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    China, Class Collaboration, and the Killing Fields of Indonesia in 1965
    China, Class Collaboration, and the Killing Fields of Indonesia in 1965
    China, Class Collaboration, and the Killing Fields of Indonesia in 1965
    Ebook66 pages56 minutes

    China, Class Collaboration, and the Killing Fields of Indonesia in 1965

    By James Robb

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    About this ebook

    The documentary film by Joshua Oppenheimer, The Act of Killing, released in 2012, provides a chillingly intimate portrait of some ageing thugs who, nearly fifty years ago, took part in one of the greatest acts of mass murder of the last century: the 1965-66 slaughter in Indonesia.

    The principal targets of this act of terror were the workers and peasants of Indonesia, especially those who supported the Partai Komunis Indonesia (PKI,) the Beijing-oriented Indonesian Communist Party. This party, which had been the largest Communist Party in the world outside the Soviet Union and China, was reported in mid-1965 to have three million members, and perhaps another ten million sympathisers in various party-led mass organisations – unions, women's, youth organisations and others. The party and all its associated organisations were annihilated in the wave of violence.

    The mass killing was orchestrated by the Indonesian military forces, led by the rightist general Suharto who seized power in a coup in October 1965. Many of the murders were actually carried out by rightist gangs working alongside the military. The frenzy of killing spread to include Indonesians of Chinese descent, teachers and other educated layers, and, as the film shows, the rightist thugs also took the opportunity to carry out personal vendettas. When some terrified PKI supporters appealed to the authorities to be spared, the price of staying alive demanded of them was that they denounce their friends and join in the murder spree themselves. Somewhere between half a million and three million people are estimated to have been killed.

    The scale of the massacre is comparable with the later killing fields of Cambodia and Rwanda, and with the earlier Nazi holocaust in 1930s Germany. Yet in comparison with those events, the catastrophe in Indonesia remains largely unknown or forgotten by the wider world. The perpetrators of the crime remained entrenched in power for more than thirty years after the event.

    How did it happen? How is it that the three-million-strong Communist Party, which at the beginning of 1965 was widely seen as powerful enough to challenge the power of the military, could be annihilated with so little resistance? The answer lies not in the psychology of the rightist generals and their militias, nor even in the support they received from the United States, but rather in the political character of the Communist Party itself.

    This book traces the origins, evolution and political character of the Indonesian Communist Party, and in doing so, uncovers some remarkable parallels with an event forty years earlier in China, the Shanghai massacre of 1927.

    Fully illustrated and annotated with links to further reading.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJames Robb
    Release dateJan 6, 2014
    ISBN9780473273798
    China, Class Collaboration, and the Killing Fields of Indonesia in 1965
    Author

    James Robb

    James Robb grew up in Wellington, New Zealand. During the 1980s and 1990s he worked in meatworks, car assembly plants, carpet and biscuit factories in Wellington, Hastings, and Auckland. Currently he is a high school teacher in Auckland.

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      China, Class Collaboration, and the Killing Fields of Indonesia in 1965 - James Robb

      China, class collaboration, and the killing fields of Indonesia in 1965

      By James Robb

      Published by James Robb at Smashwords

      Copyright 2014 James Robb

      Also by James Robb

      The Chain (a novel)

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal use and enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com andpurchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      China, class collaboration, and the killing fields of Indonesia in 1965

      By James Robb

      Contents

      Indonesia's silent tragedy: a word about the author

      Strength and weakness of The Act of Killing

      Origins of the communist parties in China and Indonesia

      China 1927: precursor to the slaughter in Indonesia

      Victory in China and Indonesian independence

      PKI adopts 'peaceful and democratic ways'

      Aftermath in Indonesia, China and the world

      Notes

      A note on sources

      Indonesia's silent tragedy: a word about the author

      My first visit to Indonesia was at the age of 13, travelling with my parents in the year 1970. One memory I have of that visit is of the constant presence of the military: I recall frequently seeing soldiers standing at street corners with weapons at the ready, military checkpoints on the roads, armed guards at the entrance to buildings, and truckloads of soldiers travelling the roads. Once I saw a large number of them rush into a building. I had no idea at the time what it all meant, but I had never seen such a massive military presence, and do remember feeling uneasy.

      Six years later I visited Indonesia again, and there were a lot less soldiers on the street. By that time I knew a little about the 1965 military coup by the rightist General Suharto, and the mass murder of hundreds of thousands that had followed. I was curious to know what people thought of it, and with a mixture of arrogance and great naiveté, I asked directly many of the people I met what they thought about the coup, the Communist Party, and the military regime. I got almost identical answers from everyone I asked: I don’t like Communists because they have no God. I thought it sounded strange, almost scripted – and having said it, they invariably made it clear they did not want to continue the discussion. What I did not know at that time was that the terror killings were still going on, ten years after the coup.

      The principal targets of this murderous rampage were Indonesian workers and peasants, especially those who supported the PKI, the Indonesian Communist Party. This party had up to three million members on the eve of Suharto's coup. The party itself was obliterated in the bloodbath.

      This mass killing was no civil war; the victims, with few exceptions, surrendered without resistance.

      The wave of terror carried on over six months following the coup, starting in Jakarta, then

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