Free Tours Offered at State Palace Art Exhibition to Attract Visitors

Jakarta Globe, Eko Prasetyo, August 04, 2016

Visitors admire a painting by famous Indonesian artist Raden Saleh titled 'The
Capture of Prince Diponegoro, 1857,' which is currently on display as part of the
State Palace Art Exhibition at the National Gallery in Jakarta. The exhibition
titled '17/71: Goresan Juang Kemerdekaan' ('Painting the Struggles of
Independence') is open to the public during August. (Antara Photo/Dodo Karundeng)

Jakarta. The State Palace Art Exhibition organizing committee will provide a series of guided tours for visitors in order to provide more detailed information on the artworks included in this year's exhibit, titled "17|71: Goresan Juang Kemerdekaan" ("Painting the Struggles of Independence").

According to a State Palace statement, tours are scheduled for every Sunday during August, free of charge, at the National Gallery in Jakarta, where the exhibition is currently taking place.

Visitors will be guided by a curator accompanied by experts, including historian Peter Carey, journalist Aryo Wisanggeni, National Gallery director Tubagus Andre Sukmana, Jakarta Art Institute lecturer Citra Smara Dewi and prominent art critic Agus Dermawan.

The official 90-minute tour will take place during two sessions at 10.00 a.m. and 13.30 p.m., respectively. Visitors are expected to arrive on time and follow all regulations.

The subjects to be presented each week are as follows:

Week 1 – Aug. 7: Why did Soekarno collect artworks?

Week 2 – Aug. 14: State Palace policies on artwork collections and exhibitions.

Week 3 – Aug. 21: Themes, styles and types of artworks collected by the State Palace.

Week 4 – Aug. 28: Inventory, catalogues, conservation and publicizing of exhibitions, book publishing, as well as legal aspects.

During each tour, visitors will also be shown rare books collected by former President Soekarno.

International People's Tribunal Declares Indonesia Responsible for 1965-1966 Mass Killings

The military-backed purge against Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) members and their sympathizers paved the way for the rise of former President Suharto's New Order regime. (Antara/M Agung Rajasa)

Jakarta Globe, Edo Karensa, July 21, 2016

Jakarta. The International People’s Tribunal in the Hague declared on Wednesday (20/07) that Indonesia was responsible for committing crimes against humanity during the 1965-1966 mass killings which killed between 500,000 to one million suspected communists.

The military-backed purge against Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) members and their sympathizers paved the way for the rise of former President Suharto's New Order regime.

The final verdict of an international panel of judges stated Indonesia must be held accountable for ten gross human rights violations that happened in 1965-1966, including genocide against members, followers and sympathizers of the PKI and supporters of President Soekarno as well as members of the Indonesian National Party, or PNI.

“The State of Indonesia is responsible for and guilty of crimes against humanity consequent upon the commission and perpetration, particularly by the military of that state through its chain of command, of the inhumane acts,” presiding judge Zak Yacoob stated in the final report released on Wednesday.

Besides mass killings, the other gross human rights violations committed by the state according to the tribunal were destruction, imprisonment, slavery, torture, forced disappearance, sexual violence, banishment, false propaganda, international complicity and genocide.

“All these acts were an integral part of a broad widespread systematic attack against the Indonesian Communist Party, its affiliate organizations, its leaders, members and supporters and their families,” Yacoob said, adding that the attacks were started with false propaganda.

According to Yacoob, the state is ultimately responsible for the inhumane actions of the military and its henchmen. “The State of Indonesia also failed to prevent the perpetration of these inhumane acts or to punish those responsible for their commission. To the extent that some crimes were committed independently of the authorities, by so-called “spontaneous” local action, this did not absolve the State from the obligation to prevent their occurrence and to punish those responsible,” he said.

Indonesia must apologize

At the end of the statement, Yacoob read a series of recommendations which called on the Indonesian government to “apologize to all victims, survivors and their families for all the crimes against humanity and other crimes committed in Indonesia in relation to the 1965 events.”

The recommendations also included a call to investigate and prosecute the perpetrators of the crimes and ensure appropriate compensation and reparation to victims and survivors.

The tribunal also urged all relevant authorities to push for the government to act swiftly to resolve the longstanding problem. Specifically, the Attorney General should follow up a report released by the National Commission of Human Rights in 2012 which recommended investigations into grave violations of human rights during the Communist pogrom.

The tribunal also demanded the government rehabilitate surviving victims of the purge, prevent further persecution against them by the authorities and protect all their rights as guaranteed by international and Indonesian law.

Former South Korean first lady visits North Korea

The widow of late South Korean President and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Kim Dae-Jung has arrived in North Korea for a four-day visit. Lee Hee-ho has expressed hopes for more dialogue between the two Koreas.

Deutsche Welle, 5 August 2015

Former South Korean first lady Lee Hee-ho has arrived in North Korea for a rare four-day visit. Her official itinerary includes visiting a maternity clinic, an orphanage and a children's hospital.

Although her visit is humanitarian in nature, there was much speculation about a possible meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Last year, he personally invited Lee to visit North Korea after thanking her for sending condolence flowers on the third anniversary of the death of his father, Kim Yong Il.

The 92-year-old former first lady expressed her wish to ease tensions between the two Koreas.

"I hope that this will offer a window for more dialogue, exchange and cooperation," Lee was quoted as saying by her spokesman as she embarked on her journey to North Korea. "I am going to visit Pyongyang with hopes that Koreans can ... heal the wounds and pain of the past 70 years of division."

No official message from South Korean government

Meanwhile, Seoul underlined that the former first lady's visit was a personal one and she was not carrying an official message from the South Korean government.

Her husband, Kim Dae-Jung, who died in 2009, is remembered for his policy of engagement with isolated North Korea. The policy led to a historic summit with Kim Jong Il in 2000. The South Korean won the Nobel Peace Prize later that year. However, the policy of rapprochement with Pyongyang was largely abandoned when a conservative administration took power in South Korea in 2008.

The visit of the former first lady comes just ahead of the 70 anniversary of the liberation of the Korean peninsula from Japanese colonial rule on August 15, 1945. There had been hopes that the anniversary could serve as an opportunity for a resumption of dialogue, but the two Koreas did not agree on any joint celebratory event.

das/sms (AP, AFP)

Kim Jong Un has somehow joined the likes of Aung San Suu Kyi and Mahatma

 Gandhi as a global statesman, at least in the bizarre logic employed by

 Indonesia's Sukarno Center in awarding awarding him its annual prize for

world peace and development. (Reuters Photo/KCNA handout)

Related Articles:

Kim Jong Un Hailed as Global Statesman by Sukarno Center

THE OLD SOUL 2013 TOOLKIT" – Jan 13, 2013 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll)  (Text version)

"... The Change in the Way Things Work

Now I'm going to be very cautious with number five, and I'm going to change a paradigm of the way we channel. For 23 years, we have given you information in the soup of potentials that we read around you as the highest probable potential that exists. These things eventually become your reality because they are your free choice, and we know what you're thinking. We know what the potentials are because we know what the biases are, and we see all of humanity as a whole. Potentials are energy, and it gives us the ability to project your future based on how you are working these potentials. We have done this for a long time. Twenty-three years ago, we told you about many things that were potentially going to happen, and now they are your reality.

But now I'm going to depart from that scenario and I'm going to give you a potential on Earth that is not the strongest. I am going to tell you about a Human Being who has a choice. This potential is only about 50 percent. But I'm going to "read a potential" to you that you didn't expect. It's about a paradigm that is starting to shift.

Let's talk about North Korea. There's a young, new leader there. The potential is that he will never, ever hear this channel, so I can talk freely about him. He is facing a dilemma, for he is young and he knows about the differences in the energy in his land. He feels it. The lineage of his departed father lies upon him and all that is around him expects him to be a clone of this lineage. He is expected to continue the things that he has been taught and make North Korea great.

But he's starting to rethink them. Indeed, he wants to be a great leader, and to be heard and seen, and to make his mark on North Korea's history. His father showed him that this was very important. So he ponders a question: What makes a world leader great?

Let's ask that question to someone in an older earth paradigm from not that long ago. He will be an expert and a successful one. So this is a valid exercise, asking someone from the past who knows. We will ask that question to a man who you know and whose name is Napoleon. For us, this was yesterday and some of you were there. 

If you asked Napoleon, "What makes a world leader great?", he will say, "the size of the army, how much area can be efficiently conquered with a given amount of resources and men, how important the leader appears will then be based upon how many citizens call him emperor or king, the taxes he can impose, and how many fear him." Not only was that Napoleon's reality, but he was right for the energy he was part of at the time. So Napoleon went back and forth between world leader, general and prisoner. He accomplished almost everything he set out to do. His expertise was obvious, and you remember his name to this day. He was famous.

What makes a world leader great? What I am showing you is the difference in thinking between then and now. There are some choices that this evolving young Human Being has that could change everything on the planet if he wanted. His father would tell this boy that what makes a world leader great is the potential of his missile power, or how close he can get to having a nuclear weapon, or how he stands up against the power of the West, or how he continues to aggravate and stir drama as a small country - getting noticed and being feared. His father would tell him that this is his lineage and that is what he's been told all his life. His father did it well and surrounded himself with advisors who he then passed on to his son.

Now, there's a 50 percent chance of something happening here, but this is not a strong potential, dear ones. I'm bringing this forward so you can watch it work one way or the other. For if the son continues in his father's footsteps, he is doomed to failure. The energy on the earth will see it as old and he will be seen as a fool. If, however, he figures it out, he could be the most famous man on the planet... which is really what his father wanted.

If Kryon were to advise this man, here's what I would tell him. He could be the greatest known leader the current world has ever known, for what he does now will be something the world will see as a demarcation point from the old ways. Not only that, but what he does now will be in the history books forever, and because of his youth, he has the potential to outlive every other leader on the planet! So he's going to have longer fame than anyone ever has.

I would tell him this: Tell the border guards to go home. Greet the south and begin to unify North and South Korea in a way that no past prophet ever said could happen. Allow the two countries to be separate, but have them as two parts of a larger Korean family with free trade and travel. Start alliances with the West and show them that you mean it. Drop the missile programs because you will never need them!

This will bring abundance to the North Korean people that they never expected! They will have great economic sustenance, schools, hospitals and more respect than ever for their amazing leader. The result would be fame and glory for the son, which the father had never achieved, something that the world would talk about for hundreds of years. It would cause a United Nations to stand and applaud as the son walked into the Grand Assembly. I would ask him, "Wouldn't you like that?"

Doesn't this seem obvious to most of you? He could achieve instant fame and be seen as the one who made the difference and started something amazing. But watch him. He has a choice, but it's not simple. He still has his father's advisors, but one of which he's already dismissed. He may get it, or he may not. There is a 50 percent chance. But I'll tell you that if he doesn't do it, the one after him will. Because it is so obvious. 

We show you this to tell you that this is the evolvement of the Human species. It is the slow realization that putting things together is the answer to all things, instead of separating them or conquering them. Those who start promoting compromise and begin to create these energies that never were here before will be the ones you're going to remember. Dear ones, it's going to happen in leadership and politics and in business. It's a new paradigm...."

Kim Jong Un Hailed as Global Statesman by Sukarno Center

Jakarta Globe, Markus Junianto Sihaloho, Jul 30, 2015

Kim Jong Un has somehow joined the likes of Aung San Suu Kyi and Mahatma
 Gandhi as a global statesman, at least in the bizarre logic employed by
 Indonesia's Sukarno Center in awarding awarding him its annual prize for
world peace and development. (Reuters Photo/KCNA handout)

Jakarta. The Bali-based Sukarno Center will this year award its annual prize for global statesmanship to Kim Jong Un of North Korea, hailing him as a champion in the fight against neocolonialism and imperialism.

Rachmawati Soekarnoputri, a daughter of Indonesia’s founding president, after whom the award is named, made the announcement on Thursday following a meeting with Ri Jong Ryul, Pyongyang’s ambassador to Jakarta.

“We will give the award to President [sic] Kim Jong Un because he has been consistent in carrying out the ideals of the great leader, Kim Il Sung, which is to fight imperialism,” Rachmawati said.

The Sukarno Prize, traditionally handed out in recognition of contributions to world peace and development, has previously been awarded to luminaries such as Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar and India’s Mahatma Gandhi.

It is unclear how Kim Jong Un, whose saber-rattling and bellicose policies have exacerbated already strained and frosty ties with South Korea, Japan and the United States, has contributed in any way to world peace or compares even remotely with the above democracy icons.

Rachmawati noted that the Sukarno Center had previously presented the award to Kim Il Sung, whom she called a hero of independence and peace.

“So this will be a sequel, where we give the award to Kim Jong Un for his persistence in fighting neocolonialism,” she said.

Rachmawati has been appointed the honorary Asia-Pacific chairwoman of Pyongyang’s Korean reunification preparation committee – a body not recognized beyond the borders of the hermit kingdom.

North Korean people raise their fists during an anti-US rally at Kim Il-Sung

stadium in Pyongyang on June 25, 2015 (AFP Photo)

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"Recalibration of Knowledge" – Jan 14, 2012 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: Channelling, God-Creator, Benevolent Design, New Energy, Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Reincarnation, Gaia, Old Energies (Africa, Terrorists, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela ... ), Weather, Rejuvenation, Akash, Nicolas Tesla / Einstein, Cold Fusion, Magnetics, Lemuria, Atomic Structure (Electrons, Particles, Polarity, Self Balancing, Magnetism), Entanglement, "Life is necessary for a Universe to exist and not the other way around", DNA, Humans (Baby getting ready, First Breath, Stem Cells, Embryonic Stem Cells, Rejuvenation), Global Unity, ... etc.) - (Text Version)

“…  I want you to watch some countries. I don't have a clock [this statement is Kryon telling us that there is no time frame on his side of the veil, only potentials]. I'll just tell you, it's imminent [in Spirit's timing, this could mean as soon as a decade]. I want you to watch some countries carefully for changes. You're going to be seeing changes that are obvious, and some that are not obvious [covert or assumptive]. But the obvious ones you will see sooner than not - Cuba, Korea [North], Iran, of course, and Venezuela. I want you to watch what happens when they start to realize that they don't have any more allies on Earth! Even their brothers who used to support them in their hatred of some are saying, "Well, perhaps not anymore. It doesn't seem to be supporting us anymore." Watch the synchronicities that are occurring. The leaders who have either died or are going to in the next year or so will take with them the old ways. Watch what happens to those who take their place, and remember these meetings where I described these potentials to you. …"

THE OLD SOUL 2013 TOOLKIT" – Jan 13, 2013 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll)  (Text version)

"... The Change in the Way Things Work

Now I'm going to be very cautious with number five, and I'm going to change a paradigm of the way we channel. For 23 years, we have given you information in the soup of potentials that we read around you as the highest probable potential that exists. These things eventually become your reality because they are your free choice, and we know what you're thinking. We know what the potentials are because we know what the biases are, and we see all of humanity as a whole. Potentials are energy, and it gives us the ability to project your future based on how you are working these potentials. We have done this for a long time. Twenty-three years ago, we told you about many things that were potentially going to happen, and now they are your reality.

But now I'm going to depart from that scenario and I'm going to give you a potential on Earth that is not the strongest. I am going to tell you about a Human Being who has a choice. This potential is only about 50 percent. But I'm going to "read a potential" to you that you didn't expect. It's about a paradigm that is starting to shift.

Let's talk about North Korea. There's a young, new leader there. The potential is that he will never, ever hear this channel, so I can talk freely about him. He is facing a dilemma, for he is young and he knows about the differences in the energy in his land. He feels it. The lineage of his departed father lies upon him and all that is around him expects him to be a clone of this lineage. He is expected to continue the things that he has been taught and make North Korea great.

But he's starting to rethink them. Indeed, he wants to be a great leader, and to be heard and seen, and to make his mark on North Korea's history. His father showed him that this was very important. So he ponders a question: What makes a world leader great?

Let's ask that question to someone in an older earth paradigm from not that long ago. He will be an expert and a successful one. So this is a valid exercise, asking someone from the past who knows. We will ask that question to a man who you know and whose name is Napoleon. For us, this was yesterday and some of you were there. 

If you asked Napoleon, "What makes a world leader great?", he will say, "the size of the army, how much area can be efficiently conquered with a given amount of resources and men, how important the leader appears will then be based upon how many citizens call him emperor or king, the taxes he can impose, and how many fear him." Not only was that Napoleon's reality, but he was right for the energy he was part of at the time. So Napoleon went back and forth between world leader, general and prisoner. He accomplished almost everything he set out to do. His expertise was obvious, and you remember his name to this day. He was famous.

What makes a world leader great? What I am showing you is the difference in thinking between then and now. There are some choices that this evolving young Human Being has that could change everything on the planet if he wanted. His father would tell this boy that what makes a world leader great is the potential of his missile power, or how close he can get to having a nuclear weapon, or how he stands up against the power of the West, or how he continues to aggravate and stir drama as a small country - getting noticed and being feared. His father would tell him that this is his lineage and that is what he's been told all his life. His father did it well and surrounded himself with advisors who he then passed on to his son.

Now, there's a 50 percent chance of something happening here, but this is not a strong potential, dear ones. I'm bringing this forward so you can watch it work one way or the other. For if the son continues in his father's footsteps, he is doomed to failure. The energy on the earth will see it as old and he will be seen as a fool. If, however, he figures it out, he could be the most famous man on the planet... which is really what his father wanted.

If Kryon were to advise this man, here's what I would tell him. He could be the greatest known leader the current world has ever known, for what he does now will be something the world will see as a demarcation point from the old ways. Not only that, but what he does now will be in the history books forever, and because of his youth, he has the potential to outlive every other leader on the planet! So he's going to have longer fame than anyone ever has.

I would tell him this: Tell the border guards to go home. Greet the south and begin to unify North and South Korea in a way that no past prophet ever said could happen. Allow the two countries to be separate, but have them as two parts of a larger Korean family with free trade and travel. Start alliances with the West and show them that you mean it. Drop the missile programs because you will never need them!

This will bring abundance to the North Korean people that they never expected! They will have great economic sustenance, schools, hospitals and more respect than ever for their amazing leader. The result would be fame and glory for the son, which the father had never achieved, something that the world would talk about for hundreds of years. It would cause a United Nations to stand and applaud as the son walked into the Grand Assembly. I would ask him, "Wouldn't you like that?"

Doesn't this seem obvious to most of you? He could achieve instant fame and be seen as the one who made the difference and started something amazing. But watch him. He has a choice, but it's not simple. He still has his father's advisors, but one of which he's already dismissed. He may get it, or he may not. There is a 50 percent chance. But I'll tell you that if he doesn't do it, the one after him will. Because it is so obvious. 

We show you this to tell you that this is the evolvement of the Human species. It is the slow realization that putting things together is the answer to all things, instead of separating them or conquering them. Those who start promoting compromise and begin to create these energies that never were here before will be the ones you're going to remember. Dear ones, it's going to happen in leadership and politics and in business. It's a new paradigm...."

The Spirit Of Bandung Helped Japan To Gain International’s Acceptance

Jakarta Globe, aacc2015.id, Apr 23, 2015

AACC2015, Jakarta – The Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe stated that the Bandung Spirit had helped his country to gain international community’s acceptance after the World War II.

“Live and let live. That’s the President Sukarno’s quotation which is better known as the Spirit of Bandung. The spirit allows us to re-enter the international community after the World War II,” said Prime Minister Abe at the Asian-African Summit in the Commemoration of the 60th Anniversary of Asian-African Conference in Jakarta Convention Centre (JCC), Wednesday (4/22).

According to him, the value of the Spirit of Bandung, which prohibited colonialism, helped his country to recover from the World War’s impact. “To those friends of ours who had formulated the Bandung Spirit, let me take this opportunity to extend our heartfelt gratitude,” he stated.

The Spirit of Bandung, he added, is enhancing the relation between the two continents. “It is time for us to show strong unity, which was built between the two continents, to the rest of the world. Let’s show them,” he concluded. (Photo: Host)

109 Asian African Countries Flags Hoisted In Bandung

Jakarta Globe, aacc2015.id, Apr 21, 2015

AACC2015, Bandung – 109 flags from Asian and African countries and the
 flag of the United Nations (UN) were hoisted on Wednesday (4/15) at the
 Asian-African Conference Museum—Merdeka building at Jalan Asia Afrika
No. 65, Bandung.

The raising of the flags marked the beginning of the series of events of the Commemoration of the 60th Anniversary of Asian-African Conference (AACC) in Bandung. The flags will fly for two weeks on April 15-30, 2015.

The 109 participating countries flags and the UN flag were hoisted by around 350 Bandung boy and girl scouts in a flag raising ceremony for the AACC at Merdeka Building or also known as Asian-African Museum in Bandung.

The flags raising ceremony was attended by the representatives from the Asian-African Conference Museum and a number of Bandung community figures, and led by the Leader of Bandung Scouts Deddy Darmawan.

In his brief remarks, Mr. Darmawan hoped that the young generation, especially the scout members, could take the positive lesson from the flag hoisting ceremony. “When a flag is unfolded, it means that a state’s sovereignty is raised. As scout members hoisting the flags, you shall take positive values from this historic event; that is freedom and human rights. Therefore, cultivate AAC values ​​in your attitudes and behavior in your everyday lives,” he said.

Head of the Asian-African Museum Thomas Siregar explained that in 2005—at the Golden Jubilee of the Asian-African Conference—107 flags were raised at Gedung Merdeka. “It consisted of 106 Asian and African countries flags and one UN flag. But now, there are 110 flags. Therefore, there are three additional flags of Asian and African countries, in addition to the UN flag,” he explained.

The flag raising ceremony was enliven by a marching band performance from the students of SMKN 6 Bandung vocational high school and speech musicalization performance that featured President Sukarno speech footage at the inauguration of 1955 Asian-African Conference entitled “Let a New Asia and a New Africa be Born” by Adew Habsta and his company. The speech was considered relevant to the current state because it contained inspiring messages. (Source: Asian-African Conference Museum, Translator: Penni Patmawati, Editor: Gusti Andry, Filmon Warouw)

Megawati Cites Father to Call for Women’s Emancipation

Jakarta Globe, Mar 08, 2015

Former president Megawati Soekarnoputri says women need to take their
fate into their own hands. (Antara Photo/Yudhi Mahatma)

Jakarta. Former president Megawati Soekarnoputri, the only female president in Indonesia’s history, has called on men to help women fight for emancipation, in a speech to mark International Women’s Day on Sunday.

Citing a book written by her father, Indonesia’s founding president, Sukarno, Megawati said men had as much stake as women to ensure equal rights across all sectors, including the political, social and economic sectors.

“In his book, [Sukarno] cited a hadith by Prophet Muhammad [sic] [...] about how important women are for a nation. Women are the pillar of a nation,” Megawati said during a commemoration of the annual event at the Taman Ismail Marzuki cultural center in Central Jakarta on Sunday.

“If the women are good, the nation will be good, too. If the women are bad, the nation will be bad, too.”

“Therefore, during a commemoration of International Women’s Day in 1960, [Sukarno] underlined that what women fought for must also be fought for by men. ‘The emancipation of women is the emancipation of men,’ he said.”

Megawati reminded Indonesian women, though, not to rely on others to help them and instead work hard for their rights.

“Haven’t I said it plenty of times? Even a thousand gods from heaven would not be able to help women if the women themselves don’t fight [for their own rights],” she said. “Women’s fate is not in the hands of men, nor in the hands of a thousand gods from heaven. Women’s fate lies in their own hands.”

The former president added she supported women’s rights for wider access to education and more contributions to Indonesia’s goals for food self-sufficiency and resilience, among other things.

The audience at the event included the female ministers from President Joko Widodo’s cabinet, as well as the first lady, Iriana Widodo.

Ine Eriksen Søreide (Norway), Karin Enström (Sweden), Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert

(Netherlands) and Ursula von der Leyen (Germany). Photograph: Twitter

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Sigrid Kaag, the head of the international mission overseeing the

destruction of Syria's chemical weapons at the United Nations

Headquarters in New York, on June 4, 2014 (AFP Photo/

Timothy A. Clary)

A Sign of Change as Indonesian Soldiers Watch ‘The Look of Silence’

Jakarta Globe, Mar 08, 2015

‘Senyap’, or ‘The Look of Silence’. (JG Photo/ Yudhi Sukma Wijaya)

Jakarta. Legislators, historians and human rights activists have hailed a local military commander’s move to have his soldiers in Semarang, Central Java, watch “The Look of Silence” by award-winning American director Joshua Oppenheimer — a documentary on the state’s purge of suspected communist sympathizers that left up to 500,000 people dead.

Maman Imanulhaq, a legislator from the National Awakening Party (PKB), said the willingness of Semarang military commander to require his men to watch the movie marked “good progress” toward creating professional soldiers with a healthy respect for human rights.

“I’m sure that some of them will not agree with the movie, but by watching it we can see that they want to try to understand,” he said. “Hopefully, if they don’t agree then they can make another movie challenging it, not use violence or ban it.”

He expressed hope that the fact that military officers had embraced rather than shunned the documentary was an indication that there might be a willingness by the authorities to look into the widespread abuses committed by the military and state-sponsored militias during the purge that ran from 1965 to 1966.

The official narrative is that the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) sparked the whole incident by attempting a coup to take down then-president Sukarno. That story, though, has long been debunked by independent historians and rights activists as a cover for the military, led by Gen. Suharto, to stage its own ouster of Sukarno.

The military’s killing spree resulted in the deaths or disappearances of up to half a million people suspected of being members of the PKI — at the time the biggest communist party in the world after those in China and the USSR — or communist sympathizers.

Tunggal Pawestri, a right activist, welcomed the screening of “Senyap,” which looks back at the tragedy through the eyes of a relative of one of the victims, saying that could serve as a “gateway to discussion and reconciliation efforts” between the military and those it killed.

Oppenheimer, the documentary’s Oscar-nominated director, said he felt odd seeing photos of hundreds of soldiers in full uniform as if they wanted to go to war sit in front of a screen that was showing his film.

He said in a statement that the scene was surreal for him, but at the same time provided a ray of hope. He said he hoped that the well-recorded military involvement in canceling and banning the movie would not happen again.

Instead, he said, in the future the military should be actively involved in discussions and help answer questions during community events.

On the reconciliation process in Indonesia, he said that a solitary event of soldiers watching the documentary was not all that significant, considering the central government’s policy on human rights.

After half a century of impunity, Oppenheimer said he would not rush to conclude that reconciliation, a revelation of the truth, justice and rehabilitation for victims would take place just because of one screening attended by soldiers.

Bonnie Triyana, a historian, also doubted if making soldiers view the documentary would change the government’s approach to the massacre.

“This is good news. However, it’s too early to say whether it will affect the state’s policy on the 1965 killings,” he said.

Hundreds of soldiers in Semarang, attended the screening of “Look of Silence” on Feb. 26 in the headquarters of the district military command and ordered by the commander, Lt. Col. Taufik Zega.

“The screening was aimed at clarifying the intention of the documentary production, in order to avoid misunderstandings,” Central Java’s Diponegoro Military Command said on its website, although it stopped short of explaining what misunderstandings.

“The screening was part of efforts to examine facts about what actually happened in 1965, because many people have conflicting opinions in regards to what happened,” it added.

By watching the movie, soldiers were expected to be able to explain to the public the content of the movie and its connections with the Indonesian Military (TNI), when confronted about the issue, the site said.

“The Look of Silence,” which first screened last year, is a follow-up to Oppenheimer’s Oscar-nominated documentary “The Act of Killing,” released two years earlier.

While “The Act of Killing” explores the anti-communist pogrom by getting the perpetrators to re-enact their crimes, “Look of Silence” looks at the massacre through the eyes of its victims.

In 1965, Ramli was murdered as a teenager for his alleged support of the PKI. The film crew follows his brother, Adi Rukun, born 1968, as he meets and confronts Ramli’s murderers and their families.

When “The Act of Killing” was released in 2012, it was screened in secret in Indonesia, for fear of government retaliation.

“The Look of Silence,” though, premiered with a public viewing in Jakarta on Nov. 10 — National Heroes Day — last year.

Indonesia’s National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) has reaffirmed its support for the screening of the film throughout Indonesia, stating that it was a part of human rights education and national reconciliation.

Nevertheless, the movie has been met with rejection from some groups, such as the hard-line Islamic People’s Forum (FUI), whose members stormed the campus of Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta in December while a student organization was screening the film.

The screening of 'The Look of Silence' was held in the headquarters of the

 district military command, attended by the commander, Lt. Col. Taufik Zega,

 as well as chiefs of subdistrict military units under his supervision (Photo

courtesy of the Indonesian Military)

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‘Alor Underwater’ Brings Hidden Beauty to Surface

Jakarta Globe, Sylviana Hamdani, Jan 05, 2015

A photo book competition was hatched by the governor to share the beauty of
 Alor Island with the world. (JG Photos/Sylviana Hamdani and courtesy of
Muljadi Pinneng Sulungbudi)

“Whoever wants pearls should dare to plunge into the deep oceans,”  Indonesia’s founding father, Sukarno, famously said.

As the largest archipelagic nation in the world, Indonesia consists of a vast area of rich seas. Based on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) in 1982, which was ratified into law 17 years ago, Indonesia has more than three million square kilometers of sea, or almost double the country’s land mass.

Indonesia consists of smaller archipelagos, each with its own beauty and riches.

One of these is Nusa Tenggara archipelago, divied administratively into East and West Nusa Tenggara provinces, known as NTT and NTB, respectively.

“NTT is an archipelagic province with untold beauty and riches,” says Frans Lebu Raya, the governor of East Nusa Tenggara.

The province, at the southernmost tip of the Indonesian archipelago, consists of 1,192 islands. At present, only 43 of these are inhabited, one of which, Timor, is shared with the independent nation of Timor-Leste.

The total land area of the province is 47,349 square kilometers, while its sea area is more than four times larger, at 200,000 square kilometers.

The seas there abound with oil and gas and fish stocks. High-quality pearls of various colors and viscosity also abound in the waters of East Nusa Tenggara.

“Whenever I talk in public, I always repeat these facts,” Frans says. “Many find it hard to believe.”

The province’s marine parks are also among the most scenic and unspoiled in the world.

Some 100,000 international tourists visited the province in 2014, up from 80,000 the previous year, according to the provincial administration.

To increase the number of tourists, Governor Frans held the “International Invitational Underwater Photography Competition” in Alor Island, part of the Nusa Tenggara archipelago, in September 2014.

One of the most scenic marine parks in East Nusa Tenggara is in the seas surrounding Alor.

Alor, the largest island in the province at 2,119 square kilometers, is surrounded by more than 40 pristine diving sites.

“Most of them are known only to the locals and very few international tourists,” Frans says.

Nine photographers — from Singapore, Indonesia, Japan and Taiwan — were selected as winners of the Alor photo competition, and their works were recently compiled into a coffee-table book: “Alor Underwater.”

East Nusa Tenggara’s underwater beauty. (Photo courtesy of Dewi WIlaisono)

“We want to spread the beauty of Alor to the world with this book,” Frans says.

The 100-page book has both English and Indonesian text.

The book starts off with a brief description of Alor and a map of the island that pinpoints the many interesting dive sites around it.

“The underwater world at Alor is fantastic,” says Ria Qorina Lubis, one of the winners of the photo competition.

 “The water is so clear, with visibility of more than 20 meters. There are so many colorful fish, even at nine to 10 meters deep. And the sea is so full of beautiful coral. It’s just perfect for divers.”

Ria, a Greenpeace and Ocean Defender activist has been diving and taking underwater photos since 2006. With her fellow divers, she has composed three other photo books, including “Amazing Ambon,” “Wakatobi Laut Surgawi” (“Paradise Sea of Wakatobi”) and “Dive Guide to Aceh.”

“Alor not only has a holistic underwater beauty, but also warm and friendly people, rich cultural traditions, and beautiful handwoven textiles,” Ria says.

“I want to keep coming back [to Alor].”

Muljadi Pinneng Sulungbudi, another winner of the competition, rates Alor as one of the top three dive areas in Indonesia.

“Currently, the top three are Raja Ampat [in West Papua], Komodo Island [in East Nusa Tenggara] and Alor,” says Muljadi, a professional photographer and experienced diver.

“Two of them are in NTT.”

Two hundred copies of the first edition of the book have been printed and reserved for guests of the governor and potential investors in the island.

“We really appreciate the innovative ideas of the governor and the ‘Alor Underwater’ book,” says Esthy Reko Astuti, the directorate general of marketing at Indonesia’s Tourism Ministry.

“I think they’re very positive efforts to improve Indonesia’s tourism.”

President Joko Widodo has set a target for Indonesia to attract 20 million international tourists in 2019 — an ambitious target, given than the country only drew some 8.9 million international tourists in 2013.

“It’s a high target for all of us,” Esthy concedes.

(Photo courtesy of Muljadi
Pinneng Sulungbudi)

“But if we’re all committed to achieving it, I believe that we can.”

The East Nusa Tenggara administration plans to publish the Alor photo book for the mass market early this year.

“By publishing the book, the governor has shown his commitment to improving the tourism industry in NTT,” Muljadi says.

“And that’s important. Usually when the number one person in the regional administration has shown his commitment to a cause, the rest of the team will follow suit.”

Muljadi, who is a native of Kupang, the provincial capital of East Nusa Tenggara, says that what is currently lacking in Alor is tourist facilities for middle-income to high-income tourists.

“There are currently a number of small inns with limited facilities at Alor,” he says.

“These humble accommodations can’t cater to the needs of middle- to high-income international tourists.”

Pinneng says he believes that the photo book will help encourage investors to set up more facilities such as hotels and restaurants, and thereby attract more tourists to the island.

Frans says he plans to hold similar competitions and publish more books to highlight other beautiful aspects of East Nusa Tenggara, including Kelimutu, a volcano on Flores Island with three stunning crater lakes, and Sumba Island with its unique culture and traditions.