On Communism. (Yes, again. Blame my History EE)

Disclaimer: I'm not a communist. I'm not even a socialist. To me, Communism is (for lack of a better word) retarded.
This blog post is written without any evidence, and yes it is filled with hasty and broad generalizations. But as a friend said to me, "but opinionated articles are much more fun, so who cares"





I am annoyed, I promised myself and several friends that I would be for once positive this week..

Write a happy piece: complementing the world, complementing people and their ideology.

But no, far from the happy-go-lucky smiling me during the daytime, I can't write that way. It seems that all the joy in me cannot possibly be transferred to blogs in general.

So, please just bear with me as I, once again, am the whiny idiot ranting about other people's idiocy. (Ironic, no?)

It all started this bright and sunny afternoon, I just returned from my dentist with a delightful progress report , instead of just idly watching Heroes on DVD, I for once was sparked with a need to be productive, and so.. turned on my Internet and proceeded to research the G30S or Gerakan 30 September (My Extended Essay topic).

Alright, yes, I wasn't being entirely diligent. I Facebooked and YouTubed whilst researching, but the YouTube-ing was rather rewarding, I found this great (yet terribly sad) video of the 1965 Coup and the ensuing Anti-Communist purge.


I watched all 20 minutes of the video and soon happily commented; but what started as a grateful and filled with august comment turned, not so .. positive ..

You see, my outrage and most of my blog entries start with something – or to be more specific (suggestion: add 'to help those with limited brain capacity to process data' in brackets), imbeciles. I must once again apologize, for always (and somewhat conveniently) bashing random Internet people, but seriously...

Westaquil wrote:

"If there are people killed who are not Communists, I feel sympathy. If there are people killed who are Communists, there's nothing to be sad about. The Communists in Indonesia terrorized the rural areas in the lead up to 1965. Of course, this part is always conveniently forgotten."

To be less petty, this sort of sordid mentality is shared by millions of Indonesians. Years of hopeless indoctrination by the state and society has left us Indonesians irrevocably brainwashed and susceptible moronic rants filled ignorance.

But seriously, what is it with this country and its unfathomable hatred of all things related to Communism? Oh yes, they were at fault, oh yes, they have attempted a coup, oh yes they were scheming people all too happy to seize everyone's money and lands. Yes, they were godless people. But they were, and still are, not the direct spawn of Satan nor were they planning to kill everyone within sight.

After all, Communism is merely an ideology, an ideology, that in the hands of dictators and overly-zealous individual advocates, have troubled the life of many. But in the end, that is the works of a Communist, not communism itself. It's always those people in power that corrupts and destroys everything, whether they be a communist or a fascist.

So I'm so terribly distraught over the callous and idiotic fear that resounds every time the word COMMUNIST is uttered.

I questioned my cousin earlier today with a grin of what they taught when I said the word, communist. With a wince she quickly but somewhat hesitantly replied, "Evil, cruel". I just nodded and passed her a plate of Xiao Long Pao to eat, but inside, I can't help but be horribly dismayed at how even the most modern of teenagers today are still stuck in the *oh-my-God-there's-EVIL-Communists* mindset. It's not her fault, I know it is not; there is no one I can't direct all my anger too. But I can't help but be be aggravated by the fact that a single word can invoke such frantic and incomprehensible disgust.

Why are we so boggled up in our misconstrued conceptions? It was not until I choose to do my Extended Essay on Indonesian History that I was finally awaken of the numerous indoctrinations taught to me in my elementary IPS lessons.

An indoctrination still in motion, still unawakened in the mind of my peers, my cousins, my fellow countrymen.

From Monks to China, a relfection on my ever swinging cultural crisis

Monks versus the Myanmar Military Junta

A reflection of my ever swerving condemnation…

I hate China.

In a post relating to the monks versus the military Junta of Myanmar, you would probably not expect that I, a Chinese adolescent girl firstly condemn China.

Well I must assure you, I myself am not quite sure of where that hatred spawned from or how long it will last, but I implore you to stay with my jumbled train of thoughts.

It all started this afternoon, I had nothing to do and well, was somewhat leisurely skimming the New York Times (albeit the fact that I do have homework). Noting an article by SETH MYDANS (se article at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/27/world/asia/27myanmar.html?em&ex=1191038400&en=44b7d786792f3376&ei=5087%0A)

I recalled some rather vague facts about the protests. My initial reaction was somewhat mild, I was amused. I, Stephanie Andini Tangkilisan was amused by this news.

Instead of being, ‘awwhh, that’s too bad, poor monks! Go monks!’ I was more like, ‘Hah! Those moronic junta’s can’t act brutally against those monks’, and started to think of circumstances and in a way was sort of naïve to think that the protesters being predominantly monks could stop a dictatorship eventually.

I was optimistic, I for once was optimistic, and my thoughts just drabbled away to my schoolwork and rested the thoughts based on my still slightly rose colored glasses, denying that I was just a vitriolic cynic.

Well, today, that glasses were even more smashed, even more trampled, but much more significant to the loss in my faith of humanity was the loss complete depravation of my faith in my own race, in my own supposed motherland, China.

“In response to the violence, the United Nations Security Council called an emergency meeting on Wednesday to discuss the crisis, but China blocked a Council resolution, backed by the United States and European nations, to condemn the government crackdown.” – Seth Mydans

I know, I know I haven’t done what proper methods there are to journalism, but from what I can comprehend, my China, the land from which about 90% of my heritage comes from are acting against monks, defending another dictatorial regime!

And with that paragraph, the hate fluttered and then, SOARED. I am ashamed of being Chinese, why in the name of all things wonderful would they block this resolution?

Why is the government, such a bloody (literally and not literally) religion-less and cold hearted nation?

Where were they when Chinese people living in Indonesia was massacred and purged in the anti-Communist purge of 1965 (which by the way had the death toll at a vague number of 500.000-1.000.000.

Where were they when the anti-Chinese riots of 1998 happened?

I heard, they even denied entry and denied asylum! It’s not like they are Singapore, their land could actually, I don’t know fit a lot of refugee’s! I don’t know, maybe, just maybe, they really don’t count as Chinese citizens, and even worse, maybe they don’t even care if we are Chinese and if we are dying.

What I wouldn’t pay to have a nation that respects my heritage, that respects the fact that I exist, and want to exist!

By now, I have strayed far away from the topic of Monks and Myanmar, I beg your apology, but at this present moment, I am simply GLAD that I am not 100% Chinese, despite the fact my friends have called me less than kind words of my other 10% Indonesian blood. (YES I AM STILL INDIGNANT OVER YOU RACIST INDIVIDUALS…)

Perhaps I am merely vengeful, perhaps, I’m simply odd.

But pray tell, when the nation I supposedly belong to simply alienates me, perhaps, I must say I’m glad to be Indonesian. (Yes, the Chinese were also harmed yet again in 1998, but I'm ignoring that at the present moment (I'm illogical that way))

Perhaps instead of the Great Land of China, the supposedly next Super Power of the World, I can be contented and proud with the fact that I am a citizen of Indonesia, who despite not being the best of nations, still grant me civil liberties, still give me the land, food and daily necessities that I all to often am less than thankful for.

So my most sincere (albeit unashamed) apologies if I do not share the same affinities towards China as you do. As most Chinese do?

Why should I?

Yes, I'm soar over certain recent events, yes, I'm acting completely illogical and as seen by this post, I've totally shredded every ounce of what was left of my reputation as a logical and reasonable person, I stand by my opinion of being less than loving of the government that China is now. (A particular purely scathing and ultimately EVIL communistic and (now capitalistic bastards).

You see, when my great grandfathers fled from China and into this Indonesian archipelago, they left their motherland but gained a new one, Indonesia, in which, my ancestors finally found the contentment we so desired.

So yes, when Chinese New Year rolls around, you can bet I will still say those endearing (and somewhat magical) four words, but I’ll promise to you now, those words are not a symbol of my respect or affinty with all that is Chinese, but merely my longing for those sweet red money filled envelopes.

Indonesia, not a Democracy?

"The Attorney General Office’s banning of some history books.

On 5th March, the Attorney General’s Office banned the further printing and distribution of thirteen history books from the 2004 junior and senior high school curriculums because they play down the role of the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI) in the 1948 uprising in Madiun, East Java, and the 1965 coup attempt in Jakarta.

According to the AGO the books not only failed to state the facts about the PKI’s role in the events but went further and challenged some “accepted truths”, which could create public disorder. The AGO has the authority to monitor the circulation of written materials and has in the past banned a number of books deemed capable of disrupting political stability since the Soeharto era."

http://www.indonesiamatters.com/1172/book-banning/

Disclaimer: This is a piece I wrote for History, one that I sort of rewrote, and one that all history students are familiar off! Sorry people and Ms. Jess, (IT IS A CURRENT EVENTS PIECE) if it’s a just a temporary entry, all the homework and tests pilling up forbid me from making a coherent nice piece..

"Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear."

August 1950, Harry Truman sent this message to Congress; that despite all the problems that the Communist Soviet Union has caused America, Congress does not have the right to silence communist ideas and teachings. Ignoring dissents made and insults hurled at him, he stayed true to the fundamentals of democracy; liberty and equality.

To him, democracy meant that the government could not control what its citizen’s listens, reads or says, to him, democracy meant that the government had no right to declare and demand submission from its people and be treated as if they were subjects instead of citizens. Truman is correct; the idea of banning thoughts is the very betrayal of all that is democracy.

Americans are so fortunate; they also have presidents with backbones. *cough* SBY *cough*

Today's government has by and large ignored the fundamental freedom promised by democracy, FREE SPEECH. Even today the fear of saying what we truly want still looms in our head. In my head.

Friends advise me not to be too vocal, sadly they are right.

It has been 9 years since the fall of Soeharto, a fall that would have supposedly lead us to a true democracy. A democracy that entails free speech, a freedom that for so many years have been suppressed and caged tightly by Soeharto.

Now the ban and the propaganda against Communists is still alive and healthy. In public schools, and even National Plus schools, the young and even the old still mostly fear Communism although not knowing what it means; all they know is that Communists had killed the heroic generals back in 1965.

Book burning and book banning is still alive, still active. The Attorney General’s Office censor history books, and in doing so aren't they hailing themselves supreme in intelligence? Are they not proclaiming that those bureaucrats in the Attorney General's Office are superior to ordinary civilians, superior to us?

The truth is that the government is still supreme, and a true Indonesian Democracy has not been accomplished. You would argue that it’s better now, it’s free now. But they have and still are successful in indoctrinating Indonesians their warped account for their past.

North Korea claims that they are democratic, a claim that is absurd. Sadly, there is a similar danger with Indonesia.

We can claim we are democratic, but if our actions and our government actions totally rebuke the foundations of democracy we too, could fall back to Soeharto’s era, banning and freedom of speech is a slippery slope.

One that hopefully Indonesia will not slip once more.

Note: I'm not proposing that we are not a Democratic country, only that in this aspect we're defying all that is democratic, and the dangers to it.