1967 was two years after a coup d’état involving Indonesia’s President Sukarno being forced into exile, the mass killing of at least 500,000 to as many as 3 million people as suspected Communist sympathizers, including many Chinese-Indonesians, who were blamed for the coup d’état, and General Suharto seizing power, and ruled for 32 years.
1967 was also when my 82-year-old Chinese-Indonesian great-grandmother, Tjoa Tien Nio, submitted a form to change her name to Imelda Christine, complying with one of many Anti-Chinese laws enacted that began during the Dutch occupation 300 years before. Not much is known about her, like other women in the family, other than some facts such as when they were born, how many children they bore, when they died. However, like many women in Indonesia, they survived, and sometimes that is enough.
In 2025, a reckoning has arrived in Indonesia. Their descendants have gathered in solidarity, refusing to be divided by ethnicity, class, or religion. They dare to rise up, ask questions, challenge the status quo and the elite. The word “bisa” is a verb that means “can” in bahasa Indonesia. Dibisakan is a word that means to make something happen anyway, against all odds.