Indonesia threatens to shut down Bali's international writers festival

Janet DeNeefe, founder of the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival in Bali. Photo: Eddie Jim

Jakarta: Indonesian officials have threatened to shut down Bali's prestigious international writers festival, compelling organisers to cancel sessions discussing the bloody massacre of alleged communists in 1965.

The political censorship of this year's Ubud Writers and Readers Festival is unprecedented in the 12-year history of the popular event.

Author Anna Funder autographs her books at the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival in 2012. Photo: Stanny Angga

Three panel sessions discussing the mass killings, a screening of multi-award-winning director Joshua Oppenheimer's chilling film The Look of Silence and art exhibit and book launch The Act of Living have been pulled just days before the festival is scheduled to start.

Advertisement

Festival director Janet DeNeefe told Fairfax Media the cancellations were a "great blow" and she was outraged by the censorship.

Local police, military and government officials had warned the festival it could be shut down if planned sessions, events and exhibitions on the 1965 massacres went ahead.

Joshua Oppenheimer, director of the film The Look of Silence (and the 2012 film The Act of Killing) which was about the Indonesian anti-communist purge of 1965. Photo: Daniel Bergeron

An estimated 500,000 to 1 million people labelled "communists" were massacred in Indonesia in 1965 and 1966 in what the CIA described as "one of the worst mass murders of the 20th century".

This dark chapter in Indonesian history remains extremely sensitive today, as many of the country's military and religious organisations were implicated in the mass killings.

"It is extremely disappointing and some might even say cowardly that the government is refusing to discuss this national tragedy," Ms DeNeefe said.

Indonesia's Major-General Suharto, in camouflage uniform, at the funeral for six generals killed by rebels in the abortive attempt to overthrow then president Sukarno in 1965. The coup attempt led to nationwide massacres. Photo: AP

She said works on 1965 had been discussed in previous years at the festival and another of Joshua Oppenheimer's films, The Act of Killing, was screened last year.

"It's almost like censorship has become fashionable overnight again," she added.

This week a 77-year-old Swedish man was deported for visiting the grave in West Sumatra of his father, who is believed to have been buried along with other supporters of the now defunct Indonesian communist party or PKI.

Indonesian police hold a communist flag in the ruins of Indonesian Communist Party House in Jakarta after it was ransacked by anti-communist demonstrators in 1965. Photo: AP

Police reportedly claimed the man had been filming a documentary about cruelty towards the PKI.

And the National Commission on Human Rights this week opened an investigation into the recall of Lentera, a student newspaper from a Christian university in Central Java, because of its coverage of the 1965 killings.

"I think this all part of a broader crackdown on freedom of expression," Oppenheimer told Fairfax Media via email. "It's really upsetting. I fear it is a reassertion of power by the shadow state. I hope I'm wrong."

Indonesian writer Eka Kurniawan. Photo: Jefri Tarigan

Indonesian author Eka Kurniawan, who has been described as a successor to Indonesia's greatest writer Pramoedya Ananta Toer, was scheduled to appear on October 29 in a panel on writing about 1965.

Kurniawan said the cancellation of the event was embarrassing. "Seventeen years after reformasi [the end of the Suharto era], we are still being haunted by such things," he said.

"Recently a new wave of anti-communism seems to have been revived, even when communism barely exists in Indonesia. If censoring ideas is tolerated, it will continue until it reaches its peak: eliminating the lives of men considered different."

Fellow panelist Putu Oka Sukanta was imprisoned for 10 years without trial in 1966 for suspected leftist leanings. "Of course as a writer, I am disappointed if they are banning literature or activities relating to freedom and expression," he said. "The [Indonesian] constitution allows freedom of expression and speech."

Sukanta said the era after reformasi had seemed to promise freedom of speech and the ability to uncover what was not known or had been reported one-sidedly during the Suharto period.

"Even the government promised to investigate what happened in the past. The impact of the 1965 tragedy is massive, it touched all segments in society. This nation must be freed from the past burden if it wants to move on into the future."

Ms DeNeefe said the cancellation of the festival events about 1965 would open up a huge international dialogue. "You can't silence something like that – sometimes these things are needed because they bring things to a head. This is almost like our look of silence – by not holding these sessions there is a powerful message."

Fairfax Media is seeking comment from local authorities.

With Karuni Rompies

Follow Jewel Topsfield on Facebook

Source: Indonesia threatens to shut down Bali's international writers festival