On 13th – 15th of November 2015, a group of academics and activists in Den Haag, initiated the implementation of the International People’s Tribunal on 1965 Crimes Against Humanity as known as IPT 1965. Implementation of IPT 1965 is based on the desire of a group of people who want to prove that there are genocide and crimes against humanity in Indonesia but never be recognized by the state. When the event was implemented, the IPT 1965 presents a number of survivors whose testimony claimed unheard so far. Some prosecutors and judges experienced in handling cases of genocide and crimes against humanity prepared by the organizers of IPT 1965 with the hope that the decision will be objective.
Almost a year later, the verdict of IPT was being published. On 20 July 2016, Zak Yacoob as the Chief of the Judges read out the verdict of IPT 1965 trial in Den Haag, and be broadcasted to several countries, including Indonesia. In the verdict, the judges of IPT 1965 asserted that “acts of mass murder, and all of immoral acts that takes at the tragedy of 1965 and thereafter, and the failure to prevent or punish the perpetrators, takes place entirely under the responsibility of the State of Indonesia”. Not only that, the judges also considered that Indonesia was responsible for 10 acts of abusing the human rights that occurred in 1965-1966, including mass murder, extermination, imprisonment, enslavement, torture, forced disappearances, sexual violence, exile, false propaganda, the involvement of other countries , and genocide. Zak Yacoob also asserted that the Indonesian government should apologize for those “sin”.
Not long after it was being published, the verdict of IPT 1965 got wide consideration from Indonesian publics. However, the majority of the public and nearly all state figures do not give a positive response to the verdict. Chairman of the House of Representatives Ade Komarudin for example, states that Indonesia does not recognize the court such as IPT 1965, so that the decision should be ignored. Minister of Politics, Law, and Security Coordination Luhut Panjaitan got same idea, that the verdict of IPT 1965 does not have power to be inforced so it should be ignored. The majority of the public, particularly netizens also have opinions that are not much different from the two officers.
The verdict of IPT 1965 reflects that there are many people who still not satisfied with the solution offered by the government related to the tragedy of 1965. In fact, the government has had good intentions with reconciliation though. However, some people seeing that reconciliation alone is not enough. They think that Indonesian government should apologizing to the people that they said “become the victims of the tragedy of 1965”.
The question is, is it true that the government in 1965 had conducted the crimes against humanity as charged? It could be, all the accusations addressed to the government is merely propaganda to revive the communism in Indonesia. Therefore, government vigilance is needed to prevent the rise of neo-communism. In addition, public support is absolutely necessary in order to protect Pancasila from harm of the neo-communism. Absolutely, Pancasila have to be protected, because Pancasila is the only ideology that can uniting Indonesian’s diversity and plurality.
