The Malay word birit rarely surfaces on its own in Indonesia these days, but the expression lari terbirit-birit survives. The ter- suffix suggests a repetitive, compulsive action. The expression evokes an image of a person with diarrhea dashing to the toilet for relief, though it applies to anyone who rushes around frantically.
Burung
Bird = Penis.
In Indonesian villages, little boys used to wander around freely with naked bottoms. Their mothers scolded them:
“Put your bird away, zip it up or it will fly away.”
Masukin burungmu, tutup retsletingnya. Nanti burungmu bisa terbang.
Hancur badan di kandung tanah, budi baik dikenang jua
Though the body rots in the dirt, good deeds will be remembered.
PART II
Power and Conflict
Chapter Four
Authoritarian Rule
Suharto, an army general, took power amid chaos and killing. For a generation, he crushed dissent and pursued political stability and economic growth.
Gestapu (acronym)
GErakan September TigA PUluh
The September 30th Movement.
In the mid-1960s, Indonesia was in turmoil. Prices soared. Students and militias demonstrated. Tension between the military and the communist movement was high. In the midst of it all, President Sukarno tried to balance competing factions, but his power was waning. He was known casually as Bung Karno (Brother Sukarno), yet he had declared himself president for life in 1963.
Early on the morning of Oct. 1, 1965, junior army officers rounded up and killed six senior military generals and one lieutenant in an apparent coup attempt. A seventh general escaped by jumping over the wall of his house and hiding in the bushes.
In a radio broadcast, the rebels called themselves Gerakan September Tiga Puluh, but the military referred to them by the acronym Gestapu. The analogy with the Nazi secret police added notoriety to the plotters.
Maj. Gen. Suharto became the most senior figure in the military after its senior leadership was wiped out. He blamed the uprising on the Indonesian Communist Party. The military instigated a bloody campaign against the communists and their sympathizers, and hundreds of thousands of people were killed in nationwide purges. In some cases, mobs took advantage of the chaos to settle scores, and the ethnic Chinese minority was also targeted.
Decades later, the alleged coup attempt remains a mystery. Who were the ringleaders and who knew what, and when? Was the uprising the work of disgruntled army officers, or were communist political leaders involved? Did they plan to overthrow the president? Did Suharto know about the plot? An independent investigation was never conducted, and Suharto banned publications about the incident. Many of those involved in the events of 1965 have died.
Suharto’s version of those events is enshrined in school history books, as well as films that were shown on television throughout his rule. Some Indonesians say the account should be reassessed. Decades later, it’s a sensitive subject.
Cukil mata
Poke out eye.
Reports in military-run newspapers after the alleged coup attempt in 1965 vilified the perpetrators. The papers published photographs of cukil mata, a device that communists allegedly used to wrench victims’ eyeballs from their sockets. The contraption was originally designed to slice open the bark of a rubber tree and obtain the sap. Media also published photos of an electric chair—allegedly used for torture—that was found at the home of Dipa Nusantara Aidit, head of the Indonesian Communist Party. Aidit was later executed.
Many historians believe the military planted the devices to portray the communists as depraved and sadistic.
Supersemar (acronym)
SUrat PERintah SEbelas MARet
Letter of Order of March 11.
In early 1966, Sukarno’s power was evaporating. Led by Suharto, the military backed anti-government demonstrations by students. On the night of March 11, Sukarno signed a document called Supersemar that authorized Suharto to restore order.
Suharto said the document gave him broad powers, but mystery shrouds the contents of Supersemar because the original document disappeared. Copies were released, but opponents of Suharto speculated that they were fake.
Armed with Supersemar, Suharto banned the Indonesian Communist Party, instituted economic reforms and ended conflict with neighboring Malaysia. Indonesia, which had pulled out of the United Nations under Sukarno, rejoined the organization.
The acronym Supersemar alludes to Semar, a character from Mahabharata, a story from India that was written in Sanskrit. The tale about a dynastic struggle and war inspired Javanese folklore and traditional shadow puppetry. Semar is a comical figure, but is viewed as a deity of Java and the redeemer of its people. The allusion to Suharto’s legitimacy as a leader was clear.
On March 21, 1968, the People’s Consultative Assembly— the nation’s highest legislative body—elected Suharto as president. Sukarno died under house arrest in 1970.
Dinusakambangankan
To be exiled to Nusakambangan.
Nusakambangan is a maximum-security prison on an island of the same name south of Java. Jagged rocks jut from treacherous waters that ring its shores. Dutch authorities jailed dissidents on the island, and Suharto sent suspected communists to its cells. Indonesia’s most famous writer, Pramoedya Ananta Toer, did time there in 1969 because of his links to communists.
Today, dinusakambangankan also refers to being sent to a nasty place, or receiving an unwanted job transfer.
In 2004, separatist rebels from Aceh province with jail sentences of at least seven years were transferred to Nusakambangan, a long way from home. Officials wanted to prevent them from spreading separatist ideas in the prisons in Aceh. The government began releasing rebels under a 2005 peace deal.
Diselongkan (to be exiled to Ceylon) was a fate of exiles under the Dutch. The colonial authorities banished troublesome Javanese princes to Ceylon, a Dutch colony at the time. The British took over Ceylon, which was renamed Sri Lanka after independence.
Buru
Dutch colonizers also shipped troublemakers to Buru Island in the Banda Sea.
Most of the mosquito-infested island, dominated by two mountains, was covered in dense jungle. In the late 1960s, Suharto sent communists to do hard labor at the notorious site.
Writer Pramoedya Ananta Toer spent 14 years on Buru, where he was denied access to pen and paper for much of the time. He composed the Buru Quartet, works about a leader of the revolution against the Dutch, by telling stories to prisoners who helped him remember and write them down later. Pramoedya was released in 1979.
Pramoedya’s 34 books and essays were
