1965

Just read this one if you want to know a little bite of Indonesia..

Yesterday we went to Negara (West Bali) to cut more wood and check the fram work of the house.

When we arrived to Negara we stoped at the "Tempel by the bride".

This is what we do every time as far as I remember. I did it 11 years ago and I do it now, but I had no idé why we did it. I never asked why and I always assumed that we just stoped at a "normal" tempel and put some offerings.

Yesterday I asked " Why".

I found out that there had been alot of people who had died in this area after the Ku De Ta 1965. Because these people had not received the hindu cremation it was important that you paid respect and attention to these souls, so they did not cause any damage. Bruce explained that it was especially imortant if you were travelling with young children.

Bruce continued talking about the 1965 Ku De Ta and the years that followed and what was behind it.

This is what Bruce explained to me...
In 1945 Indonesia claimed independence after a few years of Japanese occupancy.

The Dutch did not accept the independence and tried to get back their control of their colony.

Sukarno (First president ) and the people behind independence fought for another 4 years.

The communist party in Indonesia played a major part in Indonesia´s independence.

Suharto (The bad man and president after Sukarno) fought under KNIL, which was the army under the Dutch and who fought for continuation of Dutch power.

In 1949 17 aug, Sukarno officially announced Indonesia (again) as a independent country.

This time the Dutch did not try to fight back.

Sukarno became the first president of Indonesia and Hatta the vice president.

Suharto was one of the top generals in the army.

During these years the Cold war went on between America and Soviet union.America was affraid that countries would turn against them and become communist.And...Soviet Union vice versa.

In 1965, 7 generals of the army was killed. Everything was blaimed on the communist party.

an insider....

Alot of people belive that it was actually Suharto that killed the 7 generals and blaimed it on the communist to cause chaos in the country. Alot of people also belive that Suharto had alot if support from the FBI to create a anti-communist goverment. The truth is hard to prove, because most documents have been burned by the pro- Suharto - goverment

So, after the 7 generals got killed...

Suharto went to the president Sukarno and said:

-Give me the power to control this situation

Suharto with the help of the army took control of the country and absolutly started a man slaught of the people. Suharto was so affraid of people that would stand up to hime, so he made sure anyone with education or successful business was killed.

Thousand and thousands of people were killed. Hard to estimate the number, but some of the people died around the area of the " temple by the bridge".
For me it was hard to understand how a army could just start killing people and noone would react or try to interfear.

So Bruce turned to me and said...

Imagine this ...and than he did the broadcast version of Suharto in aug 1965

- Laaadddiieesss and Geeeeeeentlemen, 7 general of the army were killed to day by the communist.

You have the support of the National party to kill all communist around you during one week.

-You see, says Bruce, People got brainwashed and started believing every word Suharto said. Based on fear, jealosy, suspiciouness, anger people started to kill other people. Whole families was killed because they were accused of being communist.

After 1965 Suharto and the army started the so called Liquidation.

Anyone who was a threat to Suharto and his people would be accused of being communist and got killed.

Sukarno ( the first president) was taken off all his power as a president.

Bruce told me that Sukarno was forced to stay in his house & his children was not aloud to attend high school or university. All this because Suharto was affraid for future revolutions against him.

Interesting that later on it would be Megawato (Sukarnos daughter ) that would stand up against the regime of Suharto.

Suharto got more and more power and in 1968 became the " assistant president". Him, his party (Golkar) and the army ruled Indonesia for the next 31 years.

Bruce explained that during these years people were so scared. You would not trust anyone.

he explained that you would not even have a conversation like this in fear that someone would inform the army.

So back to the tempel..

From now on I know that every time we pass and stop by the tempel we stop becasue we want to honor the people that died in the 1965 Ku De Ta in Negara.

After the tempel we went to check how the framing of the house was getting along.

Bruce started giving instructions and I got alot my usually questions from the frame builders.

-Married? No Husband???

- Children ?

- Alone?? Alone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After that we went to Wayans house to cut the 3 extra trees that he had given us.

I have no idé how many pieces of wood we carried on our heads, left shoulder, right shoulder...

All I know is that when Ibu Wayan came with Te I was in heaven.

After 3 trees, Wayan tells us that we can have one more tree.

So this tree was cut, felt to the ground, cut in to big pieces, processed in to long perfect wood pieces and back on my head, left shoulder and right shoulder.

It kind of felt like I was doing Shirshasana (head stand) for 6 hours.

...All I remember when I came home is that I slowly moved my sore body to the bed and put my head on the pillow I was gone...