Indonesia’s original sin mass killings and strongcapitaliststrong.pdfVIP

Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, Volume 6, Number 1, 2005 Indonesia’s original sin: mass killings and capitalist expansion, 1965–66 Hilmar FARID hilmarfarid@Jl Pinang Ranti 3Jakarta 13560Indonesia Taylor and Francis LtdRIACS6101.sgmTaylor Francis LtdInter-Asia Cultural StudiesHilmarFARID000000Marchriginal Article610.1080/14623940420003268791464-9373 Print/1469-8447 Online1 ABSTRACT Following an aborted coup attempt in October 1965, the Indonesian military organized what turned out to be one of the most horrifying massacres of the twentieth century. More than half a million people were killed while hundreds of thousands of others were detained for years in prison camps throughout the country. There are two major points that this paper attempts to make. First, that the killings are in fact a case of state violence despite of the efforts to make it look like spontaneous violence. Second, that the killings are crucial to the expansion of capitalism in Indonesia. Using Marx’s concept of ‘primitive accumulation’, it attempts to show that the mass killings and arrests, the expropriation of people from their houses and lands, and the elimination of working-class political formations, are integral parts of an economic strategy of the New Order. KEYWORDS: Violence, mass killings, Indonesia, New Order, capitalism, primitive accumulation This primitive accumulation plays in Political Economy about the same part as original sin in theology. (Karl Marx, 1867) Introduction In the history books of the Suharto regime, the killings of half a million members and sympathizers of the Communist Party of Indonesia and other leftist organizations in 1965– 66 were non-events. The only significant killing that occurred at that time was supposedly the killing of six army generals and a lieutenant in Lubang Buaya, a small village on the outskirts of Jakarta