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. Suppose people outside Indonesia hear that doomsday will arrive soon. In that case, outsiders will undoubtedly flock to Indonesia because they are sure that 50 years later, they will only hear the doomsday information in Indonesia.
Above mentioned parody is indeed bitter, but what else we can do. The ghosts and trauma of Communism in Indonesia are so profound 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 unclear where and which do not necessarily exist. That way, they feel the spirit will disappear, and maybe the trauma will be erased by itself.
Counter-response to the proposal of KH Abdurrahman Wahid (then Indonesian President) to revoke TAP MPRS No. XXV / MPRS / 1966 at the end of 1999, the forced dismissal of the 1965 Victim Research Institute (LPKP) meeting in Magetan in mid-January 2003, the rejection of Vice President Hamzah Haz for the inclusion of communist reconciliation in the National Reconciliation Bill (published by local newspaper Kompas at 20th March 2003), and the abolition of Halaqah The Desantara-Averrus reconciliation in Blitar 1st May 2003 clearly shows how ghosts and traumas are so extensive, intense, and strangely maintained. Isn’t political language still called communist (sometimes added latent) danger?
In West Berlin, before the Berlin Wall fell, a massive billboard of Karl Marx’s photo was being pointed at the East Berlin Wall. On the billboard, the first initiator of Marxism is described standing and talking: “This is just an idea. Is not an idea should be opposed to the idea, why do you kill people”. A warning for generations far from Karl Marx himself is gone when Marxism became political trade.
Marxism then was no longer just mere ideas and thoughts.
Especially in the hands of Lenin and Mao Zedong, he changed sex into a movement. But, on the other hand, he also remained as an idea and thought with specific changes that we later became familiar with socialism. In its development into this movement, Marxism (often coupled with Leninism) appeared fierce, extreme and put forward the revolution as the only way to make changes.
The PKI (The Communist Party of Indonesia) is often cited as adherents of the schools of Lenin and Mao. But many of them are labelled as communist figures with other beliefs. Tan Malaka, no doubt, is a staunch follower of Marxism-Communism. But he also had to accept his destiny, the stamp of “traitors” from the perpetrators of the 1926 PKI’s rebellion, for proposing rational considerations of the revolutionary plan at that time. Likewise, Haji Misbach from Solo, Hasan Raid (Jakarta), Muslimin Yasin (Sumbawa-Jakarta), Muhammad Baisir (Mataram), and Ahmad Chatib who had titled Datuk Batuah (West Sumatra).
The latest figure, like Haji Misbach, was shocking and worrying in the 1920s, especially in West Sumatra. But, then, the prominent student of the ulama in West Sumatra, Haji Rasul, who had been a teacher, one of the leaders of the Padang Panjang Thawalib boarding school, and the pioneer of various Islamic schools in Batu Sangkar and Bukit Tinggi, openly proclaimed themselves as communists.
Such a phenomenon occurs not only in Indonesia. Gamal Abdul Nasser (Egypt), Muammar Gadhafi (Libya), and Saddam Hussein (Iraq), just to mention a few examples, are figures who succeeded in marrying Islam with Marxism. Likewise, it is said that some contemporary Islamic thinkers in Iran, such as Ali Shariati and the young people of Mojahedin-I Khalq, were deeply influenced by Marxism. Even the leaders of the Pudeh party, a loyal supporter of Khomaeni in staging an Iranian revolution, were influential in their Marxism.
In Latin America, Catholics have been successfully married to Marxism-Communism. The most widely embraced and highly influential religion in all of Latin America then gained a new enthusiasm in seeing Catholicism which led to the formulation of “Liberation Theology”. A theology that can bang on the cold of Catholics throughout the world and is very influential on Muslim thought among Muslims in many countries. In some ways, that’s what Mao did in China. Confucianism’s establishment resulted in freezing and nonsense, symbolized by the sleeping of the giant dragon. And Mao, the tiny red dragon, could swallow a giant sleeping dragon.
Priori and lust take certainty; whatever the reason, it is indeed not profitable. In this context, perhaps Mohammad Hatta’s suggestion is important to mention here. “I advise my nation to be open-minded to the teachings of Marx and Engels because my people often get a lame picture; Marx is often described as a mental destroyer, fanatical politician, destroyer of religion and state”. And at another time, Hatta also said: “I accept the teachings of historical materialism as a theory, not as a dogma”. A statement which turned out to be in sync with Karl Marx’s desires when he emphasized, “I am not a Marxist” to the Marxist-mania who swallowed up Marx’s mind like a dead doctrine. And Marx himself finally chose “Return to the British Museum” as his final strategic step.
Here the problem is not with Marxism-Communism itself, but with fanaticism and extremism. Lenin and Mao held Marxism at a fixed price, clearly different from Karl Marx, who did not want to be Marxist. The choice of revolution as the only way to change the situation and justify all means to achieve the goals swung by both Lenin and Mao did not occur in Karl Marx and his followers such as Hatta, Sukarno, Nasser, Samaoen, Datuk Batuah, and Haji Misbach.
But extreme fanaticism is not only the monopoly of Marxism-Communism. It can be based on whatever is absolute: religion, politics, economics, race, and ethnicity. Religionists and politicians can appear fierce in the face of understanding or other people who are seen as incompatible with and deviate from what they believe is the truth. We still remember how they swept out cafes, bars, and karaoke, how they put up the opposition and silenced different voices. Rhoma Irama, with the beads in her hand, can look scary when facing Inul, a village singer who doesn’t know anything but wants to survive. Kill each other between Dayak and Madura some time ago, forget the other causes first, we may return to this extreme fanaticism.
With his parody above, Ong wants to say that Communism is now nothing more than a fairy tale, nostalgia, and a part of the past. The haunting of Communism in Indonesia, besides being very political, also shows that we are behind the times. Communism in Peking and Moscow, which was very influential, has become dim, and even some analysts have confirmed that they have died precisely in their own “factory” country.
I wonder what Lenin and Mao would say and do if they witnessed the actual realities of the present Russian and Chinese economies that could not have avoided global capitalism. I wonder their response when they saw the Berlin wall being torn down and demolished so that East and West Berlin, which used to be the opposite, was no different.
Not only that. In China, we can now find several restaurants that deliberately design the interior, including the floor, with a picture of Mao, which is quite crowded with people to relax. In this restaurant, visitors, including Chinese people themselves, mingle, joking without any burden, that his feet are stepping on (picture) Mao’s head. While in Russia, Lenin has now become small sculptures from keychains to table decorations designed very cute. In every souvenir stall in major cities of Russia, we can easily buy the statues of Lenin, usually lined with Stalin’s statues.
Mao Zedong wrote a message to his wife, Jiang Qing. “This little word might be my last message for you. Human life is limited, but revolution knows no edges. In the struggle for the past ten years, I have tried the pinnacle of revolution, but I was unsuccessful. You might be able to reach the highest. If you fail, you will plunge into an immeasurable canyon. Your body will be crushed. Your bones will crumble”. And it turns out that the failure of the Chinese revolution crushed the body and bones of Communism to the bottom of the canyon.
Lenin and Mao have long been gone. The doctrine of Communism also accompanied their departure slowly but surely, and China has changed, so has Russia and Eastern Europe in general. Lenin and Mao are nothing more than accessories that only benefit craftsmen, traders, and restaurant entrepreneurs. No different from the Swastika emblem and Hitler’s photo complete with his moustache that made the interior of a restaurant in Seoul, South Korea, or Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park accessories.
Still afraid of Communism? Lest the Communism’s haunting in our beloved country is precisely the work of craftsmen-traders in Russia, restaurant entrepreneurs in China and South Korea. Both are just chasing profit. The difference is, maybe, if Russia, South Korea and China are pure (economic) trade with concrete and invisible commodities, while in Indonesia, it is more in the form of political trade with ghost commodities that are invisible and unknown.
During a dialogue program on Television Pendidikan Indonesia (TPI) in early 2000, I, a panel with HM Sumargono (UN), HM Nazri Adlani (MUI), and Munir (Kontras) – was asked by the presenter: were you not upset, angry, and protested with the strong thesis of Marxism that God is dead (atheist)? I answered: NO, absolutely not, Because the God that was attacked, bribed, denied, or killed by Karl Marx is not my God. The God whom Marxism addresses is a god who oppresses the workers, the small people (the conspiracy of the church and the bourgeois-capitalists). My Lord, Al-Rohman, Al-Rohim, very fair, loves the poor, the fuqara, the oppressed, and the marginalized. And I believe this is up to haq al-yaqin.