMAN IN INTERNATIONAL SCHOLARLY DISCOURSE

The aim of this paper is to provide an insight into how knowledge about dr. Franjo Tuđman was internationally created, namely the international context in which scientists and experts have produced factual truths about Croatia’s First President’s leadership, his role and accountability in the events that have marked the violent disintegration of former Yugoslavia, Croatia’s war of defense, and democratic transition. Developed discourse of the international scholarship about Yugoslav wars of disintegration and Croatia’s painful democratic transition is analyzed to determine how and in what way Dr. Franjo Tuđman is represented in selected publications available to the author of this paper. International scholarly production under the review is rather multidisciplinary with a variety of approaches, methodologies and theories providing rich data which in this case is studied juxtaposed to dominant transitional justice discourse framework. Such qualitative sociological research tries to deconstruct international scholarly context in which factual truths about dr. Franjo Tuđman were socially constructed by scholars and experts. Even though not always framed under the umbrella of transitional justice scholarship, developed discourse is Even though not always framed under the umbrella of transitional justice scholarship, developed discourse is nonetheless analyzed through critical lenses of social constructivism and approached in post-modernist sociological manner.

PEMUDA NU DALAM PUSARAN WACANA ANTI KOMUNISME: Sebuah Pergolakan Ideologi

The role of the NU youth as an extension of the NU kyai was so great in eradicating parties and forbidden ideologies such as the PKI. Based on the basic principles of NahdlatulUlama such as tawasuth, tawazun, i’tidal, and tasamuh, plus a platform for thinking and acting based on the principles of the ushulfiqh and guidance from kyai, NU youths steadfastly declared war with communism. Similarly, when they defend the rights of former Communist activists or those who are considered Communists and their families, they are also based on these principles. For this reason, this paper aims to examine the idealized upheaval of NU youth in addressing the anti-communism discourse.This article was written by critically examining pre-existing scientific texts to expose ideological upheaval among NU youth sociologically. In simple terms, through this article it can be concluded that NU youth based on existing principles have a big contribution in maintaining the integrity of the Republic of Indonesia, starting from the eradication of the PKI, as well as other efforts to defend Indonesia. On the other hand, they also have concern for oppressed groups including former 1965 political prisoners and their families. They were so diligent in fighting for the rights of former political prisoners in 1965 even though in the past they had also suppressed the PKI to its roots. One of the discourses that arose relating to the anti-communism discourse was the discourse of reconciliation between the NU group and Communism. The discourse was responded to differently by NU youth. Some consider it a form of humanism, and there are those who see it as a bad idea, and some even consider it as an extreme step.Peran pemuda NU sebagai kepanjangan tangan dari para kyai NU begitu besar dalam pemberantasan partai dan ideologi terlarang seperti PKI. Dengan berpijak pada prinsip dasar Nahdlatul Ulama seperti tawasuth, tawazun, i’tidal, dan tasamuh, ditambah pijakan berpikir dan bertindak yang didasarkan pada prinsip-prinsip yang ada pada ushul fiqh serta petunjuk dari para kyai, pemuda NU dengan mantap menyatakan perang dengan komunisme. Begitu pula ketika mereka membela hak-hak dari mantan aktivis Komunis atau yang dianggap Komunis dan keluarganya, mereka pun juga berdasar pada prinsip-prinsip tersebut. Untuk itu tulisan ini bertujuan untuk mengkaji pergolakan idelogi di kalangan pemuda NU dalam menyikapi wacana anti-komunisme.Artikel ini ditulis dengan menelaah secara kritis teks-teks ilmiah yang telah ada sebelumnya untuk menelanjangi pergolakan ideologi di kalangan pemuda NU secara sosiologis. Secara sederhana, melalui artikel ini dapat disimpulkan bahwa pemuda NU dengan berdasar prinsip yang ada memiliki andil besar dalam mempertahankan keutuhan NKRI, mulai dari pemberantasan PKI, serta upaya-upaya lain dalam mempertahankan Indonesia. Di sisi lain, mereka juga memiliki perhatian terhadap kelompok tertindas termasuk mantan tahanan politik 1965 dan keluarganya. Mereka begitu gigih memperjuangkan hak-hak mantan tahanan politik 1965 meski di masa lalu mereka pula yang memberangus PKI sampai ke akarnya. Salah satu wacana yang mengemuka berkaitan dengan wacana anti-komunisme adalah wacana rekonsiliasi antara golongan NU dan Komunisme. Wacana tersebut ditanggapi berbeda-beda oleh pemuda NU. Ada yang menganggapnya sebagai bentuk sifat humanis, adapula yang melihatnya sebagai gagasan buruk, bahkan ada yang memandang rekonsiliasi tersebut sebagai langkah ekstrim

The Atonement of Our Parent's Sin: Place-Based Narrative of Indonesia’ Drowning Muslim Community

This article emphasised the local Muslim community's response to environmental change and explored how religious narratives play a significant role in shaping their action. Place-based narrative is employed as conceptual frame to scrutinise the community’s understanding of the drowning condition. As a case study, Pantai Bahagia Village in West Java is selected based on two criteria: (1) deemed as the fastest drowning area in the North Java Coast; and (2) the existing Muslim-based environmental activism initiated by local teachers in responding to environmental change. For method, qualitative case study is applied by conducting interviews, group discussions, and direct observation. Findings show that the local history of Pantai Bahagia interacts with a national political event in the 1960s that eventually triggers massive environmental change in the Beting area. Further analysis of the place-based narrative indicates that familiarity with religious expressions encourages ecological awareness in the local community and provides the basis for environmental activism

Memory, trust and fear in post-conflict societies

The paper deals with the importance of common knowledge based on shared memory for the character of social cooperation. The findings are based on the background of Serbian experience with dealing with the past. The stabilization of a common stock of knowledge is valuable for establishing sustainable patterns of cooperation. The nexus between shared knowledge and different modalities of action is elaborated. Fearful and trustful actions are taken as basic modalities. Both are concerned with uncertainty over time and coping with the freedom of others as independent agents, but they evoke different expectations concerning the prospects of possible cooperation. The common assumptions of mutual expectations are crucial for the choice of cooperative strategy. Trustful cooperation is based on relying on others, while fearful action is based on an apprehension of threat. A "history of play" informs parties on mutual expectations. The irreducibility of shared memories shows that institutional incentives and signals are not able to stabilize shared knowledge on mutual expectations. The paper suggests that different conceptualizations are linked to different modalities of action and that rebuilding damaged relations requires shared reconstruction of a history of mutual relations. The thesis relies on a substantive argument about the particularity of common knowledge and a general argument based on the formal structure of social cooperation

Contesting Victimhood in the Indonesian Anti-Communist Violence and Its Implications for Justice for the Victims of the 1968 South Blitar Trisula Operation in East Java

Since the end of the Suharto New Order regime and Indonesia’s transition to democracy in 1998, the country has struggled to address past serious human rights violations, in particular the 1965–66 anti-communist violence. Half a million members and sympathizers of the Indonesian Communist Party (Partai Komunis Indonesia, PKI) and its mass organizations were killed and hundreds of thousands were detained, most without trial. Although these individuals seem to have the clearest claims to victimhood, they still cannot easily gain such recognition, facing opposition from the military and representatives of civilian organizations implicated in the violence. The contested nature of the status of victim, and in particular how to accommodate claims from those who were less central to the experience of political persecution but who nonetheless suffered as part of the government and military’s anti-communist strategy, is the subject of this article. Drawing on scholarly literature on victims, victimhood and collective memory, I analyse a case study of a group of villagers in south Blitar, East Java and how their being implicated in providing support for leftist fugitives in that area in 1966–68 has influenced how they are perceived by society. Representations of this group of villagers by the military and government have resulted in the rise of a collective victimhood across generations, but a victimhood that nonetheless remains striated by victim hierarchies and difficulties in identifying as victim. As a result of these factors, this complex victim group has, by and large, been excluded by mainstream transitional justice processes, except for limited efforts by two small non-government organizations in the local area, discussed in this article. The resurgence of anti-communism since the election of President Joko Widodo, however, creates new difficulties for the victims and these organizations