Coming to Terms with the World: Hannah Arendt's Perspective for Reconciling with the 1965 Tragedy

KELADU, Yosef (2025) Coming to Terms with the World: Hannah Arendt's Perspective for Reconciling with the 1965 Tragedy. The Journal of Souteast Asia Human Rights, 9 (2). ISSN 2599-2147

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Abstract

This article seeks to elaborate on Hannah Arendt’s conception of political reconciliation as a means of coming to terms with the mass killings of civilians suspected and accused of being members or sympathizers of the Indonesian Communist Party. Known as the 1965 tragedy, this episode of massacres remains an enduring historical burden that continues to fragment and divide Indonesian society. Since the fall of President Soeharto in 1998, several Indonesian governments have attempted reconciliation processes, all of which have failed. From the perspective of transitional justice, it has been argued that these failures are often attributed to the government’s inability to rehabilitate victims’ rights and hold perpetrators accountable. Contrary to this view, this research argues that the failure to come to terms with the 1965 tragedy is due not to a lack of punitive or restorative measures, but rather due to an excessive or disproportionate focus on individual actors—victims or perpetrators—at the expense of the common world. Drawing on the lens of Arendt’s political thought, this article proposes that reconciliation should instead center on the common world—a social reality constituted and inhabited by free and equal individuals. In this light, political reconciliation is understood as coming to terms with a world marked by a dark and painful past. Such an understanding presupposes the capacity of those dwelling within the common world—particularly victims and perpetrators—to engage in reflective judgment around what has occurred, and to assume collective responsibility for building and sustaining a shared future. This article will first examine the 1965 mass killings as the dark side of the Indonesian common world, followed by an exposition of Hannah Arendt’s proposal for coming to terms with such tragedies. The final section will outline two key elements of political reconciliation: reflective judgment and collective responsibility.

Item Type:	Article
Subjects:	100 - Filsafat dan Psikologi > 170 Etika dan filsafat moral > 170 Etika
Divisions:	75201 Ilmu Filsafat
Depositing User:	Mr. Yosef Keladu
Date Deposited:	06 Jan 2026 04:29
Last Modified:	06 Jan 2026 04:29
URI:	http://repository.iftkledalero.ac.id/id/eprint/3787

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