Book Review: The Contours of Mass Violence in Indonesia, 1965-68; Truth Will Out: Indonesian Accounts of the 1965 Mass Violence

• Published in: The Journal of Asian studies 2015, Vol.74 (1), p.244
• Main Author: Beers, Steve
• Format: Review
• Language: English
• Subjects: Anti-communism; Asian studies; Counterrevolution; Coups d'etat; Group dynamics; Imprisonment; Massacres; Military history; Narratives; Oral history; Political parties; Political violence; Reconciliation; Researchers; Studies; Truth; Violence
• ISSN: 0021-9118; 1752-0401
• DOI: 10.1017/S0021911814002137

[...]in chapter 5 Fealy and McGregor's exploration of the active role played by the Islamic organization Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) in the killings in East Java shows the importance of group dynamics, including the rise of militant anti-communists in NU, the anti-communist interests shared by NU and the military, and eventual tensions between NU and the military over goals and strategies. The volume was originally intended for an Indonesian audience, and its editor, Baskara T. Wardaya, is careful to emphasize that the book does not adjudicate a "correct" history of events, but rather attempts to democratize history through the recognition of multiple narratives. [...]the book is both an academic study based on oral history and an attempt to promote reconciliation by "open[ing] the space for dialogue so that there will also be space to learn together about the history of this nation" (p. xli). Lacking in both volumes, with the exception of McGregor's chapter 10 in The Contours of Mass Violence in Indonesia, 1965-68, on the exhumation of mass graves, is much of an attempt to locate Indonesia's killings in a wider comparative or historical perspective.