Of Forgiving and Forgetting

Our history, as some writers have put it, is the struggle against forgetting. And in spite of our fondness to whatever extraordinary, the fabric of history is spun daily out of the ordinary. If some days seem to outstand the rest, they are so because the of the days preceding have made them so.

Time has ushered Indonesia these days to a point where its people--to be precise a bunch of people with power thrust upon, or looted into their hands--will have to decide what kind of memories they want to come down with their history; if not for the future generation then for the shape of their sake, the rest of Indonesians being led by the nose to the verge of a most important milestone in its nearly eight decades of existence (taking the first "national" movement in 1928 into account, that is).

This is about what Indonesians should do with Suharto, their former, second, longest serving, and richest president. The pertinent question around this Smiling General: should we forgive him? Having ruled Indonesia for over 30 years, he is old and sickly now; his teams of doctors have said he suffers an incurable permanent brain damage.

Should we forgive him?

I'd say, to ask so is to be tendentious and inappropriate. In fact, it would be cruel of us because it would assume an established legal verdict over his culpability. Forgive him for what? Some sort of culpability is necessary if we are to forgive. What and how has he wronged? On what trial was he charged? Which judge declared of his malevolence? We cannot forgive one who did nothing wrong. If we still do, we can't mean what we do.

The Indonesian law dictates on the presumption of innocence. Until proven otherwise Indonesians, therefore, should assume he is innocent. Yet the act of proving itself is compulsory.

Behind the guise of the on and off efforts of taking this powerful man as the subject of our legal inquiry, the real concern is our own future.

Why, because we are writing our own history. Now. For our history to be useful, it needs to be able to give us a sense of departure towards a better future, rather than to bring us back to the drawing board and start anew each time a new year promises each of us another birthday.

Eighty years may be short for a nation, but to individuals in most countries it has exceeded their average life expectancy.

How are we to view the score? 80 years can be a long period of learning and unlearning. It can also mean a short blink of 1 year repeated 80 times. Are we to go back to the drawing board?

Therefore, we must prove it; that he is innocent. Not only are big hearted Indonesians prepared to forgive. We are even ready to apologize.