If larger Indonesia crimes of the last century still swept under the rug - and can not even be discussed at a book festival - then what hope is there of law enforcement to protect citizens against deadly smoke haze engulfing parts of the country?
scams by definition involve depriving a person or persons by means of deception. Indonesia common scams involve online fraud, pyramid schemes and all kinds of charlatans. But a monumental scam taking place deprives the Indonesians in their history and their right to justice. Fraudsters thrive when people are kept ignorant and enforcement is weak.
A businessman with investments in an oil palm plantation in Sumatra province says his company and others have recently been asked by a very senior official in each pay Rp.250 million ( US $ 18.500) for "help against the mist" - in return for which they would not be prosecuted on illegal land clearing.
The officials would be better to continue to the fullest extent of the law, or those who start forest order and peat land fires, if the government wants to stop the devastating pollution and curb respiratory diseases potentially fatal.
The leaders of the province of Riau in Sumatra do not have a good record on environmental protection. The most recent governor, Annas Maamun was in June sentenced to six years in prison for accepting US $ 166.100 in bribes from the local chairman of the Indonesian Palm Oil Farmers Association. His predecessor, Rusli Zainal, was last year sentenced to 14 years in prison for corruption and abuse of power involving illegal logging permits.
These sentences are encouraging, but the Corruption Eradication Commission and Indonesia Corruption Watch say corruption remains common when permits are granted to convert forests to plantations.
Linking smoke haze disaster current ban discussions on the massacres of 1965-66 up to 1 million Indonesians may seem tenuous. But the link is clear. If you can not solve the problems of the past, you are not well equipped to deal with the problems of the present. When individuals and institutions get away with mass murder and the government refuses to even apologize, there is little hope for the establishment of a culture of good governance and law enforcement.
The Ubud Readers and Writers Festival, held over 28 from October to November 1 is the first international literary event in Indonesia. The organizers were forced to cancel sessions discussing the killings on the grounds that the issue is too sensitive. Then the festival had to cancel a session involving discussion of litigation reclamation project Benoa Bay.
He was cowardly officials to require sessions to be slashed, and he was just as loose organizers to cave in them. Cancellation of the entire festival would have attracted more attention to the return of repression and censorship.
Ironically, Indonesia was guest of honor at Frankfurt Book Fair last month. Several authors and Indonesian Minister of Education Anies Baswedan spoke with pride to the event progress of Indonesia and his literary achievements. Where are their voices now? Writing articles and posting online is not enough. They should go to someone up government and make a strong case for freedom of expression.
Debate can promote education, awareness and reconciliation. Repression leads to intellectual stagnation. I recently asked high school students in Jakarta if they could define communism. "A communist is a bad person," one student said.
"Why Communism evil" I pressed Another student responded:. "Because the Communists have killed people and rejected God's army had to kill communists to save Indonesia's. PKI (Indonesian Communist Party). the PKI had killed seven generals on September 30, 1965. "
And there you have it. The fact that six, not seven army generals were murdered by their comrades in the early hours of October 1, 1965, is perhaps a minor error. It is a mistake that is repeated in some of citizenship textbooks used by high school students.
An Air Force pilot retired, now in his 80s, told me the events of 1 October 1965, was not on the PKI trying to take power, but was a split within the army, the chief of the strategic reserve of the army command, Suharto used as a pretext to undermine the founding president Sukarno and defeat all the Communists and other enemies of the right faction of the army.
In communal carnage that followed, many innocent people were killed by the army, by Muslim groups and paramilitary gangs. Thousands were imprisoned without trial, including some of the greatest intellectuals of the country. Millions of people, some of whom were born after 1965 were branded as communists. President Joko Widodo refused to present state apologized for the carnage and stigma.
School children should learn the facts of 1965 and the fact that Communism is an ideology failed. Blanket demonization of all leftists and liberals serves only fascists.
After the fall of Suharto in 1998, Indonesia began to discuss the 1965-1966 events. The authors started writing fiction and non-fiction about the murders. academic books older about the so-called "coup attempt" are available in bookstores in Indonesia for the past eight years. Many of these titles were reissued in Indonesia since 2007 by Equinox Publishing with the blessing of the time, Attorney General Abdul Rahman Saleh.
Equinox founder Mark Hanusz is upset by the cancellations of discussions at the book festival in Ubud. "Without strong and clear instructions from the high-level officials, censorship and intimidation will run out of control. It's already starting. And it is my Indonesian friends to put all possible pressure on the people they elected to make the genius of freedom of expression is not trapped in the bottle, "he commented.
high Repression its ugly head in the Central Java city of Salatiga last month when Satya Wacana Christian University was to destroy the copies of his Lentera magazine to publish stories about the 1965 murders.
Too often, ordinary Indonesians are forced to take a back seat to the arrogant officials, whether provincial politicians to the deadly mist or only government officials who police near full lanes on major streets in Jakarta to ensure their cars can do without . hindrance
Vice President Jusuf Kalla in September responded to criticism from neighboring countries about the mist, saying: "for 11 months, they have enjoyed the pleasant air of Indonesia and they thanked us. They suffered because of the fog for a month and they get angry. "According to his logic, we should thank the terrorist groups for each day they detonate a bomb. Repression of freedom of expression impedes a country to solve its problems.