Political prisoners in Indonesia, a brief history

Radio Netherlands Worldwide, 1 May 2010 - 1:31pm | By Sirtjo Koolhof

Pramoedya Ananta Toer - (Photo: Facebook/Marianne Klute)

The history of political prisoners in the Tropic of Emerald (a Dutch nickname for Indonesia) is centuries old. As far back as the days of the Dutch East India Company, unacceptable opinions were harshly suppressed.

Overly critical individuals were locked up before being banished to distant regions. This is what happened at the end of the 17th century to Syekh Yusuf, a Islamic teacher from Makassar who – together with his family – was deported by the Dutch East India Company to South Africa’s Cape colony for his opinions.

Diponegoro, a Javan prince, waged a five-year war in the 1830s against the Dutch rulers. Taken prisoner after being invited to take part in negotiations, he spent the rest of his life in exile in Makassar.

Indonesian nationalism

In the 20th century, the rise of Indonesian nationalism was an obvious source of displeasure for the colonial Dutch-Indonesian government. The leaders of the nationalist movement, Sukarno, Hatta and other were regularly arrested, imprisoned or banished to the remote corners of the archipelago. But it turned out to be impossible to banish their ideals and opinions from the hearts of the Indonesian population.

In 1945, Sukarno and Hatta proclaimed the independent republic of Indonesia. Following a bitter struggle against the Netherlands, which was determined to take charge of its colony after the Second World War, the young republic entered calm waters. Sukarno and Hatta became the country’s first president and vice-president.

RMS

The young democratic republic of Indonesia still had to contend with the aftermath of decolonisation. Regional movements that had no wish to join the republic, such as the Republic of the South Moluccas (RMS) for example, were as good as destroyed by the new government. Participants were locked up for years.

At the end of the 1950s, President Sukarno’s government became increasingly authoritarian. He announced the principle of ‘controlled democracy’ and severely limited the number of political parties. Various prominent politicians, for example Sutan Sjahrir, Indonesia’s first prime minister and the leader of the Socialist Party, were interned with their families. Nor were journalists critical of the president’s politics immune. Mochtar Lubis, editor-in-chief of the Indonesia Raya newspaper, paid for his criticisms with house arrest and many years in jail.

Suharto

In 1965, the up to then relatively unknown General Suharto came to power in a still insufficiently understood military coup that also involved the Communist Party. In a subsequent orgy of violence, hundreds of thousands of suspected communists and sympathisers were murdered.

Pramoedya Ananta Toer, the celebrated writer and prominent member of the artists’ organisation LEKRA, which was also allied to the Communist Party, survived the slaughter. But together with tens of thousands of companions in adversity, he paid for his political views with years of internment. Until 1979, he and thousands of others were imprisoned under harsh conditions on the Moluccan island of Buru. Following his release, he still had to undergo years of house arrest. Others suffered similar fates. For decades they, and members of their families, were branded as (ex-)communists, a title that ensured that good jobs remained beyond their reach.

New Order

Suharto’s military regime, known by its name of New Order, continued to rule with a heavy hand. In 1974, after large-scale riots broke out in Jakarta during a visit by the Japanese prime minister, there was another wave of arrests. Mochtar Lubis, the journalist who had also been arrested for his critical outlook during Sukarno’s reign, was imprisoned once again and his newspaper banned.

Suharto’s resignation in 1998 signalled the end of the authoritarian New Order. Indonesia then entered a period of unprecedented democracy, press freedom and freedom of expression. The strict press laws were replaced and the number of political parties, as well as independent media, exploded.

Unitary state

But giving voice to a dissident opinion is still not, however, totally risk-free. Under New Order, criticism of the government and ‘incorrect’ political convictions were reasons enough to earn years of internment. After the fall of New Order, it became apparent that actions and opinions that threatened the unitary state of Indonesia could also result in harsh punishments.

Supporters of the Republic of the South Moluccas, the movement that emerged at the beginning of the 1950s in the aftermath of decolonisation, paid for a demonstration in the presence of the Indonesia president with years of imprisonment. And in Papua, the Indonesian part of the island of New Guinea, supporters of the struggle for independence have also found themselves in prison.

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