People Want East Timor Massacre Movie Banned, Indonesian Military Says

Last updated at 4:59 PM. Wednesday 10 March 2010

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Go to comments December 04, 2009

Markus Junianto Sihaloho & Anita Rachman

People Want East Timor Massacre Movie Banned, Indonesian Military Says

The Indonesian Armed Forces said on Friday that it expected everyone to respect the decision of the Film Censorship Institute (LSF) to ban the Australian film ‘Balibo,’ claiming that the people had voiced their decision through the censors.

“It has been banned by the LSF. The institute is the people’s voice. So let us respect the people’s voice,” Army Chief Gen. George Toisutta said.

Speaking after inaugurating Brig. Gen. Paulus Lodewijks as the new commander of the Army’s Special Forces (Kopassus), Toisutta stressed the Army supported fully the LSF decision because they saw it as the wish of the people.

“We respect the LSF, we respect the people’s voice,” he said.

Ezki Suyanto, a member of the Alliance of Independent Journalists’ (AJI) committee council, which screened the movie at the Utan Kayu Theater on Thursday, questioned the military’s logic.

“If the movie hasn’t even been screened yet, how could the public demand that the government ban it?” she asked the Jakarta Globe.

She learned that Minister of Culture and Tourism Jero Wacik and some officials were invited by the LSF to watch the movie, “but is that what they call ‘the people’?” she said.

The fact that at least 300 people attended the screening on Thursday night, she added, suggested that not everyone wanted the film banned.

She said she had queried some of the audience at Thursday’s screening and none of them said anything to discredit the army.

“It’s just an ordinary movie and some said many parts of the movie were embellished,” she quoted some viewers as having said.

Ezki said defying the government was not the intent of the alliance. “We simply want to tell the public that the movie does not in any way discredit the Indonesian Armed Forces. There is a lesson here, especially for journalists.”

Jero said the movie did discredit Indonesia and its military and could reopen old wounds between Indonesia, East Timor and Australia. “For the sake of the country, the movie is not fit for playing in theaters. The movie is political,” he said.

The film tells the story of five journalists killed when Indonesian troops took over the border town of Balibo in East Timor in October 1975. A sixth journalist died weeks later when Dili was invaded by Indonesian forces.

Indonesia says the journalists were killed in a crossfire but an Australian coroner’s inquest in 2007 found that the five were killed deliberately by Indonesian forces, prompting the Australian Police to launch an official investigation into the incident two months ago.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has said the probe was a backward step and could harm bilateral ties.

Agus Sudibyo from the Science and Aesthetic Foundation (SET), a media watchdog, urged the LSF to explain the ban.

“They must explain to the Indonesian public why they ban certain movies.”

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Comments

Wong Edan

3:59 PM December 6, 2009

Once again, the military is purporting to speak for the very people it (has) oppressed for so many years. Shades of the army-sponsored Three Demands of the People" (Tritura) of 1966, which were actually the Three Demands of the Army supported by paid demonstrators and threats. Don't they ever learn?

Roland

1:27 PM December 6, 2009

By the way - there is an article about this issue on the website of the Human Rights Watch posted. For all interested and concerned about democracy and the right for free speech:

http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/12/04/indonesia-drop-censorship-critical-film

Roland

10:20 AM December 6, 2009

I checked Wikipedia in regards of the Balibo 5 (or 6 - if you include Roger East, a veteran journalist executed by a firing sqad a few months later). What disturbs me are comments by Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa who said the ban was to avoid a negative "global perception of Indonesia"!

It should be about time (it's now over 34 years after this tragical incident happened and Indonesia is 10 years into a different kind of government) that situations as this can be faced without interference from high up posts. Also the twisted logic of Army Chief Gen. George Toisutta that he sees the ban as a wish of the people of Indonesia is for me incomprehensible.

Germans are able to watch movies about the holocaust since a long time (even though slowly movie themes as the one mentioned are becoming "old hats") without any censorship and are able to bear it.

Thsi kind of ruling makes me think back to a time before 1998 when all at this time available TV stations had to cut off their programs and had to switch to the one and only government news channel (in which usually just reports about foreign issues were highlighted). I mean this is supposed to be a democracy now, so it should act as one in ALL regards, not only for apositive "global perception of Indonesia".

didikarjadi

8:20 AM December 6, 2009

Quite extraordinary statements by the army representatives, and utter rubbish.

The people have clearly not spoken, and those in power do not truly believe in allowing them to. The LSF is not the voice of the people, and to suggest that is both arrogant and ludicrous.

It would appear that our army is still firmly of the mindset that existed during the dictatorship era. An army which, to the best of my knowledge, has never been tested in war against other soldiers, but only against civilians, and often in the oppression of its own peoples. Maybe it is time to start asking whether we really do need this redundant monster.

Generally, the official explanation given out by the Indonesian government as to how the journalists died, has always been viewed Worldwide with deep suspicion. This ban just enforces the belief that the journalists were executed and did-not die in crossfire. There is much evidence to support this conclusion.

The ban probably has got little to do with Indonesia - Australia relations, nor is it about upsetting the people, it is about protecting those individuals who carry the blame and the shame.

The Indonesian people do-not deserve the burden of having to share the guilt of atrocities carried out by individuals, and are certainly big enough to take the truth.