Wong Edan

Of course it's political. At the time the Indonesian "army" was political. And it was a political killing the "army" carried out. It's about time the TNI war criminals had the guts to defend themselves, rather than banning allegations against them. And the cowardice of the politicians is as shameful as the cowardice of the Indonesian mercenary "army".

Marmz

If it was the truth, it wouldn't be expurgated. To expurgate is to remove offensive material. The Indonesian Government, who (laughingly) work for the Indonesian people have already banned it, not expurgated it, so I don't really understand the previous post.

Kiai Carita

It embarrasses the army.

It was not Minister of Grins who banned it, it was the army's interests. Our Minister of Grins should continue grinning but censorship is an indicator of guilt. The government's message with the ban is "Yes it is true and we are very embarrassed. Please, if you really have to watch it, do so, but we have some heavies twisting our arms here so we'll ban it. Please consider this ban as our small way to help promote this film."

To prevent many future embarrassments the government should begin the campaign to explain that during the New Order, Suharto made Indonesia a colonialist country and we are all sorry for that.

Roland

Dear peterR!

Quite interesting, the account of John Pilger! Most people are aware of the huge influx of the US government and the Ford foundation during the New Order of Dictator Suharto to see Indonesia as the last barrier against communism and nobody in the west cared about the genocide during the Indonesian killings of 1965–1966, were more than 500.000 people died or disappeared.Well the last line of said web page fits also very well to today's struggle: “The struggle of people against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting.”

Valkyrie

Thanks Peter, I've read the article by John Pilger. Yes, quite revealing.

Valkyrie

Just like to add this local phrase:

"When elephants makes love or fight the grass dies...."

Valkyrie

Then shut your flippin trap if you keep saying that you can't interfere. Why can't you politely say "I'm sorry, but no comments." How you became a politician is a wonder. Maybe your constant grins got you through.

People, the Indonesian Government will not get involved with such issues if there wasn't external influence. The secrets have been buried very deep in the annals of history. Maybe five decades from now our children or grandchildren may get to find out the truth. It would be expurgated or not, nobody knows!

peterR

If anyone has an interest, here is the web site of John Pilger, a journalist that did much undercover reporting in East Timor http://www.johnpilger.com/page.asp?partid=544

I think that Indonesians who have an interest should read what he has to say and make up their own minds with regards this part of history.

It is also interesting to note that John Pilger has not got a lot to say that is good about this film, mainly due to the omissions relating to other nations complicity and the general suffering that the East Timorese went through:

a brief quote – “The historical record is unambiguous that the US, Britain and Australia conspired to accept such a scale of bloodshed as the price of securing Southeast Asia’s “greatest prize” with its “hoard of natural resources”.

I can accept that my country was part of this terrible crime against humanity, and perhaps even holds a greater guilt, and would most certainly not wish the facts being hidden from my view.

peterR

If every nation banned films because they felt that the subject matter was rather sensitive, a good portion of made movies would just never reach the screen. What if America, Germany or Japan for example, banned all films that painted their armed forces as villains because of their actions in war?

This ban has nothing to do with protecting the country or upsetting the Indonesian public, everybody knows this. This is about individuals who are ashamed of the films story-line, and maybe their own actions, and leaders that are just pathetically immature and think only about themselves, without a care for the Nation.

If there is any reason why certain quarters do-not want the Indonesian public to see this film, it is far more likely to be that they do-not want ordinary Indonesians to start thinking about what crimes may have been perpetrated in their name.

The decision to ban this film will further add to Indonesia's negative image abroad, and send a strong message of ‘Guilty as Charged’ around the World.

Of course we all know that the film will find its way into the video shops anyway, if not there already, and the act of banning it will drive millions to go out and buy it.

davidnugroho

there's a big differences when we're talking about the government and the people. i agree with tony that the government is not the people but the government works for the people.

if Mr. Wacik say "is for the sake of the country" then the people should know about what happen, that's if there's nothing to hide. don't underestimate about how the people think about things like this. i think indonesian people is smarter now.

the more they hide something, the more people will curious about it.

Tony The Tiger

NO. No, Mr. Acik, the movie does not discredit Indonesia. It discredits the Indonesian GOVERNMENT and the Indonesian ARMY. There is a huge difference there, Mr. Acik. The government is not the people. The government works for the people.

“It’s over. It (the movie) could create conflicts,”

It's over? Can you say that to the people who had their father/mother/brother/sister/child/friend killed during the conflict?

"Sorry, for your loss. But it's over, walk it off!"

philry4n

translation : Indonesian are too dumb to see if the claim in the movie is fact or fiction.