Katharine McGregor

Challenges of Political Rehabilitation in post-New Order Indonesia: the Case of Gerwani (the Indonesian Women's Movement).

Due to the strong stigma associated with Gerwani (the Indonesian Womens Movement), very few women imprisoned in connection with the 1965 coup attempt have published their memoirs, despite the demise of the Suharto regime. Through an analysis of the memoirs of two Gerwani women, this article analyses how these authors re-evaluate Indonesian history. It assesses how they have negotiated dramatic changes since the time when they were politically active. In the last 40 years, Indonesia has largely rejected socialism and embraced capitalism. Religion has also become more prominent, thereby making it imperative for these women to rebut allegations of immorality.

Memory Studies and Human Rights in Indonesia

Abstract The field of memory studies focuses primarily on attempts to recall or address abuses of human rights. Because of its emphasis on temporality and the politics of the past, memory studies encourages us to question how, when and why individuals and collectives turn towards the past to engage in expressions of regret or social repair in response to historical injustice. In the case of survivors of violence there are obvious reasons to appeal to the discourse of human rights, but there also appear to be triggers, in cases of communities that have played a role in past violence, for re-examining the past. Through case studies of young activists who are dedicated to researching the 1965–68 anti-communist violence in Indonesia, I will explore what memory studies can offer to our understanding of human rights activism. The young activists on whom I focus are all connected with Indonesia’s largest religious organisation, the Nahdlatul Ulama (Revival of Islamic Scholars), which played a key role in the 1965–68 anti-communist violence. In this paper I will explore what motivated two activists from a so-called “implicated community” (Morris-Suzuki, 2005 ) to engage in a quest for social justice for long-marginalised members of society.

Contemporary Discourses of Motherhood and Fatherhood in Ayahbunda, a Middle-Class Indonesian Parenting Magazine

There have been few studies of representations of gender in parenting discourses in Indonesia. In this article the authors investigate contemporary modalities of Indonesian parenting, questioning to what extent ideas of the roles of mothers and fathers represented in the middle class Indonesian parenting magazine (Ayahbunda) from 2000–2008 represent a break with conventional gendered parenting ideologies. The discourse analysis of both text and illustrations in Ayahbunda suggests that it promotes idealized, yet expanded gender roles for both women and men of middle-class Indonesian families. As a result the magazine jointly promotes ideas of a “super-mum” and a “super-dad”, which has resonance with patterns in the West. Yet motherhood remains the prescribed core identity of women and the role of protector remains the core identity of fathers.

Public debates about history: Comparative notes from Indonesia

Since the fall of President Suharto in 1998, new debates have opened up in Indonesia about the nature and purpose of national history. The most controversial of a series of issues is the interpretation of the 1965 Coup and killings of communists that followed it. The debates involve questions of historical truth and of the narration of the past in terms of national ideology. Parallels with Australia’s ‘history wars’ indicate the centrality of history to problems of national identity. This article has been peer-reviewed.

Opposing Colonialism: the Women's International Democratic Federation and decolonisation struggles in Vietnam and Algeria 1945–1965

ABSTRACT This article argues that the Womens International Democratic Federation (WIDF) was a major force in promoting anti-colonialism after 1945. The article traces how and why the WIDF came to support anti-colonialism from the mid-1940s to 1965. Part of the answer lies in the cosmopolitan vision and background of the membership of the WIDF that included increasing participation from nationalist and communist women from Asia and Africa. By sharing their views on colonial oppression the WIDF as a whole came to recognise the links between colonial oppression and womens oppression. Focusing on Vietnam and Algeria, this article analyses the strategies the WIDF used in its anti-colonial activism. One strategy was to document the effects of colonialism on the women of Asia and Africa and to publicise their experiences of ongoing colonial wars. A second WIDF strategy was to provide a platform for women from colonised countries to promote anti-colonialism through its congresses and appeals and by lobbying the United Nations (UN), especially in relation to the violation of UN conventions and principles. The article presents a new history of transnational anti-colonial activism.

Cold War scripts: Comparing remembrance of the Malayan Emergency and the 1965 violence in Indonesia

This paper contributes to a growing field of literature on Cold War culture by comparing struggles over memory in Indonesia and Malaysia of anti-communist repressions. It demonstrates the enduring legacies of the Cold War in these neighbouring countries where the war overlapped directly with experiences of colonization and decolonization. I show how and why anti-communism in both countries became a core foundation of both Malaysian and Indonesian nationalism and related religious identification and how this largely explains successive governments’ attempts to memorialize and defend these repressions. I argue that recent attempts by both survivors of the repression and younger Indonesians and Malaysians to reexamine the history of the political left or experiences of repression constitute important efforts to rethink the postcolonial predicaments of both countries in different ways.

INDONESIAN WOMEN, THE WOMEN'S INTERNATIONAL DEMOCRATIC FEDERATION AND THE STRUGGLE FOR ‘WOMEN'S RIGHTS’, 1946–1965

This article examines the transnational links Indonesian women made with women abroad by means of participation in the WIDF (Womens International Democratic Federation) from 1946–1965. Drawing on Indonesian womens speeches at WIDF congresses, contributions to WIDF publications and documents from Gerwani (Gerakan Wanita Indonesia, the Indonesian Womens movement) national congresses the article argues that the WIDF provided an important political compass for Indonesian women on the political left and directly influenced the form and content of its campaign for womens rights. At the same time Gerwani women were able to draw attention and attract support from the extensive membership of the WIDF for domestic challenges, which they positioned as connected to broader struggles against imperialism. With a rapidly rising membership Gerwani was assuming increased importance and influence in the WIDF by the early 1960s and had begun to shape the direction and causes of the WIDF.

Exposing Impunity: Memory and Human Rights Activism in Indonesia and Argentina

ABSTRACT This article examines the impact of a new sustained focus in Indonesian human rights activism on connecting historical experiences of violence to ongoing impunity, in order to assess what forms of memory activism are effective in breaking a justice impasse. It does so by using the much more successful case of Argentinian human rights activism for justice for the 1976–83 repression as a point of comparison. Soon after the end of authoritarian rule, Argentinians held a truth commission and trials of key military leaders. Then, following a period of stalled justice, activists were able to create a new societal consensus on the need for further redress including extended trials. In Indonesia, meanwhile, a proposed truth commission was abandoned and there have been no trials of military leaders, and no other forms of redress initiated by the government for this case. Despite the limitations of almost all justice measures in fully addressing past human rights crimes, the lack of use of any measures acceptable to victims of the violence signals that the Indonesian government does not consider such cases pressing enough. In order to assess how activists might move such cases back onto a national agenda, my analysis focuses on the Argentinian group H.I.J.O.S. (Hijos por la Identidad y la Justicia contra el Olvido y el Silencio/Children for Identity and Justice against Forgetting and Silence), whose members led a successful campaign for a resumption of trials. I compare the similar emphasis in their activism on exposing impunity to that in the work of the Indonesian group KKPK (Koalisi Keadilan dan Pengungkapan Kebenaran/Coalition for Justice and Truth). I assess their efforts alongside the different political contexts of both countries, arguing that a focus on impunity may be crucial in cracking impasses in justice measures.

The Making of a Transnational Activist: The Indonesian Human Rights Campaigner Carmel Budiardjo

Using a biographical approach, this chapter analyses why Carmel Budiardjo, a British-born woman of Jewish background, became a transnational activist. It examines her life during the Second World War and its aftermath and the transnational camaraderie she developed through her participation in the International Union of Students. The chapter also examines how her critical engagement with politics following her move to Indonesia, and her subsequent imprisonment because of her alleged ties with the Indonesian Communist Party, shaped her activism upon release and return to Britain to free Indonesian political prisoners.

New Interpretations of the Causes, Dynamics and Legacies of the Indonesian Genocide

This chapter introduces the volume the Indonesian Genocide of 1965: Causes, Dynamics and Legacies. McGregor, Melvin and Pohlman lay out the background to the 1965 violence and its general features including mass killings and arrests. They set up the new analyses offered throughout the volume by outlining key factors that contributed to the violence, providing an overview of the variety of actors and institutions that participated in or experienced the violence and reflecting on the ongoing effects of the violence, especially as regards intergenerational memory and efforts to achieve justice.