Religion, Communism, Gender by Nihayatul Wafiroh

As Robert Crib (1990) analyzes that the historiography is an essential problem in Indonesia. New order created the Indonesian historiography to maintain or control the power. I can bet that all people in my generation have perspective that PKI and Gerwani are very bad political organizations in Indonesia, so that we have to ban them. New Order already washed our brains with historical books that put communism to be a banned organization.

I still kept this perspective until I studied in undergraduate. My community in UIN Yogyakarta where I studied for my undergraduate introduced me in new perspectives of the communist discourse in Indonesia. I just realized that New Order attempted to use religions to control people. People were guided to have assumptions that communism was the group, which did not believe God. Communism vs religions became the effective strategy for New Order to manage people.

One of great books that really opens my eyes about the position of Gerwani is Sexual Politics in Indonesia by Saskia Wieringa. Gerwani is often connected to PKI. As a result, Gerwani members were jailed. According to Wieringa, actually Gerwani promoted women’s movement in Indonesia. This organization attempted to encourage women to active in public spheres such as in politic. Gerwani also provided education for women. Because of the propaganda of New Order, all Gerwani’s activities could not be continued. New Order wanted to bring women in a private sphere which was to be amothers and wives. In fact, the issues of religion were used to keep women in home.

In my opinion, Indonesian government should give a formal statement about Gerwani. Indeed, even right now the ex Gerwani’s members still receive unjust treatment. Therefore, Indonesian government has to rehabilitate Gerwani. I think that Indonesian people should also have proper understanding of the real history of G30S PKI. It can avoid misunderstanding of PKI and Gerwani.