In The Name of Solidarity and Freedom of Expression

Last night I got one interesting email from Bung Antonemus through the Bali Blogger Community mailing list. The email was about a writer, Bung Bersihar Lubis, who are being sued for his critic to the Depok District Attorney. Bung Bersihar Lubis, through his writing openly criticize the government for allegedly prohibiting and burning history book which doesn’t cite or put the word “PKI” after the word “Gerakan 30 September (G30S) 1965”. Deputy General Attorney, Muchtar Arifin, said that criticizing the government for prohibiting and burning those books is categorized as an act of reversing the history fact.

While on the other hand, Bung Bersihar Lubis argued that citing and putting “PKI” will become an unscientific move because the involvement of PKI during the 1965 coup itself is still in doubt. Current history that are written in history books and taught in schools are solely based on the government version without the involvement of many great Indonesian historians such as Asvi Warman Adam, Anhar Gonggong, etc. He later on said, which are taken from Benedetto Croce words, every true story is contemporary history. Truth is a relative thing. It can right at a certain period and it can be wrong at another time. History is an illustration of the past, but it is not precisely depict the past. But, he continued, monopolizing the truth of history are absurd.

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I really love Bung Bersihar point of view. Monopolizing the truth of history is absurd, then taking advantage of the monopoly even more absurd. This is what happens in Indonesia. Everything must get along with the government policy, or should I say the Suhartoisme policy. If things don’t get along, then it must be an act of subversives, an attempt to coup, or an attempt to reversing the history. If these acts of stigmatization keep on happening, what’s the point of shouting that Indonesia is a country that highly respect the human right and a country that based on law (at least, this is what the teacher taught me in school)? What’s the point of shouting that Indonesia is a democratic country if the citizens don’t have the right to make a fair judgment about an event? Is it just a lip service to make everything stay in order? To make people feel as if they live in wonderland? Wake up and smell the coffee, Mr. Deputy General Attorney.

Seems that there so many thing that these people need to learn. So please, could you really – really studying something if you have to do a study tour, not just do shopping with your wife. But first of all, learn to have a big heart when criticize. Does the White House sue them for this video?

To all blogger, let’s unite against this type of stigmatization.

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