JAVA
A Cargo of Questions 1992
Indonesia
MARIBAYA
Maribaya lies in the shadow of the volcano Tangkuban Perahu. This is the land of the Sundanese of West Java, extroverted, easy going people who, nevertheless, guard and protect their ancient culture.
In 1755 the Dutch split the Mataran kingdom in two. These new states and the five smaller states of Java were only nominally sovereign, dominated as they were by the Dutch East India Co. Thus Java was united by a foreign trading company with an army that totalled 1000 Europeans and 2000 Asians. In 1800 the VOC was wound up after revelations of corruption, bankruptcy and mismanagement. Its territorial possessions passed into the hands of the Netherlands government. In 1830, after five years of protracted warfare to subdue a guerrilla style rebellion, at least 200,000 Javanese had lost their lives from famine and disease. The exploitation of Indonesia's resources by the Dutch began in earnest after the loss of Belgium when the home country would have faced bankruptcy without quick returns from the Indies.
In 1975 Indonesia invaded East Timor, a Portuguese colony, forcibly absorbing this untidy territorial anomaly into the vast expanse of the Indonesian archipelago.
Why was this military inspired expansionist adventure condoned?
An echo of dying colonialism, or a proxy colonisation?
The annexation of a people for the natural resources of their land?
And for whose benefit?
Information Wrap
Tight security marks the opening of Nov. 12 incident trial. The defendant, 41 year-old Francisco Miranda Branco was charged with organising a demonstration against the government of Indonesia on Nov. 12. The protest march disintegrated into a riot, leaving around 50 people dead after the protesters clashed with security troops. Presiding judge Pandapotan Sinaga barred three lawyers from the Jakarta-based Legal Aid Institute (LHB) from acting for the defense on the grounds that they had not yet obtained a permit to defend a court case from the regional higher court in Kupang. Timor Prosecutor Ketut Swara told the court that Branco had been involved in several offences against the government prior to the Nov. 12 incident, including having contact with the leader of the local separatist movement, Xanana Gusmau. Such offences, under Indonesian law, are categorized as subversion which carries a maximum penalty of death. "The defendant is a supporter of a clandestine organization led by Xanana and is responsible for organizing the demonstration on Nov. 12 at the Santa Cruz cemetery," Swara said. He said the protest march which involved more than 1,000 East Timorese people, was intentionally staged to oppose the integration of East Timor into Indonesia since it coincided with a visit by officials of the United Nations Rights Commission to East Timor's capital of Dili.
THE JAKARTA POST, March 13, 1992.
Also
"The massacre as of yet undetermined number of unarmed civilians in Dili on 12 November 1991 was only the latest in a series of massacres by members of ABRI against the East Timorese since 1975. November 12 was not an aberration as suggested by Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evans. Rather, it followed a pattern in the behaviour of Indonesian troops in East Timor. The only difference was that foreign eye-witnesses and video cameras were present. I have no doubt that on 15 November 80 more people were killed; on 17 November another 10 were executed and on 18 November seven more, including a one year old baby, a five year old infant and five women were gunned down. But cameras were not there and hence those massacres became non-events as was the case when a sister of mine, 17 years old, and two brothers, 16 and 21, were killed in the late 70's. the facts are that innocent people, including women and children, were killed. Should it matter that 'only' 50 were killed and not more than 100, as most observers believe? The 'demotion' of the two commanding officers responsible for the day-to-day military operations in East Timor was no more than a publicity gimmick to deflect the growing international pressure on Indonesia in the aftermath of the massacre. The fact is that as of this writing not one single Indonesian officer has been brought to trial. brigadier General Warouw has been given a new job in Jakarta."
Jose Ramos-Horta
You're NOT Indonesian people!
The Bandung Conference in 1955
Genocide? Purge? Politicide? Or "the 1965 tragedy"?
A Cargo of Questions 2017
The LODE project of 1992 and the Re:LODE project of 2017 is about generating questions that begin with places along the LODE-Line.
To every place there belongs a story . . .
To every story there belongs another . . .
Is capitalism historically inseparable from colonialism?
Is China seeking to reimpose colonial patterns of trade upon the countries of Southeast Asia?
Globalisation - industry versus the environment
Does capitalism function through the expansion of frontiers?
A working class, a political class, a capitalist class, landowners and a theocracy!
This blog-post is a matrix that originates first in the context of an artistic activity that relates to this place, Maribaya, and then connections multiply through processes of association, suggesting links, articulations and juxtapositions that the contemporary information wrap affords us, in a particular and contemporary type of consciousness, where the "loop" or "ricorso" helps the zig zagging necessary to see what is going on.
That's just the way it is . . . but don't you believe them . . .
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