American graduate student Brad Simpson discovered during his scouring of public records for his dissertation that on Dec. 15 1965, Maj. Gen Soeharto swooped down in a helicopter to join a meeting of Indonesian officials discussing then-President Sukarno's plan to nationalize Caltex facilities in Indonesia.
Simpson found that Soeharto told the meeting in no uncertain terms the Indonesian army would not tolerate any move toward nationalization.
Except until Simpson's work was complete, there was no written record of that one small part of Indonesia's history to be found anywhere in Indonesia.
It was not until Simpson published his findings on relations between Indonesia and the United States in 2005 did these facts come to light here."His research is based on U.S. government documents open for the public," historian Asvi Warman Adam said.
"Some questions are not answered yet, like who had the power to send Soeharto there?
"Definitely not Soekarno, because his presidency was facing a grave threat at that time. Was it the U.S. government through then Ambassador Marshall Green?"
Asvi said too much of Indonesia's history had gone missing or been forgotten due to lack of documentation of the usual paper trails left by any bureaucracy.
"We need to have a strong administrative system to manage all of our archives, not only for the purpose of rechecking or crosschecking, but more importantly is to prevent the occurrence of manipulation of historical fact," he said at a seminar about the importance of preserving the archives of political parties, mass organizations, and national leaders, as well as of individuals, held at the Indonesia National Archives office on Wednesday.
Head of the Indonesia National Archives Djoko Utomo explained the term archive had to be understood as any record or documentation of information in any media, including voice and film.
"Archives need to be protected due to their function as evidence for accountability of the state," Djoko said.
"Some international conventions to protect the existence of archives are already established, including the one that regulates every nation is required to return any documents that originally come from another country."
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Simpson found that Soeharto told the meeting in no uncertain terms the Indonesian army would not tolerate any move toward nationalization.
Except until Simpson's work was complete, there was no written record of that one small part of Indonesia's history to be found anywhere in Indonesia.
It was not until Simpson published his findings on relations between Indonesia and the United States in 2005 did these facts come to light here."His research is based on U.S. government documents open for the public," historian Asvi Warman Adam said.
"Some questions are not answered yet, like who had the power to send Soeharto there?
"Definitely not Soekarno, because his presidency was facing a grave threat at that time. Was it the U.S. government through then Ambassador Marshall Green?"
Asvi said too much of Indonesia's history had gone missing or been forgotten due to lack of documentation of the usual paper trails left by any bureaucracy.
"We need to have a strong administrative system to manage all of our archives, not only for the purpose of rechecking or crosschecking, but more importantly is to prevent the occurrence of manipulation of historical fact," he said at a seminar about the importance of preserving the archives of political parties, mass organizations, and national leaders, as well as of individuals, held at the Indonesia National Archives office on Wednesday.
Head of the Indonesia National Archives Djoko Utomo explained the term archive had to be understood as any record or documentation of information in any media, including voice and film.
"Archives need to be protected due to their function as evidence for accountability of the state," Djoko said.
"Some international conventions to protect the existence of archives are already established, including the one that regulates every nation is required to return any documents that originally come from another country."
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Comments could also be sent to: readersforum@ thejakartapost. com
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