Unable to let bygones be bygones

Featured in

  • Published 20150804
  • ISBN: 978-1-922182-90-6
  • Extent: 264 pp
  • Paperback (234 x 153mm), eBook

‘LET BYGONES BE bygones!’ Mum and Dad said to me, speaking over each other. Their faces shared their determination to have the last say on the matter. The afternoon light was fading and our teas were turning cold. My parents and I had been shouting at each other for the past hour, debating whether Indonesia should apologise to the victims of the 1965 communist purge or not.

Like some Indonesians who lived through the massacre of nearly one million people that brought Suharto to power, my parents are adverse to the idea of a national apology and reconciliation for the crimes of 1965.

Already a subscriber? Sign in here

If you are an educator or student wishing to access content for study purposes please contact us at griffithreview@griffith.edu.au

Share article

About the author

Prodita Sabarini

Prodita Sabarini is a Jakarta-based journalist and an editor for The Conversation. She was selected as the 2013-14 Elizabeth Neuffer Fellow, offered through the...

More from this edition

The conscience of Somchai

EssayTAKE A BANGKOKIAN. Let’s called him Somchai. He’s in his mid-thirties and is of (typical) Thai–Chinese ethnicity.Somchai grew up in a well-to-do middle-class family....

Metaphors

e-bookThey don’t explain. They don’t connect. They don’t mean what they say. They don’t say what they mean. They don’t tell you the whole...

Climbing the walls

MemoirWE PULL UP outside the Centre. The dust resettles on the path, I pay my driver two dollars and slide my helmet off. Sweat...

Stay up to date with the latest, news, articles and special offers from Griffith Review.