. I didn’t know the beginning of the movie. So, I didn’t know the old man named Anwar. What role is it? He has dark skin and doesn't have many wrinkles on his face except for his forehead. If it weren't for his gray hair, I couldn't even tell that he was an old man who was over seventy years old. He looks healthy and energetic, just like the spirited old man we see every day. But a few minutes later, in the mouth of such an old man, what I heard made me shiver. "At first we killed them, right here. But there is too much blood and it is too difficult to clean up. Smell. So we invented this, fast and without bleeding." His proud invention is a simple mechanism made of wooden sticks tied with thin iron wires, used to strangle people’s necks and suffocate them to death... …
After that, the old man and his friends took us to various scenes "with no hesitation", telling about their various ways of killing people, and performing various bloody, brutal and brutal scenes together with the extras, which was embarrassing. . I finally understood that this seemingly gentle old man was a murderous demon with more than a thousand lives on his back. Among them was a scene in which they recruited members of the Five Commandments Youth League and local people to demonstrate together they burned the Communists’ houses, tied the children to the trees and then slaughtered their parents. Although it was just a performance, it was shocking enough. The middle-aged women were crying, hoarse and hysterical begging, and yelling, but they could only watch their children being snatched away and cruelly thrown on the ground. The men who resisted, retreated, but were still dragged away, slaughtered, and blood splattered. The children screamed at their parents, but they were abruptly pulled away from their parents. They opened their eyes wide, as if they could not believe such cruel facts, as if they were desperately trying to break free from the black hands that bound them and teased their fate... "Cut, cut, cut!" The voice of the "director" (the slaughter of the year) Trying to bring the actors back to reality, but in vain. The children were crying, tears like broken beads that could not be wiped clean and could not stop. Some women fainted with stiff expressions. The men were okay, they just gasped and tried to calm themselves down. And Anwar, the man who used to actually slaughter, burn, and rob, just watched silently and paced silently. As if he couldn't find a place to stay, he kept wandering around, finally found a tree trunk, sat down weakly, and looked lonely. He had just tried to comfort a crying girl, but failed. He put the girl's head in his arms and patted, but the girl was just crying.
There was silence in the movie theater. I was saying in my heart, this is just a show. Yes, just acting can make the actors miserable and shock the audience. What about the real scene? What about the people in the real killing? The 1 million "Communists", whether Indonesians or Chinese, were so scared, helpless, painful, and desperate at the time, how could we feel the same way?
In 1965, 300,000 of our compatriots died in this humid and foul island country. They once left their hometown and came here not far away. Once through the wind and rain, the roads and roads have built their own homeland, but everything that has been hard-won has been destroyed so easily and trampled on with such disdain, homeland is like this, personality, dignity, and life are like this.
And now, the dead are gone. Today in 2016, all we can do is reflection. Why, why can this primitive and ignorant thing happen? Why, why can those with blood on their hands be so proud to tell us about their dark and cruel past? Why, why are these demons still regarded as heroes in Indonesia, as role models for future generations and national benchmarks? Why, why is this meaningless political struggle that cost Indonesia a heavy loss, but it is still heavily publicized and reported by the mainstream media of the country? Why, why do the victims still dare not mention that absurd and painful past, while the perpetrators still hold the power to sway the city and show off their power? And why, why are the murderers and the murderers so similar to us, those of us who stand on the commanding heights of morality and condemn them and denounce them?
All this may be explained by four things-interest, selfishness, ignorance and human cowardice.
Yes, these are the four. The pseudo-class struggle that slaughtered communists has nothing to do with ideology. Ideology belongs to the category of philosophy, and philosophy is the knowledge that guides people to live better. Therefore, according to my simple understanding, this kind of massacre against humanity is definitely not to defend a certain kind of thought or value, but a gluttonous feast for profit under the guise of ideology.
Through this massacre, Suharto used the pretext of anti-communism to sweep away the power of former President Sukarno and show his favor to the United States, thereby consolidating his rule. This is Suharto's interest. The military builds authority through massacres and bloody suppression. Military dictatorship in Suharto
In power, both the military and Suharto himself gained supreme power and great wealth. The lowest level of this massacre was also the front-line executors, and the ruffians and hooligans also gained their own benefits. For example, as Anwar said, they can watch American movies again and make money by reselling movie tickets. Of course, this is just a small aspect. These gangsters gained far more than money from the massacre, but also power, status and "dignity." From the furnishings of the Anwar family in the movie, it can be seen that his life is rich and prosperous. Judging from his social activities, he is not like a despised hooligan, but like a "respected revolutionist of the older generation". As a guest on TV shows, he gives lectures to young people, and he looks like a respected person. Successful people. And his friends from all walks of life are now in high positions, and this is the legacy left to them by the massacre of the year...Yes, what ideological belief does a rogue have? All these tragedies are for the benefit from the beginning, and the end is also the sharing of benefits among the wicked, which is ridiculous and sad.
Even if benefits have given these people great motives for evil, and ideology has given these people the perfect excuse to kill, they still lack one thing-something similar to a narcotic. After all, it is difficult for anyone to kill. He doesn't blink, his hands are full of blood and don't tremble. And what gives them terrifying courage is a kind of pseudo-belief—pseudo-patriotism. The formation of this pseudo-patriotism is very simple. Unlike Sukarno, the genuine president who is firmly committed to communism, Suharto is a tyrant. Only by overthrowing communism can Sukarno’s power be wiped out, so he faces a problem and loses. Given the binding attraction of ideology, what did he use to convince the masses? So, like most authoritarians, he can only maintain his rule by instilling fear, rewarding loyal collaborators, and generating thief rule. (Sondrol, PC Totalitarian and Authoritarian Dictators: A Comparison of Fidel Castro and Alfredo Stroessner. Journal of Latin American Studies. 2009, 23 (3): 599. doi: 10. 1017/S0022216X00015868) Once Suharto, as the official leader, adopted this method to deal with the Communist Party, it was equivalent to legalizing this kind of anti-communist brutality. With the vigorous media propaganda, Tu Gong became a kind of "patriotic behavior." ". And the masses are ignorant, so they are easily blinded by this kind of thinking, and their souls are captured by this dark power. Just as the superstition of a cult can cause the believers to do extremely horrible things, in Indonesia at that time, the cult became the state religion, so all the people were in a kind of hyperactive madness, and it was logical that they were grinding their teeth and sucking blood and killing people like hemp. Up. As for the high-profile and proud display of these executioners, like in the movie, they proudly say that they are rascals. The term rascal comes from the English "free men", which means free men. The reason why they are proud to be called rascals and the defenders of the motherland is actually because of human cowardice. Just like this kind of people represented by Anwar, the more proud they are, the more self-sorrowful they are; the more justice they decorate, the more guilt they are in their hearts; the more braver they show, the more fear they are in their hearts. ... It is precisely because they cannot persuade themselves, and cannot comfortably believe that everything they have done is just, that they have to paralyze themselves and distort history in this way. But when he dreamed back at midnight, he would also tremble and see the lives he had ignored...
Naturally, there are some people, like Anwar's friend Adi, who are not ashamed of their evil behavior at all, but are truly proud of it because of ignorance. They are ignorant of what they are doing, and likewise, they have no idea of understanding the facts. They are willing to be ignorant and contented with ignorance and self-righteous. They think that they are successful and worthy of respect when they stand on the high point of power and wealth, but in fact they are just stupid, crazier, and crueler than ordinary people, and they happen to be born in a country that is equally stupid, crazy and cruel. That's it. It is precisely because of the country that these talents have become the heroes of the country. Because this country has not yet been prepared to admit its mistakes, and has not had the wisdom and determination to face history squarely, the media will continue to serve as its loudspeaker, praising this ridiculous history with praise, and the victims and their descendants will continue to be affected. This kind of collective tyranny is suppressed and cannot be resisted.
Next, is the last and most important question we need to reflect on. What is the difference between us and those murderers, and what are the common points. Such horrible things have definitely not only happened in Indonesia. The Night of St. Bartholomew in France, the Great Purge in the Soviet Union, and the Cultural Revolution in China are all so different but so similar. Thinking back then, that is, in 1966 after 1965, the year when the Cultural Revolution began, China was definitely not much better than Indonesia at that time. Things are so similar that a few people incited the public to do some brutal, bloody and shameless things together for the benefit of power. In exchange for the unscrupulous sacrifices of some people for the dirty benefits of others. This kind of thing is by no means limited to history, it has its shadow everywhere in our real life. Today, when speech is relatively free and relatively democratic and open, we think we are sober, but who can really get rid of the guidance of the media and public opinion? Who can truly achieve that everyone is drunk and I am alone, not drifting with the flow, not admiring the world, and insisting on the spirit of independence and the thought of freedom? We will still be easily manipulated by a few people because of our ignorance and become a tool for them to profit. We will still hurt others for our own benefit, and we will still dare not say no because of cowardice.
Although all this did not lead to the catastrophic disaster of 1965, it also caused a lot of injustice, a lot of grievances, and a lot of mistakes. Just like when I was guided by the domestic media, I almost wrote an upright lawyer who touched the power of the powerful because of the service of the people into the negative example of my composition. This is a small thing, but it will let me know the truth later. I'm so guilty. I can say that I’m not to blame. After all, I didn’t do anything that directly harmed him. However, an unjust case was really investigated. Isn’t everyone responsible for hearing the rumors and ruling them?
Therefore, under the guidance of the ignorant public opinion held by those in power, we now criticize those sinners who hurt others under the leadership of those in power at that time. Like them, many of us are indifferent to the pain of others because of our own ignorance, and we are cruelly mending the wounds of others for our own benefit. Even if he finally knew the truth, he didn't have the courage to say it. The reason was that he couldn't turn things around on his own. Little did he realize that this was just a clumsy excuse, because most people didn't even try to change the status quo before saying this.
Therefore, the most terrible thing is often not the tyranny of one person, but the riots of a group of people; the saddest thing is not a disharmonious and disunity society, but a society in which everyone is harmonious, ignorant, and united to do evil. Once this happens, every element in society has an unshirkable responsibility. After watching this movie, we should not stop at pain and memorialization, but in reflection and correction. We must have a critical thinking and be able to look at problems objectively and from multiple angles. Get rid of blind faith, use correct standards to measure things, and make choices that can withstand the test and judgment of history. As the film’s director Oppenheimer said: “I think people will feel after watching this movie, my God, we are guests at a cannibal banquet. We didn’t kill people like Anwar and his friends did. But we are sitting at the table and this discovery is very painful."
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