It’s the 60th anniversary of the failed coup in Indonesia, the rise of the dictator Suharto and the removal of popular leader Sukarno.
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The events that followed the coup led to a period mass killings across the archipelago nation. It’s estimated that anywhere between 500,000-3 million people, mostly members of the PKI (the Indonesian Communist Party), were killed. Besides the mass murder of PKI members and anyone else identified as an opponent to the regime, Suharto’s forces carried out an erasure of the history and culture of the opposition.
Since the fall of Suharto in 1998, declassified documents have shown us the significant role that the Indonesia military took in the genocide and the role western governments (the U.S., the U.K., Australia) played in Suharto’s takeover.
To discuss all of this, we’re re-joined by Dr. Clinton Fernandes. We discuss the history of Indonesia’s failed coup and the subsequent genocide, the role of western governments and politics in Indonesia today.
Correction: The membership of the PKI was 2 million in 1965, not 16 million as Dr. Fernandes had said. It won 16 percent of the election votes nationally and 30 percent in Java.
Bio//
Clinton Fernandes is an Australian historian and scholar who is professor of international and political studies at the University of New South Wales in Canberra, Australia.
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