The Act of Killing (2002) is the first documentary in Indonesian language about the Indonesian mass killing in 1965 to 1966. It follows Anwar, Pancasila Youth, and members of the death squad that killed over one million under the purpose of the nation’s security. Victims were neo-communists and left-wing extremists, or namely “those who wanted to destroy our country (Indonesia).” As Anwar glamorizes his murders into a Western-influenced film, he inadvertently unveils the full range of corruption and crime permeating within the government, media, tradition, and norms.
Notably, he quotes, “We have too much democracy. Things were better under the military dictatorship,” thus “conflates absence and loss (707)[i],” as theorized by La Capra. He mistakes the absence of a perfect nation as something that is lost, thus tries to regain it by searching for a reason behind the loss. The communist Indonesians therefore became the scapegoat and the victims of the massacre.
Further, when asked if he feels responsible for the truth, he answers, “Why focus on killing the communists? Americans killed the Indians.” Such comparison of crime becomes a moral hazard as he tries to justify his actions by competing one trauma to another. Thus it becomes dangerous as it avoids any responsibility and even attempts to alleviate his acts.
The confrontational documentary provoked complete confusion in that it merged perpetrator with victim and evil with good, ultimately leading me to question the verity of ethics. Thus, when he comments, “War crimes are defined by the winners. I’m a winner, so I can make my own definition,” we are left powerless, only left to sympathize the fates of the victims.
No comments:
Post a Comment