Communism, Who’s Afraid?
Regarding the issue of Indonesian communism, the prominent historian, Ong Hok Ham, once made an interesting parody. He said, Indonesia is always missed 50 years from other countries and nations in responding to communism. If people outside Indonesia hear that doomsday will arrive soon, then outsiders will surely flock to Indonesia because they are sure that the doomsday information will only be heard in Indonesia 50 years later.
Above mentioned parody is indeed bitter, but what else we can do. The ghosts and trauma of communism in Indonesia are so deep for some groups of people. By exerting all their arguments and energy, they want to show their strength (show of force) to ghosts who are not clear where and which do not necessarily exist. That way, they feel the ghost will disappear and maybe the trauma will be erased by itself.
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