Genjer-Genjer

Topic: Power, Welfare, and Democracy

Year: 2007

Writer: Utan Parlindungan

Editor: Nanang Indra Kurniawan

Description:

Genjer-genjer is not just any popular folk song. It contains hints about the 1965 Gestapu rebellion. A piece of paper containing the lyrics of the song Genjer-genjer can be used as a strong indication to carry out a bloody uprising in Lubang Buaya, Jakarta. Many theories explain the chronology of the 1965 events, but this seems to point to a single actor, namely the PKI. The substance of history has again been shaken by new speculation that the 1965 incident was a fabrication involving many hegemonic actors with such an organized political design or model. All these complex interweaving of events form a single movement: the contestation of meaning.