Indonesia Still Hasn’t Come to Terms With Suharto’s Crimes
A recently unveiled statue in Jakarta is the city’s first public memorial to one of the many crimes of Suharto’s dictatorship. Its rarity exposes the culture of historical amnesia that’s making it easier to roll back democratic rights today.
Nearly three decades after the fall of Suharto, human rights organizations describe Indonesia as a state undergoing democratic backsliding, accompanied by pressure on protesters and journalists and by an expanding military role in civilian affairs. (Kemal Jufri / AFP via Getty Images)
On July 27 this year, a black covering fell from a bronze statue in the courtyard at the headquarters of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) in central Jakarta. The sculpture revealed a woman with her mouth open in a cry, her arms wrapped around five figures whose heads bend beneath an unseen weight.
Designed by the politically engaged Indonesian sculptor Dolorosa Sinaga, the monument marks the thirtieth anniversary of Kudatuli — Kerusuhan Dua Puluh Tujuh Juli, or the July 27 riots. This was one of the final great acts of political violence carried out by Suharto’s thirty-two-year New Order dictatorship.
Political Landscaping
Megawati Soekarnoputri, the PDI-P chair and the woman whose political rise the 1996 attack was intended to stop, pressed the button that unveiled the statue.
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