Human Rights Law Studies (HRLS) FH UNAIR and Center for Legal Pluralism Studies (CLeP) FH UNAIR collaborate in holding a series of Human Rights Day events which are held every Thursday. This activity is held to celebrate International Human Rights Day, which is celebrated every December 10.
The second program is documentaries about Herman Hendrawan and Bimo Petrus (Bimpet). This activity was held on Thursday (24/11/2022). This documentary is an episode of Fighting Forgotten, a TV show that aired on Metro TV. Herman and Bimpet are UNAIR Faculty of Social and Political Sciences (FISIP) students who were victims of enforced disappearances from a series of disappearances of 13 activists in 1997-98.
The political context when the tragedy occurred was that Indonesia was entering the end of the New Order regime when Suharto’s authoritarian and militaristic power began to falter. Movements such as the People’s Democratic Party and the Indonesian Students’ Union for Democracy, in which Herman and Bimpet actively participated, began to demand massive democratization and the abdication of Suharto from the presidency.
Two key persons were invited to discuss the tragedy. The first is the East Java Association of Families of Missing Persons (IKOHI) Dandik Katjasurkana. While Dandik was a student, he was a comrade in arms of Herman and Bimpet in the pro-democracy movement. In his presentation, he recalled the nature and experience of his interactions with the two. Dandik also explained their struggle for commemoration after the Reformation era.
“In the early 2000s, we tried persuasion from the FISIP UNAIR dean and were encouraged to build a memorial statue for Herman and Bima. However, it is challenging and, until now, has not been realized. The reason is that their disappearance was due to political events. This is funny, even though enforced disappearance is a humanitarian issue, even though political issues triggered it,” said the activist.
Dandik also said it was important always to discuss and remember events related to enforced disappearances. This is because impunity is still thick in these cases, while the alleged perpetrators are still in the government’s circle of power until now.
The second guest speaker was UNAIR History Student Habi Sjarif. Habi said that one of the New Order policies whose impact is still being felt today is the depoliticization of universities. Through the Normalization of Campus Life/Student Coordinating Body (NKK/BKK) policy in 1978, students were prohibited from participating in political activities, and state and military elements quickly entered and controlled the campus.
“Herman and Bimpet’s resistance based on populist politics is a form of resistance from the NKK/BKK; therefore, the regime considers them a threat. Even though the NKK/BKK is no longer enforced, the campus’ habit of being blind to humanitarian issues and its closeness to authorities can still be felt and taken on new forms,” said the 2018 batch student.
