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The Killing Season: A History of the Indonesian Massacres, 1965-66
The Killing Season explores one of the largest and swiftest, yet least examined, instances of mass killing and incarceration in the twentieth century—the shocking antileftist purge that gripped Indonesia in 1965–66, leaving some five hundred thousand people dead and more than a million others in detention.
An expert in modern Indonesian history, genocide, and human rights, Geoffrey Robinson sets out to account for this violence and to end the troubling silence surrounding it. In doing so, he sheds new light on broad and enduring historical questions. How do we account for instances of systematic mass killing and detention? Why are some of these crimes remembered and punished, while others are forgotten? What are the social and political ramifications of such acts and such silence?
Challenging conventional narratives of the mass violence of 1965–66 as arising spontaneously from religious and social conflicts, Robinson argues convincingly that it was instead the product of a deliberate campaign, led by the Indonesian Army. He also details the critical role played by the United States, Britain, and other major powers in facilitating mass murder and incarceration. Robinson concludes by probing the disturbing long-term consequences of the violence for millions of survivors and Indonesian society as a whole.
Based on a rich body of primary and secondary sources, The Killing Season is the definitive account of a pivotal period in Indonesian history. It also makes a powerful contribution to wider debates about the dynamics and legacies of mass killing, incarceration, and genocide.
447 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 13, 2018
About the author
Geoffrey B. Robinson
3 books9 followersGeoffrey B. Robinson is a professor of history at the University of California, Los Angeles who writes and teaches about the history of political violence, genocide, human rights, and mass incarceration, primarily in Southeast Asia.
A Canadian, he earned his BA at McGill University and his PhD at Cornell, where he was a student of Benedict Anderson and George Kahin. Before coming to UCLA in 1997, Robinson worked for six years at Amnesty International’s Research Department in London, and in 1999 he served as a Political Affairs Officer with the United Nations in Dili, East Timor.
His books include The Dark Side of Paradise: Political Violence in Bali and “If You Leave Us Here, We Will Die”: How Genocide Was Stopped in East Timor (Princeton).
A Canadian, he earned his BA at McGill University and his PhD at Cornell, where he was a student of Benedict Anderson and George Kahin. Before coming to UCLA in 1997, Robinson worked for six years at Amnesty International’s Research Department in London, and in 1999 he served as a Political Affairs Officer with the United Nations in Dili, East Timor.
His books include The Dark Side of Paradise: Political Violence in Bali and “If You Leave Us Here, We Will Die”: How Genocide Was Stopped in East Timor (Princeton).
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March 31, 2026
Foundations of the worst political genocide…
Preamble:
--For a Jim Glassman class project, I chose the 1965-66 Indonesian genocide to learn about basically the worst case scenario for activism: some 1 million unarmed civilians (not even guerilla forces) murdered based on their mainstream political affiliations, with no truth/justice/reconciliation and leftism still slandered.
…Crucially, the class challenged me to avoid hindsight bias, where we assume history as inevitable and fail to reconstruct the uncertainty and subjectivity of the actors at the time.
The Good:
--I started with journalist Bevin’s non-academic breakthrough The Jakarta Method: Washington's Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program that Shaped Our World, so start with the linked review for background.
--Next came academic sources, starting with Robinson’s book as it provides the foundational structures (centered on the genocide and branching out) synthesizing the key perspectives (debunking propaganda, while being open to various critical interpretations where evidence is still insufficient):
1) Overview of Propaganda:
--While I prioritize not getting bogged down by debunking every piece of propaganda, it’s still useful to notice common tactics.
--We should expect long-term power to hide in abstraction, shifting blame onto surface-level appearances (scapegoating 101).
--Applied to the Indonesian genocide:
i) Myth #1: The Victims as Existential Threats:
--Abstraction: we should be alert to history’s many examples of “false flag” operations, to commit a crime and blame it on the opposition to create a “pretext”/excuse (i.e. mobilize public support/passivity) to attack them.
…In this case, concrete evidence of a “false flag” is still contentious (Robinson overviews the most compelling theories), but there is no doubt the main perpetrators (anti-communist side of the Indonesian army) and enablers (Western states/intelligence, esp. US) relied on “provocation” to scare just a few targets into over-reacting, trapping them in an unwinnable scenario and creating a “pretext” to then scapegoat millions of targets.
…With increasing rumors of a coup plot by a group of anti-communist generals targeting the nationalist (and increasingly anti-imperialist) first-president Sukarno, a group of lower-level soldiers (“G30S”) kidnapped the generals. Such political “kidnappings” had a certain procedural tradition in Indonesia’s tumultuous decolonization, but in this case it went mysteriously awry with the generals killed.
--Scapegoating: One general mysteriously not targeted was Suharto, who was conveniently ready to immediately establish a military dictatorship (with US backing) and flood the country with propaganda (Bevins notes US psyops tactics) blaming the unarmed mainstream Communist party (PKI) (largest non-ruling communist party in the world) and its unarmed mass affiliates, including the myth that the generals were castrated by naked dancing members of the PKI-affiliated Gerwani (women’s movement, one of the largest in the world; see Saskia E. Wieringa on the gender dynamics; for gender violence in capitalist accumulation/colonization, see: Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation).
…Depending on regional peculiarities, religion (PKI’s atheist communism, mixed/moderates), immediate socioeconomic conflicts (peasant land reforms, trade unions), ethnicity (Chinese) were also targets. However, the underlying target was political leftism (i.e. challenging hierarchies for social needs, often quite moderate given how mainstream leftism was as a pillar of Indonesian nationalism), making this genocide unique by mainstream definitions.
…So, we can see the conservative’s hysterical use of crude identity politics, of existential threats (“traitors and whores”) against family/God/property. Bevin’s The Jakarta Method: Washington's Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program that Shaped Our World provides vivid comparisons with Latin America (esp. Brazil during its military dictatorship as well as the recent Bolsonaro revival). For reactionary ideology, see: The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Donald Trump
ii) Myth #2: The Perpetrators as the Public:
--Abstraction: see below on the Army as perpetrator, the West as Enabler.
--Scapegoating: blame is shifted on the public, the mob with pitchforks. This includes psychological (peer pressure, bystanders), cultural (“running amok” with spontaneous violence; “amuk” is a Malay word), and the aforementioned crude identity politics.
2) Historical context: Indonesia’s militarized state:
--I was most fascinated with this part, in particular the balance of power of:
i) The army in Indonesian society
ii) The anti-communists within the army
iii) How the West eventually took advantage, which was not inevitable. After all, the Indonesian army fought for independence against Dutch colonialism, and many remained loyal to the nationalist hero first-president Sukarno (who tried to unite nationalism/religion/communism, in the acronym “Nasakom”).
--Robinson highlights the significant influence of Japan’s occupation (1942-45) kicking out the Dutch colonialists. Japanese imperialism passed on their infamous violence (torture/arbitrary imprisonment/collective punishment) to the new Indonesian army, as well as mobilizing mass militias (including future dictator Suharto).
--After Japan withdrew from its WWII defeat, the Dutch tried to re-colonize Indonesia. As colonialism relies on divide-and-rule, the infant nationalism was fraught with conflicts, leading to regional rebellions by communists (Madiun Affair) and Islamists (Darul Islam). Both were crushed by the nationalist army, whose anti-communism was rewarded by the US withdrawing support to the Dutch leading to Indonesian independence.
--By the mid-1950s, nationalist president Sukarno expanded his influence to lead the “Third World Project” in the 1955 Bandung Conference (1st Afro-Asian conference: The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World), thus becoming a priority in the CIA’s hit list (Washington Bullets: A History of the CIA, Coups, and Assassinations).
--US first tried to covertly break up Indonesia by supporting regional opposition (1955 elections, 1957-58 Permesta/PRRI rebellions) but failed, strengthening the nationalist Sukarno (including his distrust of US imperialism). However, in the state of emergency Sukarno declared martial law and ended parliamentary democracy, strengthening the army:
i) “Territorial command/management”: the army entrenched itself in civil society by creating its own political counterparts, i.e. state within the state.
ii) The army got its hands on many nationalized industries, thus even more status quo conservatism to maintain its privileges.
--US shrewdly shifted support to the army to foster its anti-communist side under the banner of Modernization theory (excusing the use of military dictatorships in economic development) by offering military training (no doubt practicing provocation) and corporate economics (“Berkeley Mafia”, see Economists with Guns: Authoritarian Development and U.S.-Indonesian Relations, 1960-1968, resembling the “Chicago Boys” economists behind the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile: The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism).
--Sukarno relied on combining the following to secure national unity (esp. between PKI and army):
i) bellicose anti-imperialist rhetoric (with mounting PKI support, with US war on Vietnam heating up)
ii) military action (strengthening the army)
...this unravelled by the Confrontation campaign against newly-formed Malaysia (portrayed as a British neocolonial project); it seems the anti-communists in the army (no doubt emboldened by the US) became too concerned with Sukarno’s growing alliance with the PKI at home and China abroad. This was also a time of domestic economic tumult (enter IMF: The Divide: A Brief Guide to Global Inequality and its Solutions).
3) Massacres: the Army as Perpetrator, the West as Enabler:
--We have covered the provocation and immediate Suharto military coup/anti-PKI propaganda campaign. Next, the massacres…
--Myth #3: variations in time/space of the massacres reveal they were not centrally planned by the army (assumed as uniform) but instead led by diverse local public reactions (assumed spontaneous).
--Robinson’s key breakthrough is flipping this myth on its head with a national overview to reveal the variations in time/space of massacres actually reflect the pro-Suharto army’s capacity in the region more so than local public conflicts (religion, ethnicity, immediate socioeconomic, etc.):
i) As the army was still divided given Sukarno’s mass popularity, Sukarno could not be immediately overthrown (risking civil war). Sukarno was gradually silenced by restricting info to him and from him (his public radio speeches were a crucial feature of Indonesian nationalism). Sukarno still tried to preserve unity by not directly condemning Suharto while pushing for a peaceful political solution. Thus, pro-Sukarno regional troops/mayors stopped at mass detentions.
ii) Areas already dominated by pro-Suharto troops (central army, as Suharto consolidated national power) had immediate and mass killings.
iii) For delays in mass killings, this meant initial peaceful resolutions by pro-Sukarno troops/mayors until they were overwhelmed by incoming pro-Suharto troops. In some places, this shift in the balance of power was never fully achieved, sparing the detained. Thus, long-term detention (Jakarta/West Java/Sulawesi/Buru island) had an inverse relation to mass killings (Acet/Bali/East Java).
--While Robinson’s national overview approach presents a foundational framework, Roosa’s detailed case studies in Buried Histories: The Anticommunist Massacres of 1965–1966 in Indonesia really bring this to life (I’ll review next).
…See comments below for the rest of the review (“Aftermath” and “The Missing”)…
Preamble:
--For a Jim Glassman class project, I chose the 1965-66 Indonesian genocide to learn about basically the worst case scenario for activism: some 1 million unarmed civilians (not even guerilla forces) murdered based on their mainstream political affiliations, with no truth/justice/reconciliation and leftism still slandered.
…Crucially, the class challenged me to avoid hindsight bias, where we assume history as inevitable and fail to reconstruct the uncertainty and subjectivity of the actors at the time.
The Good:
--I started with journalist Bevin’s non-academic breakthrough The Jakarta Method: Washington's Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program that Shaped Our World, so start with the linked review for background.
--Next came academic sources, starting with Robinson’s book as it provides the foundational structures (centered on the genocide and branching out) synthesizing the key perspectives (debunking propaganda, while being open to various critical interpretations where evidence is still insufficient):
1) Overview of Propaganda:
--While I prioritize not getting bogged down by debunking every piece of propaganda, it’s still useful to notice common tactics.
--We should expect long-term power to hide in abstraction, shifting blame onto surface-level appearances (scapegoating 101).
--Applied to the Indonesian genocide:
i) Myth #1: The Victims as Existential Threats:
--Abstraction: we should be alert to history’s many examples of “false flag” operations, to commit a crime and blame it on the opposition to create a “pretext”/excuse (i.e. mobilize public support/passivity) to attack them.
…In this case, concrete evidence of a “false flag” is still contentious (Robinson overviews the most compelling theories), but there is no doubt the main perpetrators (anti-communist side of the Indonesian army) and enablers (Western states/intelligence, esp. US) relied on “provocation” to scare just a few targets into over-reacting, trapping them in an unwinnable scenario and creating a “pretext” to then scapegoat millions of targets.
…With increasing rumors of a coup plot by a group of anti-communist generals targeting the nationalist (and increasingly anti-imperialist) first-president Sukarno, a group of lower-level soldiers (“G30S”) kidnapped the generals. Such political “kidnappings” had a certain procedural tradition in Indonesia’s tumultuous decolonization, but in this case it went mysteriously awry with the generals killed.
--Scapegoating: One general mysteriously not targeted was Suharto, who was conveniently ready to immediately establish a military dictatorship (with US backing) and flood the country with propaganda (Bevins notes US psyops tactics) blaming the unarmed mainstream Communist party (PKI) (largest non-ruling communist party in the world) and its unarmed mass affiliates, including the myth that the generals were castrated by naked dancing members of the PKI-affiliated Gerwani (women’s movement, one of the largest in the world; see Saskia E. Wieringa on the gender dynamics; for gender violence in capitalist accumulation/colonization, see: Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation).
…Depending on regional peculiarities, religion (PKI’s atheist communism, mixed/moderates), immediate socioeconomic conflicts (peasant land reforms, trade unions), ethnicity (Chinese) were also targets. However, the underlying target was political leftism (i.e. challenging hierarchies for social needs, often quite moderate given how mainstream leftism was as a pillar of Indonesian nationalism), making this genocide unique by mainstream definitions.
…So, we can see the conservative’s hysterical use of crude identity politics, of existential threats (“traitors and whores”) against family/God/property. Bevin’s The Jakarta Method: Washington's Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program that Shaped Our World provides vivid comparisons with Latin America (esp. Brazil during its military dictatorship as well as the recent Bolsonaro revival). For reactionary ideology, see: The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Donald Trump
ii) Myth #2: The Perpetrators as the Public:
--Abstraction: see below on the Army as perpetrator, the West as Enabler.
--Scapegoating: blame is shifted on the public, the mob with pitchforks. This includes psychological (peer pressure, bystanders), cultural (“running amok” with spontaneous violence; “amuk” is a Malay word), and the aforementioned crude identity politics.
2) Historical context: Indonesia’s militarized state:
--I was most fascinated with this part, in particular the balance of power of:
i) The army in Indonesian society
ii) The anti-communists within the army
iii) How the West eventually took advantage, which was not inevitable. After all, the Indonesian army fought for independence against Dutch colonialism, and many remained loyal to the nationalist hero first-president Sukarno (who tried to unite nationalism/religion/communism, in the acronym “Nasakom”).
--Robinson highlights the significant influence of Japan’s occupation (1942-45) kicking out the Dutch colonialists. Japanese imperialism passed on their infamous violence (torture/arbitrary imprisonment/collective punishment) to the new Indonesian army, as well as mobilizing mass militias (including future dictator Suharto).
--After Japan withdrew from its WWII defeat, the Dutch tried to re-colonize Indonesia. As colonialism relies on divide-and-rule, the infant nationalism was fraught with conflicts, leading to regional rebellions by communists (Madiun Affair) and Islamists (Darul Islam). Both were crushed by the nationalist army, whose anti-communism was rewarded by the US withdrawing support to the Dutch leading to Indonesian independence.
--By the mid-1950s, nationalist president Sukarno expanded his influence to lead the “Third World Project” in the 1955 Bandung Conference (1st Afro-Asian conference: The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World), thus becoming a priority in the CIA’s hit list (Washington Bullets: A History of the CIA, Coups, and Assassinations).
--US first tried to covertly break up Indonesia by supporting regional opposition (1955 elections, 1957-58 Permesta/PRRI rebellions) but failed, strengthening the nationalist Sukarno (including his distrust of US imperialism). However, in the state of emergency Sukarno declared martial law and ended parliamentary democracy, strengthening the army:
i) “Territorial command/management”: the army entrenched itself in civil society by creating its own political counterparts, i.e. state within the state.
ii) The army got its hands on many nationalized industries, thus even more status quo conservatism to maintain its privileges.
--US shrewdly shifted support to the army to foster its anti-communist side under the banner of Modernization theory (excusing the use of military dictatorships in economic development) by offering military training (no doubt practicing provocation) and corporate economics (“Berkeley Mafia”, see Economists with Guns: Authoritarian Development and U.S.-Indonesian Relations, 1960-1968, resembling the “Chicago Boys” economists behind the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile: The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism).
--Sukarno relied on combining the following to secure national unity (esp. between PKI and army):
i) bellicose anti-imperialist rhetoric (with mounting PKI support, with US war on Vietnam heating up)
ii) military action (strengthening the army)
...this unravelled by the Confrontation campaign against newly-formed Malaysia (portrayed as a British neocolonial project); it seems the anti-communists in the army (no doubt emboldened by the US) became too concerned with Sukarno’s growing alliance with the PKI at home and China abroad. This was also a time of domestic economic tumult (enter IMF: The Divide: A Brief Guide to Global Inequality and its Solutions).
3) Massacres: the Army as Perpetrator, the West as Enabler:
--We have covered the provocation and immediate Suharto military coup/anti-PKI propaganda campaign. Next, the massacres…
--Myth #3: variations in time/space of the massacres reveal they were not centrally planned by the army (assumed as uniform) but instead led by diverse local public reactions (assumed spontaneous).
--Robinson’s key breakthrough is flipping this myth on its head with a national overview to reveal the variations in time/space of massacres actually reflect the pro-Suharto army’s capacity in the region more so than local public conflicts (religion, ethnicity, immediate socioeconomic, etc.):
i) As the army was still divided given Sukarno’s mass popularity, Sukarno could not be immediately overthrown (risking civil war). Sukarno was gradually silenced by restricting info to him and from him (his public radio speeches were a crucial feature of Indonesian nationalism). Sukarno still tried to preserve unity by not directly condemning Suharto while pushing for a peaceful political solution. Thus, pro-Sukarno regional troops/mayors stopped at mass detentions.
ii) Areas already dominated by pro-Suharto troops (central army, as Suharto consolidated national power) had immediate and mass killings.
iii) For delays in mass killings, this meant initial peaceful resolutions by pro-Sukarno troops/mayors until they were overwhelmed by incoming pro-Suharto troops. In some places, this shift in the balance of power was never fully achieved, sparing the detained. Thus, long-term detention (Jakarta/West Java/Sulawesi/Buru island) had an inverse relation to mass killings (Acet/Bali/East Java).
--While Robinson’s national overview approach presents a foundational framework, Roosa’s detailed case studies in Buried Histories: The Anticommunist Massacres of 1965–1966 in Indonesia really bring this to life (I’ll review next).
…See comments below for the rest of the review (“Aftermath” and “The Missing”)…
September 18, 2023
Students of cold war history know well that great Western talent of perpetrating atrocities that would be labeled totalitarian, if perpetrated by enemies; when perped by friends and allies, they are "regrettable but necessary" actions in defense of Freedom and Democracy. After all, the enemy is no better, while it is better if *our* side gets it in first.
For those feeling no need to support allies like Indonesia or Armenian-slaughtering Turkey, Geoffrey Robinson lays bare the suppressed story of one of Asia's worst mass killings, rivaling the Japanese Rape of Nanking or the Khmer Rouge. The Indonesian Army and its US backers were a true existential threat to a million Indonesians murdered in cold blood for their political beliefs, actual or presumed. In those far-off days of the 1960s, there were no powerful human rights organizations - certainly none with the capability of exposing this action. Nor would Western governments of the period have listened: human rights concerns were not then "useful" and considered the opposite.
The evidence marshaled here is chilling, and no amount of reference to Pol Pot or Stalin or Mao will wash the blood from the archipelago or the hands of the "heroic freedom-fighters" who made it flow so copiously. Recommended, but to be read only after steeling oneself for the worst in man.
For those feeling no need to support allies like Indonesia or Armenian-slaughtering Turkey, Geoffrey Robinson lays bare the suppressed story of one of Asia's worst mass killings, rivaling the Japanese Rape of Nanking or the Khmer Rouge. The Indonesian Army and its US backers were a true existential threat to a million Indonesians murdered in cold blood for their political beliefs, actual or presumed. In those far-off days of the 1960s, there were no powerful human rights organizations - certainly none with the capability of exposing this action. Nor would Western governments of the period have listened: human rights concerns were not then "useful" and considered the opposite.
The evidence marshaled here is chilling, and no amount of reference to Pol Pot or Stalin or Mao will wash the blood from the archipelago or the hands of the "heroic freedom-fighters" who made it flow so copiously. Recommended, but to be read only after steeling oneself for the worst in man.
August 16, 2024
I grew up deeply influenced by New Order propaganda, which shaped much of my understanding of history during my formative years. In high school, my history teacher and textbooks drilled into us the notion that the PKI was the embodiment of cruelty, atheism, and murder. Back then, it was a simple equation in my mind: PKI equaled evil. This perception was so ingrained that even my parents echoed it. We, as students, were mandated to watch the government-produced G30S/PKI movie annually, reinforcing the fear and loathing. The word 'PKI' became a specter that haunted our collective consciousness, a symbol of something dark and sinister in our country's past.
However, after the fall of the New Order, a wave of new literature and interviews began to surface, gradually peeling back the layers of propaganda. Yet, it wasn't until I read this particular book that my eyes were fully opened. It was like a revelation—a stark and brutal awakening to the truth. I had always sensed there was more to the story, but I never imagined the reality could be so much worse than what we were led to believe
However, after the fall of the New Order, a wave of new literature and interviews began to surface, gradually peeling back the layers of propaganda. Yet, it wasn't until I read this particular book that my eyes were fully opened. It was like a revelation—a stark and brutal awakening to the truth. I had always sensed there was more to the story, but I never imagined the reality could be so much worse than what we were led to believe
September 23, 2017
Geoffrey B. Robinson has amassed an extraordinary amount of research about the Indonesian anti-communist crusade that occurred from 1965 and in some aspects lasted decades. Hundreds of thousands were murdered, imprisoned and tortured at the implicit and explicit direction of the USA backed Junto lead by Suharto. The book lays all of this out very clearly in minute detail and is adequately referenced in all respects. It is an academic work that is very readable, albeit the material itself is devastating to read. The reader should be warned that you can not read this and remain unaffected.
I would have scored this book higher except that it has certain deficiencies. First is that in efforts to show the connections with the USA and the UK in their guiding and supporting role it misses other opportunities. There were long standing internal division between the peasantry and the elites that have historical roots in Indonesian history before the Cold War and before Colonialism.
Reducing this to a Cold War struggle misses an important understanding. What was being created by Sukarno and why he sought an independent path? It was a path that left him isolated and he knew he was living dangerously and said so. The reader needs to know more about the country and the history as well as the tragedy to fully appreciate the current situation as well as the situation then. The complexity of the Indonesian society and Sukarno's actions are not full explained. I do not feel Robinson did enough to explain the background. However it is an oversight we can forgive considering the monumental task of detailing the tragedy which he has completed here.
The repeated insistence by Robinson that the use of NGO human rights groups could have prevented or lessened the crime seems a strange liberal fig leaf to offer in the face of such a tragedy. He makes comparisons to other similar acts of repression and mass murder without significant references and explanation to make those connections. In short the situation called for armed resistance to the crimes committed, in a similar way as the Warsaw Uprising was justified in the face of the Shoah. Why this did not occur was not addressed which leaves a gaping hole in the narrative.
I would have scored this book higher except that it has certain deficiencies. First is that in efforts to show the connections with the USA and the UK in their guiding and supporting role it misses other opportunities. There were long standing internal division between the peasantry and the elites that have historical roots in Indonesian history before the Cold War and before Colonialism.
Reducing this to a Cold War struggle misses an important understanding. What was being created by Sukarno and why he sought an independent path? It was a path that left him isolated and he knew he was living dangerously and said so. The reader needs to know more about the country and the history as well as the tragedy to fully appreciate the current situation as well as the situation then. The complexity of the Indonesian society and Sukarno's actions are not full explained. I do not feel Robinson did enough to explain the background. However it is an oversight we can forgive considering the monumental task of detailing the tragedy which he has completed here.
The repeated insistence by Robinson that the use of NGO human rights groups could have prevented or lessened the crime seems a strange liberal fig leaf to offer in the face of such a tragedy. He makes comparisons to other similar acts of repression and mass murder without significant references and explanation to make those connections. In short the situation called for armed resistance to the crimes committed, in a similar way as the Warsaw Uprising was justified in the face of the Shoah. Why this did not occur was not addressed which leaves a gaping hole in the narrative.
March 30, 2020
Buku Dalih Pembunuhan Massal merupakan sumber terbaik untuk menjawab pertanyaan "siapa dalang peristiwa G30S" serta mengulik secara detail peristiwa tersebut per kepingan. Tugas buku ini ialah melanjutkan kerja kolektif yang sudah dimulai oleh John Roosa dalam menjawab pertanyaan "apa yang dilakukan dalang setelah G30S terjadi"
Sebagian besar buku ini membahas tentang manuver-manuver yang dilakukan si pelaku terhadap korban sesudah peristiwa G30S, dan tentu saja ironi karena buku ini baru hadir jauh lama setelah peristiwa itu terjadi dan tidak ditulis oleh seorang Indonesia.
Pada akhirnya, selepas buku ini rampung. Masih banyak usaha-usaha untuk menunjukkan bahwa peristiwa G30S telah benar-benar selesai karena masih banyak yang menentang meskipun terbitan semacam ini sudah mulai banyak ditemukan. Rekonsiliasi menjadi mitos atau fakta tentu kita hanya bisa mengingat sekaligus sesekali berusaha bercerita hal yang benar.
Sebagian besar buku ini membahas tentang manuver-manuver yang dilakukan si pelaku terhadap korban sesudah peristiwa G30S, dan tentu saja ironi karena buku ini baru hadir jauh lama setelah peristiwa itu terjadi dan tidak ditulis oleh seorang Indonesia.
Pada akhirnya, selepas buku ini rampung. Masih banyak usaha-usaha untuk menunjukkan bahwa peristiwa G30S telah benar-benar selesai karena masih banyak yang menentang meskipun terbitan semacam ini sudah mulai banyak ditemukan. Rekonsiliasi menjadi mitos atau fakta tentu kita hanya bisa mengingat sekaligus sesekali berusaha bercerita hal yang benar.
July 31, 2019
Decent history, but personal agenda taints book
The author is up front about his desire to use the book as a means to motivate judicial proceedings for those he believes responsible either directly (Indonesian Army) or indirectly (western powers) for the 1965-66 decimation of the Indonesian Communist Party and allied leftists. Although the author mentions the Cold War, he discounts the existential threat that Communism was recognized to be at the time. The author also does not mention that nearly every Communist government transformed into a repressive government. Rather than allow the reader to connect the dots and develop their own opinions, the author calls the violence crimes against humanity. He undermines his stance when he also calls the use of atomic bombs to end World War 2 war crimes. That said, I believe the book is worth reading.
The author is up front about his desire to use the book as a means to motivate judicial proceedings for those he believes responsible either directly (Indonesian Army) or indirectly (western powers) for the 1965-66 decimation of the Indonesian Communist Party and allied leftists. Although the author mentions the Cold War, he discounts the existential threat that Communism was recognized to be at the time. The author also does not mention that nearly every Communist government transformed into a repressive government. Rather than allow the reader to connect the dots and develop their own opinions, the author calls the violence crimes against humanity. He undermines his stance when he also calls the use of atomic bombs to end World War 2 war crimes. That said, I believe the book is worth reading.
December 9, 2018
Brilliant analysis of the massacres of 1965-66 in Indonesia against the PKI, and of what happened after - the denials, misrepresentation of the whole episode. An important book.
August 10, 2020
I can say this book was perhaps the best of this genre, not because of the topic (which is relatively interesting) but due to its comprehensive research and explanation of the author.
February 21, 2026
As an Indonesian, reading this book was incredibly difficult and heartbreaking. It was truly an eye-opening experience. Realizing how little I knew about the 1965–1966 mass killings was devastating.
I grew up as part of a generation shaped by the New Order propaganda. Before reading this book, the only narrative I knew was about the killing of the seven generals, and that the perpetrators were the PKI. I was taught that the PKI were cruel and terrifying, that they brutally murdered and mutilated the generals. I still vividly remember, when I was in elementary school, being required to watch the G30S/PKI propaganda film together at school.
The propaganda was so strong and deeply ingrained that, at one point, I even felt worried reading this book in public. That feeling alone says so much about how powerful and lasting the narrative has been. It made me realize how deeply the fear and stigma were planted in us from such a young age.
Reading this book felt like being slapped with facts I never knew existed. It challenged everything I thought I understood about that period of Indonesian history. What saddens me the most is that, until now, there has been so little accountability and recognition for the victims of the mass killings. It feels like, as a nation, we still haven’t fully confronted or learned from our past.
But when you look deeper, it’s understandable why so many Indonesians still don’t know the full story. The propaganda was powerful and pervasive. I, too, once held the same beliefs before reading this book.
This book has made me want to learn more about Indonesian history — not just the version we were taught, but the fuller, more complex truth.
I grew up as part of a generation shaped by the New Order propaganda. Before reading this book, the only narrative I knew was about the killing of the seven generals, and that the perpetrators were the PKI. I was taught that the PKI were cruel and terrifying, that they brutally murdered and mutilated the generals. I still vividly remember, when I was in elementary school, being required to watch the G30S/PKI propaganda film together at school.
The propaganda was so strong and deeply ingrained that, at one point, I even felt worried reading this book in public. That feeling alone says so much about how powerful and lasting the narrative has been. It made me realize how deeply the fear and stigma were planted in us from such a young age.
Reading this book felt like being slapped with facts I never knew existed. It challenged everything I thought I understood about that period of Indonesian history. What saddens me the most is that, until now, there has been so little accountability and recognition for the victims of the mass killings. It feels like, as a nation, we still haven’t fully confronted or learned from our past.
But when you look deeper, it’s understandable why so many Indonesians still don’t know the full story. The propaganda was powerful and pervasive. I, too, once held the same beliefs before reading this book.
This book has made me want to learn more about Indonesian history — not just the version we were taught, but the fuller, more complex truth.
January 14, 2025
Fuah, what a long and heartbreaking read! Geoffrey didn't accuse any party who started the 1965-1966 genocide in Indonesia. However, he offer several theory to explain the situation and possible actor behind the genocide from the Indonesian army to other state who dislike communism. The book then develop into how the victim was treated in "concentration camp" although obviously the Indonesian government refuse to acknowledge the political prisoner settlement as concentration camp, and the situation up until President Jokowi's regime.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 15, 2025
Sebagai yang tidak terlalu paham sejarah terutama 65, buku ini sangat membantu menjelaskan itu semua dari berbagai pandangan. Buku ini juga menjawab pertanyaan saya dahulu, mengapa kita terlalu membenci pki/komunis/kiri dan apapun yang berhubungan dengan itu?
Buku ini juga memberikan gambaran, kenapa pemerintah kita sekarang "seperti itu", sehingga warisan sejarah masa lalu penting untuk dilihat kembali.
*Disclaimer : Buku ini bisa bikin benci dan marah terhadap pemerintah dan khususnya aparat. Jadi perlu kebikjasanaan dalam membaca 😊
Buku ini juga memberikan gambaran, kenapa pemerintah kita sekarang "seperti itu", sehingga warisan sejarah masa lalu penting untuk dilihat kembali.
*Disclaimer : Buku ini bisa bikin benci dan marah terhadap pemerintah dan khususnya aparat. Jadi perlu kebikjasanaan dalam membaca 😊
March 30, 2026
There is something very distasteful about writing a book about the anticommunist massacres in Indonesia using a framework that equates the anticommunist genocide with the Soviet purges and China’s Great Leap Forward.
September 13, 2020
Bentar napas dulu 🥺
April 26, 2024
Content: Harrowing. Research: Magisterial.
November 30, 2024
now this... this was SO GOOD. so comprehensive. packed with information. my bible for the past 2 weeks.
October 6, 2019
This is one of those volumes recounting a historical event that tells us what it is going to cover, proceeds to do so, and then summarizes its findings to ensure we understand and have synthesized what we've just read. In this case, this is a good thing because the events and findings it records are in part so horrific, it would be understandable if one tried not to dwell on the subject matter after the last page has been turned.
The title reveals the subject matter--the story of (and stories behind) the Indonesian massacres that were sparked by the kidnapping and execution of six senior Indonesian generals on 1 October 1965. That event was blamed upon the PKI (Indonesia's Communist Party), and resulted in a bloodbath led by the Indonesian Army, but carried out for the most part by civilians, that sought to erase forever both the party and any sympathizers from Indonesian history. That is a very simplistic story line of an event that still has many unanswered complicated questions although author Robinson has done the best job I've ever seen of piecing together, after careful analysis, the various facts from a very impressive list of sources.
Professor Robinson, currently a history professor at UCLA, spent six years in London working for Amnesty International's Research Department, making him uniquely qualified to cover this subject. Whether he lived in Indonesia during the years he records or not is not covered in his book jacket's biography, nevertheless, his history confirms the bits and pieces I heard while living in Southeast Asia since the 1980s, working for Asiaweek magazine (a regional news magazine owned by Time Magazine Group) during the 1980s-90s, and as a member of the Hong Kong Foreign Correspondents' Club during the three decades thereafter.
The estimate of the numbers who died range from a few hundred thousand to millions; the numbers affected (and in some cases still affected) are in the millions. Was the abduction and murder of the generals led by the growing-in-popularity PKI party, or was the idea of a coup planted in their minds by an unknown domestic or 'foreign' agent? This question remains without a definitive answer although we can say that western powers certainly during the 1960s were deathly afraid of the region turning Communist (this was at the height of the American/Civil War in Vietnam, when the 'Domino Theory' was foremost in many western powers' minds) and were both covertly and openly (diplomatic channels) supporting counter-measures to stop its growth. And the demise of the somewhat socialist-sympathetic President Sukarno and the PKI, as well as the death of six senior generals was definitely of benefit to General (to-be President) Suharto.
Who did the killing? "In the Indonesian case... institutional cultures and repertoires (a history of foreign colonialism and a brutal occupation that introduced a culture of imprisonment and torture) arguably gave rise to certain common features of the violence--such as the use of specific techniques of torture, the decapitation and castration of victims, the public display of corpses and body parts, and the disposal of dead bodies in wells, irrigation ditches and rivers" (p. 296). And Robinson gives us undeniable evidence of how the army instigated and encouraged and helped citizens turn into the killers of their neighbors and friends by both verbal support & threats, as well as providing weapons, convoys of trucks, and convenient disposal grounds for the thousands of corpses.
It is a weighty book and the breadth of its subject matter calls for a weighty review, but the subject matter is so horrific as one reads of the slaughter of the victims--many just simple, innocent farmers or factory workers, many not even members of the PKI but just with 'socialist sympathies'--that this review will close here.
If you are interested in the history of Indonesia, genocide, or just man's ability to turn against every human decency our evolution should have taught us, you will want to read this book.
The title reveals the subject matter--the story of (and stories behind) the Indonesian massacres that were sparked by the kidnapping and execution of six senior Indonesian generals on 1 October 1965. That event was blamed upon the PKI (Indonesia's Communist Party), and resulted in a bloodbath led by the Indonesian Army, but carried out for the most part by civilians, that sought to erase forever both the party and any sympathizers from Indonesian history. That is a very simplistic story line of an event that still has many unanswered complicated questions although author Robinson has done the best job I've ever seen of piecing together, after careful analysis, the various facts from a very impressive list of sources.
Professor Robinson, currently a history professor at UCLA, spent six years in London working for Amnesty International's Research Department, making him uniquely qualified to cover this subject. Whether he lived in Indonesia during the years he records or not is not covered in his book jacket's biography, nevertheless, his history confirms the bits and pieces I heard while living in Southeast Asia since the 1980s, working for Asiaweek magazine (a regional news magazine owned by Time Magazine Group) during the 1980s-90s, and as a member of the Hong Kong Foreign Correspondents' Club during the three decades thereafter.
The estimate of the numbers who died range from a few hundred thousand to millions; the numbers affected (and in some cases still affected) are in the millions. Was the abduction and murder of the generals led by the growing-in-popularity PKI party, or was the idea of a coup planted in their minds by an unknown domestic or 'foreign' agent? This question remains without a definitive answer although we can say that western powers certainly during the 1960s were deathly afraid of the region turning Communist (this was at the height of the American/Civil War in Vietnam, when the 'Domino Theory' was foremost in many western powers' minds) and were both covertly and openly (diplomatic channels) supporting counter-measures to stop its growth. And the demise of the somewhat socialist-sympathetic President Sukarno and the PKI, as well as the death of six senior generals was definitely of benefit to General (to-be President) Suharto.
Who did the killing? "In the Indonesian case... institutional cultures and repertoires (a history of foreign colonialism and a brutal occupation that introduced a culture of imprisonment and torture) arguably gave rise to certain common features of the violence--such as the use of specific techniques of torture, the decapitation and castration of victims, the public display of corpses and body parts, and the disposal of dead bodies in wells, irrigation ditches and rivers" (p. 296). And Robinson gives us undeniable evidence of how the army instigated and encouraged and helped citizens turn into the killers of their neighbors and friends by both verbal support & threats, as well as providing weapons, convoys of trucks, and convenient disposal grounds for the thousands of corpses.
It is a weighty book and the breadth of its subject matter calls for a weighty review, but the subject matter is so horrific as one reads of the slaughter of the victims--many just simple, innocent farmers or factory workers, many not even members of the PKI but just with 'socialist sympathies'--that this review will close here.
If you are interested in the history of Indonesia, genocide, or just man's ability to turn against every human decency our evolution should have taught us, you will want to read this book.
September 6, 2018
An extraordinary book, supported by voluminous research which couples a timeline of the historic tragedy with meaningful explanations of the pathway to the bloodshed, the structure of Indonesian society and institutions that made this mass murder and the incarceration that followed possible and perhaps inevitable, the reasons the military were able to slaughter so many with such ease, and the ugly and increasingly documented Western complicity in it all.
It all sounds so familiar having lived in the country for many years, encountering and knowing both victims and those wanting to address the past. But, of course, to most beyond the archipelago this history remains an unknown. Hopefully this very important and overdue book helps changes that.
It all sounds so familiar having lived in the country for many years, encountering and knowing both victims and those wanting to address the past. But, of course, to most beyond the archipelago this history remains an unknown. Hopefully this very important and overdue book helps changes that.
Read
September 12, 2020Wanted to understand the political ramifications with the 1965 massacres. However, the book was more skewed towards addressing the factors that resulted in heavy censorship of this period of history in Indonesia. The portion on how even several decades after this massively under-reported and overlooked event continues to haunt those who were persecuted in 1965 was made quite an impression as this group of people are deprived of basic rights to vote, to be with their family and to receive fair trial. Unfortunately, given how effective the government has been in silencing voices that are pushing for a reckoning of this hidden dirty secret of Indonesia's history, the efforts to serve justice to those who have suffered are likely to be limited.
December 28, 2020
Harrowing report of one of the swiftest, most brutal and politically most effective mass murder campaigns of the 20th century. Between October 1965 and 1966 something on the order of a million Indonesians accused, with or without evidence, of supporting the Communist PKI party were massacred by the army and supporting organizations of the paramilitary sort. The CIA probably didn't organize the coup, which eventually ousted Sukarno, but it certainly supported it. Supplement the book, if your stomach can take it, with Joshua Oppenheimer's documentary The Act of Killing in which two of the death squad leaders unapologetically describe what happened.
June 3, 2026
Buku sejarah mengenai peristiwa 65 yang cukup runut, sangat menjabarkan beberapa pertanyaan mengenai 'mengapa' bisa sampai terjadi kekerasan massal di tahun 65 saat Soeharto mulai membangun rezimnya. Buku ini menarik buat aku karena di sampul depannya tercantum nama seorang Purnawirawan TNI sebagai seorang pengantar. Aku pribadi cukup terkejut, ternyata, Letnan Jendral Agus Widjojo seorang yang cukup terbuka dan salah satu orang dari kalangan militer yang mendukung rekonsiliasi korban 65. Walau dari tulisan pengantar beliau, sarat makna yang masih cukup defensif mengenai peristiwa 65 & masih menentang keterlibatan angkatan darat. Tapi seperti kata penulis, Geoffrey B Robinson, hal ini cukup bisa disebut sebagai sebuah kemajuan, walau apa yang disampaikan Agus Widjojo sangat paradoks dan sebenarnya korban tidak cukup sekedar mendapat rekonsiliasi yang hanya menjadi akal-akalan negara agar tanggung jawab moralnya terlihat selesai, padahal tidak.
Di awal Bab, penulis mengajak kita memikirkan kenapa ketegangan politik Indonesia bisa terjadi dan berakhir menjadi kekerasan, lalu penulis mengajak kita untuk mundur ke saat masa kolonial, hal itu menjadi salah satu alasan kenapa militer Indonesia memiliki siklus repetoar mengenai tindakan represi & membentuk hegemoni militer saat itu-dan mungkin sampai hari ini. Dan peran penting beberapa partai yang saling bersinggungan dengan PKI, tak lupa peran asing yang ikut mendorong keretakan politik Indonesia pada saat itu.
Banyak sekali teori yang muncul, tetapi buku ini mampu menjelaskan. Yang jelas, pola kekerasan, waktu, dan dalih ketika militer melakukan tindak represi dan pembunuhan selalu sama, isu rasial, agama, perbedaan wilayah di Indonesia yang luas, bahkan yang katanya kemarahan masyarakat terhadap PKI-disinyalir sebagai alasan keretakan politik Indonesia dipatahkan oleh bukti konkret keterlibatan militer sebagai dalang. Seperti kekuatan mendapat list nama, kemampuan menggolongkan tingkat 'kejahatan' para tapol, kemampuan menyediakan sarana kendaraan dan tempat untuk menjadi kamp penahanan, rumah tahanan, serta sistem penentuan siapa yang akan masuk penjara, dibunuh, atau masuk kamp kerja paksa. Kekuatan senjata & pasokan bantuan yang diterima negara untuk militer, konsolidasi massa, seruan mengajak organisasi masyarakat, mahasiswa, dan keagamaan untuk ikut serta, dan lain sebagainya.
Genosida-begitulah aku menyebutnya, dilakukan militer rezim Soeharto untuk melemahkan Soekarno dan PKI, dan menyebarkan kebencian yang mengakar kuat sampai hari ini. Peristiwa 65 dibuat untuk membunuh banyak manusia bukan karena mereka benar benar melakukan kesalahan tetapi sekedar karena mereka terikat dengan pilihan politik yang sah. Tak lupa pengaruh perang dingin dan 'kedekatan Soeharto' dengan Amerika, yang saat itu CIA sedang gencar menebar dan menumpas komunisme.
Di buku ini juga dijelaskan perjalanan para tapol sesudah 'bisa' bebas, Soeharto tidak pernah memberi napas, dan diskriminasi terus berlanjut. Bahkan sampai hari ini, negara masih jadi pengecut untuk mengusut peristiwa 65. Mereka selalu menyebut untuk melupakan masa lalu tapi mereka dengan sadar membangun museum, memutar terus film propaganda, dan selalu mengutuk PKI tanpa henti. Mereka selalu membuat kita mengingat kematian para jendral yang sebenarnya itu ulah internal mereka sendiri, dan pemberontakan Madiun sebagai tameng untuk melupakan genosida 65.
Bahkan alasan keterlibatan beberapa pelaku ikut tersorot, seperti takut karena tekanan pihak berwenang, atasan, teman kerja, bahkan sekedar untuk melindungi diri. Isu kesehatan mental pun ikut disorot di buku ini.
Sedih karena diakhir buku, banyak kutipan dari pejabat negara yang tidak mau mengucapkan permintaan maaf terhadap korban dan malah terus mengutuk dan diskriminasi terhadap PKI. Sampai kapanpun, negara akan terus melanggengkan impunitas. Dan tidak akan pernah berubah selama mereka tidak mau terbuka terhadap sejarah yang sebenarnya.
Di awal Bab, penulis mengajak kita memikirkan kenapa ketegangan politik Indonesia bisa terjadi dan berakhir menjadi kekerasan, lalu penulis mengajak kita untuk mundur ke saat masa kolonial, hal itu menjadi salah satu alasan kenapa militer Indonesia memiliki siklus repetoar mengenai tindakan represi & membentuk hegemoni militer saat itu-dan mungkin sampai hari ini. Dan peran penting beberapa partai yang saling bersinggungan dengan PKI, tak lupa peran asing yang ikut mendorong keretakan politik Indonesia pada saat itu.
Banyak sekali teori yang muncul, tetapi buku ini mampu menjelaskan. Yang jelas, pola kekerasan, waktu, dan dalih ketika militer melakukan tindak represi dan pembunuhan selalu sama, isu rasial, agama, perbedaan wilayah di Indonesia yang luas, bahkan yang katanya kemarahan masyarakat terhadap PKI-disinyalir sebagai alasan keretakan politik Indonesia dipatahkan oleh bukti konkret keterlibatan militer sebagai dalang. Seperti kekuatan mendapat list nama, kemampuan menggolongkan tingkat 'kejahatan' para tapol, kemampuan menyediakan sarana kendaraan dan tempat untuk menjadi kamp penahanan, rumah tahanan, serta sistem penentuan siapa yang akan masuk penjara, dibunuh, atau masuk kamp kerja paksa. Kekuatan senjata & pasokan bantuan yang diterima negara untuk militer, konsolidasi massa, seruan mengajak organisasi masyarakat, mahasiswa, dan keagamaan untuk ikut serta, dan lain sebagainya.
Genosida-begitulah aku menyebutnya, dilakukan militer rezim Soeharto untuk melemahkan Soekarno dan PKI, dan menyebarkan kebencian yang mengakar kuat sampai hari ini. Peristiwa 65 dibuat untuk membunuh banyak manusia bukan karena mereka benar benar melakukan kesalahan tetapi sekedar karena mereka terikat dengan pilihan politik yang sah. Tak lupa pengaruh perang dingin dan 'kedekatan Soeharto' dengan Amerika, yang saat itu CIA sedang gencar menebar dan menumpas komunisme.
Di buku ini juga dijelaskan perjalanan para tapol sesudah 'bisa' bebas, Soeharto tidak pernah memberi napas, dan diskriminasi terus berlanjut. Bahkan sampai hari ini, negara masih jadi pengecut untuk mengusut peristiwa 65. Mereka selalu menyebut untuk melupakan masa lalu tapi mereka dengan sadar membangun museum, memutar terus film propaganda, dan selalu mengutuk PKI tanpa henti. Mereka selalu membuat kita mengingat kematian para jendral yang sebenarnya itu ulah internal mereka sendiri, dan pemberontakan Madiun sebagai tameng untuk melupakan genosida 65.
Bahkan alasan keterlibatan beberapa pelaku ikut tersorot, seperti takut karena tekanan pihak berwenang, atasan, teman kerja, bahkan sekedar untuk melindungi diri. Isu kesehatan mental pun ikut disorot di buku ini.
Sedih karena diakhir buku, banyak kutipan dari pejabat negara yang tidak mau mengucapkan permintaan maaf terhadap korban dan malah terus mengutuk dan diskriminasi terhadap PKI. Sampai kapanpun, negara akan terus melanggengkan impunitas. Dan tidak akan pernah berubah selama mereka tidak mau terbuka terhadap sejarah yang sebenarnya.
June 4, 2026
Respon saya saat membaca buku ini adalah... misuh-misuh dalam hati.
Bagaimana tidak? Buku ini barangkali menjadi salah satu buku paling lengkap dalam menjelaskan ihwal pembantaian anggota dan terduga simpatisan PKI, mulai dari penyebab hingga upaya penyelesaian kasusnya. Estimasi korban tewas antara 500.000 hingga 3 juta jiwa. Belum lagi yang ditahan tanpa proses pengadilan.
Dari buku ini, saya baru sadar bahwa tahun 1965-1966 itu adalah waktu AS sedang Perang Dingin dengan negara-negara berideologi kiri. Mengetahui apa yang sedang terjadi pada kondisi politik Indonesia, AS dan sekutunya tidak ragu mendukung upaya Angkatan Darat menyapu PKI. Mereka dengan sengaja tidak mencampuri kebijakan dalam negeri Indonesia dan memberi bantuan sipil secara diam-diam yang bisa meningkatkan pamor AD.
Siksaan yang dialami oleh para tapol tidak hanya pada aspek fisik saja, tetapi juga pada aspek psikologis. Pertanyaan tentang kapan diri mereka akan diadili, kapan mereka bisa bebas, kerinduan mereka terhadap keluarga, dan perlakuan tidak humanis yang sering mereka terima, membuat kehidupan tapol tidak tertahankan dan beberapa tahanan mencoba bunuh diri.
Rasanya tidak mungkin saya bisa menyebutkan poin-poin penting buku ini tentang peristiwa Gerakan 30 S serta kesudahannya. Bahwa ada pola terbalik dalam daerah-daerah tentang angka pembunuhan terduga afiliasi PKI dengan masa penahanan mereka (merujuk pada kemampuan dan sumber daya AD setempat dalam mengelola). Bahwa AD memanfaatkan milisi lokal berideologi nasionalis dan Islam untuk dimobilisasi dalam penumpasan afiliasi PKI. Bahwa penahanan tapol di abad XX ini mirip dengan tradisi pengadilan kerajaan Jawa, atau pengalaman dengan Kempetai, atau Boven Digoel dan Gulag, menjadikan Indonesia pemegang kamp tahanan terbesar di masa itu. Bahwa penumpasan tersebut telah menghapus satu generasi cendekia bangsa Indonesia, termasuk para mahasiswa yang dilarang pulang ke tanah air. Bahwa gagasan tentang HAM secara internasional baru bergaung di tahun 1970-an sehingga bisa menciptakan tekanan bagi pemerintah Indonesia untuk membebaskan tapol. Bahwa pembatasan hak-hak tapol yang dibebaskan serta pembatasan pembahasan ideologi komunisme telah menciptakan kebungkaman berjangka waktu lama. Bahwa pembatasan tersebut dilakukan secara sistematis melalui instrumen hukum.
Pasca Orde Baru, upaya pencarian keadilan dari peristiwa ini bisa dibilang belum diraih sepenuhnya. Tidak ada keseriusan dari pemerintah Indonesia untuk memproses kasus ini, bahkan setelah Soeharto meninggal. Pejabat-pejabat terkait bersikap defensif dan menawarkan rekonsiliasi. Larangan hukum atas ideologi kiri masih ada, membuat upaya pembangunan kesadaran tentang peristiwa 1965 berjalan di akar rumput. Pencarian keadilan akhirnya masih sebatas pemberian dukungan materi dan psikologis bagi para korban.
Peristiwa besar ini seolah hanyut dibawa sungai sejarah. Baik pelaku dan korban telah menua dan banyak yang telah meninggal, sedangkan kita yang lebih muda mewarisi luka, prasangka, dan trauma mereka.
Bagaimana tidak? Buku ini barangkali menjadi salah satu buku paling lengkap dalam menjelaskan ihwal pembantaian anggota dan terduga simpatisan PKI, mulai dari penyebab hingga upaya penyelesaian kasusnya. Estimasi korban tewas antara 500.000 hingga 3 juta jiwa. Belum lagi yang ditahan tanpa proses pengadilan.
Kebetulan, Angkatan Darat juga sangat antidemokrasi. Sikap ini sangat sesuai dengan kepentingan AS, khususnya karena para pejabat AS yakin bahwa pemilihan umum bebas akan menguntungkan PKI.
Dari buku ini, saya baru sadar bahwa tahun 1965-1966 itu adalah waktu AS sedang Perang Dingin dengan negara-negara berideologi kiri. Mengetahui apa yang sedang terjadi pada kondisi politik Indonesia, AS dan sekutunya tidak ragu mendukung upaya Angkatan Darat menyapu PKI. Mereka dengan sengaja tidak mencampuri kebijakan dalam negeri Indonesia dan memberi bantuan sipil secara diam-diam yang bisa meningkatkan pamor AD.
Selain kekejaman dan ketidakadilannya, salahsatu ciri paling menonjol adalah sejauh mana hukuman ini mengulangi gaya kamp tawanan perang yang sangat dimiliterisasi. Para tahanan yang kelelahan dan kurang gizi disuruh melakukan push up seratus kali karena telah melanggar aturan atau menyinggung penjaga. Mereka disuruh berdiri tegap selama berjam-jam di bawah hujan dan terik matahari, atau berjalan berulang kali mengelilingi halaman dalam posisi jongkok dengan tangan berada di belakang kepala. Sepertinya karena kurang imajinasi, Angkatan Darat menghukum para tahanan menggunakan repertoar terbatas yang dipelajari dari periode pendudukan Jepang.
Siksaan yang dialami oleh para tapol tidak hanya pada aspek fisik saja, tetapi juga pada aspek psikologis. Pertanyaan tentang kapan diri mereka akan diadili, kapan mereka bisa bebas, kerinduan mereka terhadap keluarga, dan perlakuan tidak humanis yang sering mereka terima, membuat kehidupan tapol tidak tertahankan dan beberapa tahanan mencoba bunuh diri.
Rasanya tidak mungkin saya bisa menyebutkan poin-poin penting buku ini tentang peristiwa Gerakan 30 S serta kesudahannya. Bahwa ada pola terbalik dalam daerah-daerah tentang angka pembunuhan terduga afiliasi PKI dengan masa penahanan mereka (merujuk pada kemampuan dan sumber daya AD setempat dalam mengelola). Bahwa AD memanfaatkan milisi lokal berideologi nasionalis dan Islam untuk dimobilisasi dalam penumpasan afiliasi PKI. Bahwa penahanan tapol di abad XX ini mirip dengan tradisi pengadilan kerajaan Jawa, atau pengalaman dengan Kempetai, atau Boven Digoel dan Gulag, menjadikan Indonesia pemegang kamp tahanan terbesar di masa itu. Bahwa penumpasan tersebut telah menghapus satu generasi cendekia bangsa Indonesia, termasuk para mahasiswa yang dilarang pulang ke tanah air. Bahwa gagasan tentang HAM secara internasional baru bergaung di tahun 1970-an sehingga bisa menciptakan tekanan bagi pemerintah Indonesia untuk membebaskan tapol. Bahwa pembatasan hak-hak tapol yang dibebaskan serta pembatasan pembahasan ideologi komunisme telah menciptakan kebungkaman berjangka waktu lama. Bahwa pembatasan tersebut dilakukan secara sistematis melalui instrumen hukum.
Pasca Orde Baru, upaya pencarian keadilan dari peristiwa ini bisa dibilang belum diraih sepenuhnya. Tidak ada keseriusan dari pemerintah Indonesia untuk memproses kasus ini, bahkan setelah Soeharto meninggal. Pejabat-pejabat terkait bersikap defensif dan menawarkan rekonsiliasi. Larangan hukum atas ideologi kiri masih ada, membuat upaya pembangunan kesadaran tentang peristiwa 1965 berjalan di akar rumput. Pencarian keadilan akhirnya masih sebatas pemberian dukungan materi dan psikologis bagi para korban.
Peristiwa besar ini seolah hanyut dibawa sungai sejarah. Baik pelaku dan korban telah menua dan banyak yang telah meninggal, sedangkan kita yang lebih muda mewarisi luka, prasangka, dan trauma mereka.
October 20, 2021
harganya memang mahal tapi bisa menguak keberadaan apa yang terjadi 1965 - 1966
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ini menjawab kondisi atau keadaan pasca g30s. marahnya anarkis begitu puncak masyarakat begitu setelah mendengar radio yang mengumumkan berhasil menghentikan aksi kudeta. untuk dalang G30S penulis geoffrey sependapat dengan seanalisis dari John Roosa.
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saya mengutip dari buku ini, "ada pasangan baru menikah beberapa hari kemudian dibawa oleh kelompok x, lalu memperkosa orang tersebut beberapa kali kemudian dibunuh dimulai dari payudara hingga kemaluannya."
.
"truk berhenti, suara klakson begitu sangat mengerikan......."
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"perempuan dipaksa telanjang dan diperkosa oleh penjaga tahanan / interogator. rambut kemaluan dibakar dan berteriak atas nama tuhan untuk menyelamatkan dirinya. selain itu, dipaksa untuk mencium penis pada petugas / penjaga tahanan."
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kemudian, pada masa tahun 1970 - 1980 para jurnalis dan asing menyoroti indonesia pasca g30s. rezim orde baru kewalahan dalam menghadapi dan memberi bukti secara dongeng.
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tentara mendapat bantuan pasokan kebutuhan dari AS dengan kode "medis" dan membuat tipu muslihat, mengecoh masyarakat yang nantinya menimbulkan amarah non-pki sehingga pasokan kebutuhan didistribusikan dahulu ke markas pki. lalu, non-pki marah dan ada kaya kebutuhan pki di markas pki sendiri, dengan kata lain tentara mengkambinghitamkan pki pada masa itu sampai terjadinya membunuh baik pki maupun tidak pki.
.
gambaran dalam dari buku ini keadaan kondisi itu sangat mengerikan. yang menjadi pertanyaan dari penulis ini untuk keadaan indonesia pasca g30s. apa layak seorang manusia dalam dirinya manusia untuk sesama manusia untuk saling membunuh?
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kesimpulan dari ini, buku ini tidak hanya mengungkapkan dari diatas ada hal lain yang lebih diungkapkan seperti keterlibatan atau pengakuan dari AS, inggris, dan negara lain turut terlibat baik sebelum g30s hingga setelah g30s.
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adanya buku ini diambil pelajaran, "semoga di masa sekarang dan depan turut menjaga solidaritas kemanusiaan, sesama manusia jangan diskriminasi berdasarkan masa lalu, tingkatkan martabat manusia tanpa merendahkan. kita ini manusia maka perlakukan orang lain sebagai manusia. jangan dendam dari akibat masa lalu, intinya cinta sesama manusia tanpa diskiriminasi.
.
"perlakukan orang lain untuk disayangi sebagaimana dirinya dibutuhkan untuk disayangi." (HR. Bukhari : 12)
.
ini menjawab kondisi atau keadaan pasca g30s. marahnya anarkis begitu puncak masyarakat begitu setelah mendengar radio yang mengumumkan berhasil menghentikan aksi kudeta. untuk dalang G30S penulis geoffrey sependapat dengan seanalisis dari John Roosa.
.
saya mengutip dari buku ini, "ada pasangan baru menikah beberapa hari kemudian dibawa oleh kelompok x, lalu memperkosa orang tersebut beberapa kali kemudian dibunuh dimulai dari payudara hingga kemaluannya."
.
"truk berhenti, suara klakson begitu sangat mengerikan......."
.
"perempuan dipaksa telanjang dan diperkosa oleh penjaga tahanan / interogator. rambut kemaluan dibakar dan berteriak atas nama tuhan untuk menyelamatkan dirinya. selain itu, dipaksa untuk mencium penis pada petugas / penjaga tahanan."
.
kemudian, pada masa tahun 1970 - 1980 para jurnalis dan asing menyoroti indonesia pasca g30s. rezim orde baru kewalahan dalam menghadapi dan memberi bukti secara dongeng.
.
tentara mendapat bantuan pasokan kebutuhan dari AS dengan kode "medis" dan membuat tipu muslihat, mengecoh masyarakat yang nantinya menimbulkan amarah non-pki sehingga pasokan kebutuhan didistribusikan dahulu ke markas pki. lalu, non-pki marah dan ada kaya kebutuhan pki di markas pki sendiri, dengan kata lain tentara mengkambinghitamkan pki pada masa itu sampai terjadinya membunuh baik pki maupun tidak pki.
.
gambaran dalam dari buku ini keadaan kondisi itu sangat mengerikan. yang menjadi pertanyaan dari penulis ini untuk keadaan indonesia pasca g30s. apa layak seorang manusia dalam dirinya manusia untuk sesama manusia untuk saling membunuh?
.
kesimpulan dari ini, buku ini tidak hanya mengungkapkan dari diatas ada hal lain yang lebih diungkapkan seperti keterlibatan atau pengakuan dari AS, inggris, dan negara lain turut terlibat baik sebelum g30s hingga setelah g30s.
.
adanya buku ini diambil pelajaran, "semoga di masa sekarang dan depan turut menjaga solidaritas kemanusiaan, sesama manusia jangan diskriminasi berdasarkan masa lalu, tingkatkan martabat manusia tanpa merendahkan. kita ini manusia maka perlakukan orang lain sebagai manusia. jangan dendam dari akibat masa lalu, intinya cinta sesama manusia tanpa diskiriminasi.
.
"perlakukan orang lain untuk disayangi sebagaimana dirinya dibutuhkan untuk disayangi." (HR. Bukhari : 12)
Read
January 19, 2025This year marks the 60th anniversary of the mass killing and detention of members of the Indonesian Communist Party, PKI, by the Indonesian Army and the right-wing militias empowered and directed by the Army, and the subsequent overthrow of anti-colonial Sukarno government. What followed were 3 decades of authoritarian rule by General Suharto, what was termed the New Order. The Indonesian purge of leftists (or anyone perceived to be a leftist) was not something I knew of till a few years ago till a friend recommended The Jakarta Method by Vincent Bevins. Bevins's book (which I highly recommend) drew a lot from The Killing Season. I only got to reading it this past month and I don't think I've underlined as many passages or stuck as many Post-It notes to the pages of a book ever (The spine of the book is now deformed due to all the Post-It notes I've folded into the pages). This book is a forensic investigation into what came before, what happened and what the legacy of the mass violence has been on a society where no truth and reconciliation effort has materialized on a large scale. Three decades of right-wing military and paramilitary dominance over the Indonesian society has led to the reification of tropes and propaganda has become cultural norm. This book is not for the faint hearted. The descriptions of violence are provided matter-of-fact, the very acts add the color. It is an essential read to understand how genocides can occur even during relative peace and how the "rules based international order" is a myth. The United States is complicit in the mass violence and genocide in Indonesia, just like it was in Central and North America, just as it is in Palestine. With the rise of the far right and the imminent collapse of the neoliberal order across the world, the end throes of capitalism will inevitably lead to more violence, more authoritarianism and the accelerated erosion of human rights. Read this book to understand how it happened in the past and to direct your organizing and capacity to prevent it from happening in the future.
June 18, 2023
It's a very interesting history, Mr. Robinson focuses on the causes and consequences of the mass killing, rather spending that much time writing about the details of it. From that perspective, it is mainly a sociological-psychological analysis of what happened in 1965 and 1966. He describes the killings as based purely on political considerations, not on race, religion, or ethnicity that causes other mass killings. While Mr. Robinson does his best to explain the causes of the killings, I feel there is still something missing. How do you inspire a lot of people to kill unarmed people without mercy, people like you who talk like you? In the civil war in Bosnia 30 years ago, the Serbs' hatred of Croats and Bosniaks was based on the historical fighting that the groups had engaged in over the years, and particularly the Croats and Bosniaks (I think) siding with the Nazis to murder Serbs in World War II. One can become so angry as to want to kill, but when it actually comes to doing it, a lot of people can't pull the trigger. We have an estimate of how many people were murdered, how many people actually killed someone else? 50,000? 100,000? How do you inspire 100,000 people to kill in cold blood? I suppose I know the answer to that, as one could easily find 100,000 killers among the supporters of the former president to kill people like me. And it seems Suharto, through his subordinates, did manage to inspire so much killing, and created such a powerful memory of it that it is still very difficult to talk about the event openly in Indonesia, now 57 years after it ended. But how so many managed to engage in killing, in torturing, in mistreating so many people as happened in 1965-66 is something I probably will never understand.
September 19, 2020
An excellent, well researched academically oriented book that is disappointing. Disappointing because it reminds us how capable we are of reaching below our capacity to be decent. That the curdle of mediocrity can craft and adopt blame to guide people to misplace their humanity. Even good people, as the majority of Indonesians undoubtedly are.
A documentation of the 1965-6 Indonesian purge of left leaning people following an alleged attempted coup, from which over 500,000 people were killed and over a million imprisoned. Geoffrey Robinson’s narrative takes us through the history and consequence of a horror that many are unaware or appear unperturbed by. Providing useful fact based analysis of events, it shows how political manipulation allowed a torch of indecency to shine among a wide range of actors. Politicians, citizens, witnesses, the judiciary and more. The Killing Season is judiciously written, not blaming, but ostensibly implicating certan politicians and other countries as having either instigated or more likely cheaply bought collaborators in the ideological race for anything it takes anti-communist purges that were all too uncommon. And largely unrecognised, given they were ‘on our side’.
The role of silence in allowing bad things to triumph is nicely addressed as a reminder that many of us have an opportunity to do good, simply by not turning our eyes away from what is bad or will be. A good rationale on its own for reading The Killing Season. Perhaps well before the turmoil that catastrophic climate climate may well ignite as we face the challenge of who to blame for what.
A documentation of the 1965-6 Indonesian purge of left leaning people following an alleged attempted coup, from which over 500,000 people were killed and over a million imprisoned. Geoffrey Robinson’s narrative takes us through the history and consequence of a horror that many are unaware or appear unperturbed by. Providing useful fact based analysis of events, it shows how political manipulation allowed a torch of indecency to shine among a wide range of actors. Politicians, citizens, witnesses, the judiciary and more. The Killing Season is judiciously written, not blaming, but ostensibly implicating certan politicians and other countries as having either instigated or more likely cheaply bought collaborators in the ideological race for anything it takes anti-communist purges that were all too uncommon. And largely unrecognised, given they were ‘on our side’.
The role of silence in allowing bad things to triumph is nicely addressed as a reminder that many of us have an opportunity to do good, simply by not turning our eyes away from what is bad or will be. A good rationale on its own for reading The Killing Season. Perhaps well before the turmoil that catastrophic climate climate may well ignite as we face the challenge of who to blame for what.
March 3, 2026
Finally finished this book. It took me longer than I usually do. Why? Because it has been a really heavy read for me.
For years, I've always suspected that the 30 September Movement is not solely done by the comnunist party (or maybe they didn't even do it at all). For years, people has told me that I'm crazy, I'm stupid for not believing in the government's official narative. I still remember vividly the day that my school teacher branded me as the terrorist (yes thats what she called the party) symphatizer, just because I asked her about the Cornell Paper.
Now, all of my suspicions are being strengthen by this book. This book explains comprehensively from the beginning till the end. What happened before the alleged coup, during the alleged coup, and after the alleged coup. It really shows how big is the Army, some political party (along with their paramilitary groups), and western governments' role during the whole events. What hurts me the most is to read all the atrocities that they did just for the sake of their own ego, their own hatred, they own political gain.
500,000 people killed and milions being sent into prisons and concentration camps WITHOUT proper trial (if there's even any trial in the first place). Even years and years after the event, the government are still pushing the propaganda, still trying to justify everything that they did in 65-66 (even the unlawful arrests still happened until late 70s).
This book is a must read for any of you who doesn't want to live your entire life under the government propaganda.
For years, I've always suspected that the 30 September Movement is not solely done by the comnunist party (or maybe they didn't even do it at all). For years, people has told me that I'm crazy, I'm stupid for not believing in the government's official narative. I still remember vividly the day that my school teacher branded me as the terrorist (yes thats what she called the party) symphatizer, just because I asked her about the Cornell Paper.
Now, all of my suspicions are being strengthen by this book. This book explains comprehensively from the beginning till the end. What happened before the alleged coup, during the alleged coup, and after the alleged coup. It really shows how big is the Army, some political party (along with their paramilitary groups), and western governments' role during the whole events. What hurts me the most is to read all the atrocities that they did just for the sake of their own ego, their own hatred, they own political gain.
500,000 people killed and milions being sent into prisons and concentration camps WITHOUT proper trial (if there's even any trial in the first place). Even years and years after the event, the government are still pushing the propaganda, still trying to justify everything that they did in 65-66 (even the unlawful arrests still happened until late 70s).
This book is a must read for any of you who doesn't want to live your entire life under the government propaganda.
September 10, 2025
📒Di buku ini, Prof. Robinson mempertajam analisis terhadap pola nasional terkait penyelewengan tindakan kekerasan yg terjadi di Indonesia tahun 1965-1966.
Selain memberikan pandangannya terkait isu internal dg berbagai sumber yg cukup padat, penulis akan membawa kita terjun ke dalam pandangan baru serta keterlibatan dukungan rahasia kekuatan ANTEK-ANTEK ASING yg sangat kuat demi kepentingan politik yg dianggap sebagai “HARGA MURAH” yg HARUS DIBAYAR utk kehancuran kaum Kiri Indonesia. Dukungan rahasia dibidang ekonomi, propaganda, serta politik sebelum dan selama kekerasan, diikuti oleh bantuan ekonomi juga militer yang sangat besar selama beberapa dekade berikutnya. 😶🌫️
Sekarang, kenapa sebagian kejahatan serius dikenang, dikutuk, dan dihukum, sementara lainnya dilupakan serta di biarkan tanpa di hukum? This is as simply “URUSAN KEKUASAAN”!! Selama mereka yg bertanggung jawab atas kekerasan tetap berkuasa, proses mencari kebenaran, keadilan, rekonsiliasi, pergantian rugi, dan peringatan kecil kemungkinan akan terjadi lagi. 🔪
Well, Prof!! Thank you for this amazing book🤍
Selain memberikan pandangannya terkait isu internal dg berbagai sumber yg cukup padat, penulis akan membawa kita terjun ke dalam pandangan baru serta keterlibatan dukungan rahasia kekuatan ANTEK-ANTEK ASING yg sangat kuat demi kepentingan politik yg dianggap sebagai “HARGA MURAH” yg HARUS DIBAYAR utk kehancuran kaum Kiri Indonesia. Dukungan rahasia dibidang ekonomi, propaganda, serta politik sebelum dan selama kekerasan, diikuti oleh bantuan ekonomi juga militer yang sangat besar selama beberapa dekade berikutnya. 😶🌫️
Sekarang, kenapa sebagian kejahatan serius dikenang, dikutuk, dan dihukum, sementara lainnya dilupakan serta di biarkan tanpa di hukum? This is as simply “URUSAN KEKUASAAN”!! Selama mereka yg bertanggung jawab atas kekerasan tetap berkuasa, proses mencari kebenaran, keadilan, rekonsiliasi, pergantian rugi, dan peringatan kecil kemungkinan akan terjadi lagi. 🔪
Well, Prof!! Thank you for this amazing book🤍
December 22, 2023
In my opinion, this book is one of the best references from the many historical sources on the 1965 coup in Indonesia. This historical event is one of the most important events in the history of Indonesia, where this event had a huge influence on the life of the Indonesian people afterwards.
Not only does the book explain what happened, when it happened, and who was involved in the event, but it also explains the context in which the historical event took place.
The author also provides brief directions at the beginning of each chapter about what will be discussed in the chapter and provides a conclusion at the end of each chapter to help readers understand it. As many historical events are full of pros and cons, this book does not necessarily provide an absolute truth, but with a very comprehensive discussion in this book, this book can make readers' insights increase, and make us wiser in responding to historical events that are still full of controversy.
Not only does the book explain what happened, when it happened, and who was involved in the event, but it also explains the context in which the historical event took place.
The author also provides brief directions at the beginning of each chapter about what will be discussed in the chapter and provides a conclusion at the end of each chapter to help readers understand it. As many historical events are full of pros and cons, this book does not necessarily provide an absolute truth, but with a very comprehensive discussion in this book, this book can make readers' insights increase, and make us wiser in responding to historical events that are still full of controversy.
March 14, 2021
I initially found the book difficult to get into. It was more of an analysis of the events of Indonesia’s anti leftists purge (which involved (often atrociously brutal) mass murder & imprisonments without trial) than a straight up linear timeline of the events (which is what I went in expecting). The strength of the research & the strength of the arguments won me over, though it is still clear the author has some level personal investment in the events in question which can shine through undermining its status as a completely clinical academic work. Despite the fact the account of the history of the period is essentially secondary to this, it’s still a good account of the events in question especially if you only had the vaguest knowledge beforehand, as I did. Highly recommended for anyone that wishes to know more about the subject.
January 4, 2024
A deep and moving history of this tragic and horrific period in Indonesian history. The author managed to keep a heavy and difficult topic engaging. This book synthesizes a monumentally large topic into a single book, so obviously some nuance and certain details couldn't be fully explored, but there is an extensive notes section to provide more detail, and the author did seem to maintain an unbiased perspective on the various discrepancies between the "official" version of events and the various resources that have been investigated since to expand on the full picture.
An important read to understand more deeply how genocides can occur and the various political, social, and international decisions that influence horrific acts.
An important read to understand more deeply how genocides can occur and the various political, social, and international decisions that influence horrific acts.
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