President Barack Obama spent part of his childhood in Indonesia during the aftermath of the 1965 mass-killings

The film “40 Years of Silence” has particular relevance to the U.S. today. President Barack Obama spent four years of his childhood in Jakarta immediately following the events of 1965 in Indonesia. The tragedy of the mass killings under the Suharto regime continued to dominate the social and political climate of Indonesia for decades to come. 

In 1967, six-year-old Barack Obama moved to Jakarta with his mother and stepfather, a native Indonesian who had been studying in the U.S. At the behest of the Suharto regime, all Indonesians studying abroad were required to return to Indonesia without explanation. At this time, the political climate of Indonesia was one of fear and loss; the Indonesian military, led by General Suharto, had systematically killed between 500,000 to 1,000,000 suspected communist sympathizers.  The violence of General Suharto’s regime remained within the vivid memories of Indonesians whose families had been torn apart, although the killings were not openly discussed. 

In his book Dreams from my Father, Obama writes that "...we had arrived in Djakarta less than a year after one of the more brutal and swift campaigns of suppression in modern times. The idea frightened [my mother], the notion that history could be swallowed up so completely, the same way the rich and loamy earth could soak up the rivers of blood that had once coursed through the streets; the way people could continue about their business beneath giant posters of the new president as if nothing had happened, a nation busy developing itself"

Obama further writes “I know, I have seen, the desperation and disorder of the powerless: how it twists the lives of children on the streets of Jakarta…” The connection between President Barack Obama and the events of 1965 in Indonesia lends this film a unique relevance for Americans today. The killings under General Suharto were the major political event of Obama's childhood, one that shaped the social, cultural, and political climate of Indonesia during the time that he lived there. It is our hope that the link between Indonesia's tragic history and our current president will help increase awareness about this untold history.