Gatot Compares Statues Of Suharto And Soekarno, This Is PDIP Party's Response
JAKARTA - Senior PDIP Party politician Hendrawan Supratikno, responded to former National Armed Forces (TNI) Commander General (Ret.) Gatot Nurmantyo, who questioned the number of statues of the Indonesian Proclaimer, Soekarno, while the statue of the 2nd President of the Republic of Indonesia Suharto et al disappeared from the Army Strategic Reserve Command (Kostrad) Headquarters.
According to Hendrawan, the existence of a statue should not be understood as a trend or fashion. However, the symbolic meaning is emitted as historical literacy.
"In a democracy, when access to information is not distorted, when people's collective memory is undergoing a process of purification, statues express people's historical literacy," said Hendrawan, Friday, October 1.
Furthermore, this House of Representatives (DPR) member explained that in the past there were attempts to degrade Soekarno's role in the history of the Indonesian nation in order to preserve power.
"We have experienced an era where Bung Karno's role and services were trying to be degraded. Historical politics was intervened by the interests of preserving power. In an open era like now, people long for an authentic national orientation, to an original nation-state narrative," explained Hendrawan.
Therefore, he emphasized that the number of statues could not be used as any parameters. "So it's not a number parameter, but a psychosocial parameter and the historiography of the nation-state," said Hendrawan.
Hendrawan also considered that Gatot's statement made it seem as if the current condition was the same as the era in which Sukarno's role was degraded in the nation's history.
"So don't conclude that there is now a de-Sukarnoization as implied by GN's (Gatot Nurmantyo) statement. It's as if this is the same as de-Sukarnoization that actually happened in the past," said Hendrawan.
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Previously, former National Armed Forces (TNI) Commander General (Ret.) Gatot Nurmantyo compared the disappearance of the Suharto statue at the Kostrad Headquarters, with the statue of the Proclaimer Sukarno.
"Yes, I still think positively that because Kostrad was the backbone, during 1965 onwards, to maintain. Because the museum is in Kostrad, it is a form of historical inheritance, so that all Kostrad soldiers know and are aware that the commander is like that, then Kostrad is like that so that one day the operation will definitely be at the forefront of Kostrad," Gatot said on Karni Ilyas' YouTube as seen on Thursday, September 30.
Gatot then talked about the whereabouts of the Suharto statue. Gatot found it ironic because the statue of Suharto was missing or even non-existent, while the statue of Sukarno was everywhere.
"Well, these three are disturbing my nationality, the figure of Sarwo Edhie, I am also a commando soldier, Pak Harto (Soeharto), I am also a former Kostrad Commander, Pak AY (Azmyn Yusri) Nasution is also a former Army Chief of Staff, he-he is an example, a role model, about how to struggle, how to think, how to plan to make efficient decisions. So that in the shortest possible time it can turn around. This is a very strategic matter for not only the TNI, its family, and the community," said Gatot.
"Mr. Karni, there are statues of Bung Karno everywhere, even the name Soekarno-Hatta on the street, Pak Harto, the former president, has his services too, where are statues? Only a small statue like that was destroyed. This is a very ironic thing," he continued.
He asked everyone to respect the President of Indonesia. He hopes that there will be statues of the Indonesian president at the Kostrad Headquarters.
Gatot hopes that every Indonesian President can be appreciated by all parties. Gatot said that all the Presidents of the Republic of Indonesia can have services to Indonesia.
"Well, my hope is, let us all respect whoever our former presidents are. So that the world will see that we are a great nation that respects whatever our mistakes are, this is only a lesson not to be repeated, but we Bring it up together. Bung Karno, for example, brought the proclamation, then Mr. Harto, The Father of Development, Mrs. Mega the first female president, and so on, Jokowi may be the President of infrastructure, right, so all of them are portrayed in the same position. So the world will see that it is Indonesia," he concluded