time, and that was equivalent to half of Jewish casualty in Holocaust.

The Suharto aristocracies are still ruling

Today, the 1965 massacre is still a sensitive topic in Indonesia. The massacre have largely purged an entire elite class, replacing them with new ruling class. These new ruling class is still there in Indonesia and they are largely intact even though Suharto was gone. Powerful families have benefited from the ascend of Suharto.

South East Asia was the battle field of two main ideological groups, the capitalist and communist. Most people in South East Asia who received some educations were left leaning. On the other hand, the arm forces, landlords and religious groups were pro western.

Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos went communist, as they were able to receive direct support from China nextdoor. Indonesia had high potential going communist. The Communist Party of Indonesia, PKI was the 3rd largest in the world and was extremely well organized.

It had 3 million members and around 20 millions of peripheral groups like trade unions and educated youth. The PKI was the biggest political party in Indonesia. It was expected to win elections and ascend to power in matter of times.

This is the scenario that the west will prefer not to happen.

The enemies

Late former President Sukarno was left leaning. He has a vision of progressive Indonesia. The PKI and unions were organizing land reform, seizing lands from parasitic landlords and redistributing lands to labor. The parasitic landlord fumed.

Trade unionist were asking for better rights and working conditions, and the rich got angry. The progressive