The Uses of Memoirs and Oral History Works in Researching the 1965–1966 Political Violence in Indonesia

Hearman, Vannessa, (2009) The Uses of Memoirs and Oral History Works in Researching the 1965–1966 Political Violence in Indonesia. International Journal of Asia-Pacific Studies, 5 (2). pp. 21-42. ISSN 1823-6243

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Affiliations

University of Melbourne, Australia.

Abstract

Since the end of Suharto's rule in 1998, Indonesia's official history has been contested, especially by former political prisoners from the 1965 period, who had previously been regarded as the regime's enemies. In challenging the New Order regime's historical accounts, these former prisoners have written, and in some instances published, their memoirs, as well as taken part in oral history projects.

This paper examines the genre of 'prisoner memoirs' and oral history work, which have flourished in the post-Suharto period. It surveys some of the common themes and motivations among such works and draws upon interviews with expolitical prisoners engaged in both memoir-writing and oral history projects. The paper also charts how such a genre and method can assist with documenting more of Indonesia's post-independence period from a diverse range of sources. Writing on Indonesia's post-independence history has posed many difficulties due to the New Order regime's representation of the Sukarno period as constituting a 'political mistake'. The end of the Cold War, however, has generated more interest among scholars in how Southeast Asian leftist movements and organisations dealt with questions of ideology and mobilisation in the nation-building phase of the 1950s and 1960s.

Mindful of the numerous challenges of working with long-suppressed memory, this paper argues that 'prisoner memoirs' and oral history work can become a significant source for analysing the post-independence period, specifically the 1965 events in Indonesia. The paper outlines how, in the case of the 1965 mass killings, oral history sources can play a role in enabling researchers to understand the contours of the violence, the nature of participation and witnessing and ways of resisting participation. The case of Indonesia's killings has been little analysed compared to other instances of mass violence.

Item Type:

Journal

Additional Information:

This research was supported under the Australian Research Council's Discovery Projects funding scheme (project number DPO772760). A version of this paper was first presented at the Asia Pacific Research Unit (APRU), Universiti Sains Malaysia's Second International Conference, "Independence and After in Southeast Asia: Old and New Interpretations" in Penang, Malaysia, 7–8 August 2007. Thank you to Katharine McGregor for her comments and suggestions and to the anonymous referees who reviewed this paper. All shortcomings are of course my own.

Keywords:

Indonesia,1965, violence, memoir, oral history

Subjects:

H Social Sciences, Economics, Sociology
J Political Science
D History other than America

ID Code:

9247