[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-39671-en":3,"doc-seo-39671-105":30,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":84},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":20,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":21,"is_downloadable":21,"audit_status":21,"page_count":22,"language":23,"language_code":24,"site_id":25,"html_lang":24,"table_of_contents":26,"faqs":27,"seo_title":13,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":28,"read_time":29},39671,3848291630094,"Emma Wilson","https://eur-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_085a072bc5b1113ac321206ff7593b45",8,"Research & Report","Remembering 1965: Indonesian Cinema and the ‘Battle for History’","Using four films to probe the transformations in Indonesia’s historical memory, this paper examines how Indonesian society remembers, interrogates, and comes to terms with the nation’s most traumatic episode: the widespread communist purge that followed the failed coup on 30 September 1965. It shows how filmic representations reflect competing perspectives on the 1965 killings within post-Suharto Indonesia’s “Battle of History,” where historiographic traditions introduce new actors, reveal nuances, and challenge dominant understandings of 1965.","Remembering 1965: Indonesian Cinema and the ‘Battle for History’  \nDarlene Machell ESPENA  \nResearch Fellow, National Institute of Education, Singapore  \nAbstract  \nUsing four films to probe the transformations in Indonesia’s historical memory, this paper examines how the Indonesian society remembers, interrogates, and comes to terms with one of their nation’s most traumatic episodes: the widespread communist purge that followed the failed coup on 30 September 1965. It also demonstrates how they reflect various perspectives on the 1965 killings that are—to an extent—part of the “Battle of History”(van Klinken 2001) in postSuharto Indonesia, wherein different historiographic traditions introduce new actors, reveal the nuances, and challenge longstanding dominant understandings of 1965.  \nKeywords: Indonesian Cinema, 1965 Communist Purge, Historical Memory, Cold War  \nIntroduction: The Communist Purge in Indonesia  \nThe communist purge that followed the failed coup of 30 September 1965 is one of the defining events of modern Indonesian history. Although the coup was swiftly quelled by members of the Tentara Nasional Indonesia (TNI-Indonesian National Armed Forces), the reprisal led to the torture and death of numerous Indonesians who were members, suspected members, or even mere sympathizers of the Indonesian Communist Party, Partai Komunis Indonesia (PKI) . Though various scholars have attempted to find out exactly what happened (Roosa 2006; Pohlman 2013; Swift 2010; Hadiz 2010; Mortimer 2006; Kolimon and Campbell-Nelson 2015;  \nMcVey 2006), the purge remains an obscure fragment of Indonesian memory. The New Order employed various political and cultural tools to shape Indonesian historical memory. This massive propaganda campaign helped create generations of Indonesians who are \"wholly ignorant\" of the anticommunist purge and its implications for Indonesian society (Pamuntjak 2015, par. 7) . The same applies to politicians. In 2015, the 50th anniversary of the communist purge, President Joko Widodo refused to issue an official public apology to the victims of the killings and their families (Pamuntjak 2015; Kwok 2016; Palatino 2015) .1  \nEven so, with the breakdown of Suharto’s New Order in 1998, new accounts of or questions about the 1965 tragedy began to emerge. Vedi Hadiz (2006) looks at the trauma of 1965 as a crucial fragment in the postcolonial grand narrative of the Indonesian nation. He also suggests that the failure to address this juncture in Indonesian history poses a “major impediment”(554) to the country’s democratization process. Another scholar (Roosa 2006) traces how events unfolded after the coup and identifies a whole gamut of clashing interpretations and contradicting facts that cast doubt on the New Order's account of the event.  \n“Why would a movement that announced itself to the public on October 1 name itself after the previous day?...Why would a movement that claimed it was an effort to prevent a coup against President Sukarno not explicitly declare that he would remain president within this new government?...Why did the movement not kidnap Major General Suharto or prepare to counter the troops under his command?”(Roosa 2006, 62)  \nRoosa (2006) also points out that the coup, which had many gapsand loopholes in terms of and planning and execution, was not wellorganized, a fact that belies a movement’s alleged intent and scope. These and related controversies reveal the extent of our knowledge (or lack thereof) about that period. With the changing political and social landscape after 1998, a number of academics and political activists conducted their respective investigations; and two significant conferences were organized  \nASIAN STUDIES: Journal of Critical Perspectives on Asia  \nin recent years to consolidate new findings and ascertain the state of scholarship on the anticommunist purge.  \nOne conference in February 2013,“New Perspectives on the 1965 Violence in Indonesia,” took place at the Australian ","cbCaieyT1gV4y5gF","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaieyT1gV4y5gF","pdf",157547,5,1,27,"English","en",105,"# Introduction: The Communist Purge in Indonesia\n## Historical memory shaped by the New Order\n## Emerging new accounts after 1998\n## Scholarly debates and interpretive controversies\n## Conferences and new perspectives on the 1965 violence","[{\"question\":\"Why is the 1965 purge described as remaining obscure in Indonesian memory?\",\"answer\":\"The New Order employed political and cultural propaganda tools that shaped historical memory, leading many people to be largely ignorant of the purge and its implications.\"}]",1783085900,68,{"code":4,"msg":31,"data":32},"ok",{"site_id":25,"language":24,"slug":33,"title":13,"keywords":34,"description":14,"schema_data":35,"social_meta":79,"head_meta":81,"extra_data":83,"updated_unix":28},"remembering-1965-indonesian-cinema-and-the-battle-for-history","",{"@graph":36,"@context":78},[37,54,69],{"@type":38,"itemListElement":39},"BreadcrumbList",[40,44,48,51],{"item":41,"name":42,"@type":43,"position":21},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":45,"name":46,"@type":43,"position":47},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":49,"name":12,"@type":43,"position":50},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":52,"name":13,"@type":43,"position":53},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/remembering-1965-indonesian-cinema-and-the-battle-for-history/39671/",4,{"url":52,"name":13,"@type":55,"author":56,"headline":13,"publisher":58,"fileFormat":61,"inLanguage":24,"description":14,"dateModified":62,"datePublished":63,"encodingFormat":61,"isAccessibleForFree":64,"interactionStatistic":65},"DigitalDocument",{"name":9,"@type":57},"Person",{"url":41,"name":59,"@type":60},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-07-16","2026-07-03",true,{"@type":66,"interactionType":67,"userInteractionCount":20},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":68},"ViewAction",{"@type":70,"mainEntity":71},"FAQPage",[72],{"name":73,"@type":74,"acceptedAnswer":75},"Why is the 1965 purge described as remaining obscure in Indonesian memory?","Question",{"text":76,"@type":77},"The New Order employed political and cultural propaganda tools that shaped historical memory, leading many people to be largely ignorant of the purge and its implications.","Answer","https://schema.org",{"og:url":52,"og:type":80,"og:title":13,"og:site_name":59,"og:description":14},"article",{"robots":82,"canonical":52},"index,follow",{"doc_id":7,"site_id":25},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":85},[86,90,94,98,102,107,112,115,120,123,127],{"id":21,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":87,"show_sort_weight":88,"slug":89},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":47,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":91,"show_sort_weight":92,"slug":93},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":53,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":95,"show_sort_weight":96,"slug":97},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":20,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":99,"show_sort_weight":100,"slug":101},"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":103,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":104,"show_sort_weight":105,"slug":106},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":108,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":109,"show_sort_weight":110,"slug":111},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":11,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":12,"show_sort_weight":113,"slug":114},30,"research-report",{"id":116,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":117,"show_sort_weight":118,"slug":119},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":118,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":121,"show_sort_weight":118,"slug":122},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":124,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":125,"show_sort_weight":124,"slug":126},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":128,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":129,"show_sort_weight":20,"slug":130},19,"General","general"]