As Joko Widodo refuses to apologise to the victims of 1965,the business of confronting the past has reached a fresh urgency for IndonesiaAs 250 million Indonesians face up to the 50th anniversary of one of the most crushing episodes of our nation’s history – the massacre of up to 500000 or more alleged Communists between 1965 and 1968 by the Suharto regime – the business of confronting the past has reached a fresh urgency. And it is an urgency that has only a week ago was sharpened by fresh disappointments.
That fresh disappointment is our president Joko Widodo’s stance on “1965” as the tragedy is commonly referred to. In a statement in front of the leaders of the Muhammadiyah, the country’s moment largest Muslim organisation, or he has refused to apologise to the victims of 1965. And so ended the campaign promises he made –hollow ones to start with,of giving priority to the country’s unresolved cases of human rights violations, including 1965 – that earned him the people’s votes.
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Source: theguardian.com