Pour Terra

Bandung · Archive edition

The White Book of the 1978 Students' Struggle

Buku Putih Perjuangan Mahasiswa 1978

Students sitting on a tree-lined road on the ITB campus, facing a line of troops, 1978
Troops at ITB, 1978. AI-enhanced, shown with a halftone filter. Photographer unknown. First posted in 2008 as “Tentara masuk kampus ITB” (opens in a new tab)

Report

On 16 January 1978 the ITB Student Council published a critique of Suharto's New Order government. The military banned it within days.

An English translation was published in the journal Indonesia in April 1978. This entry covers what the book said, who wrote it, and what came after.

Source: Indonesia Vol. 25 (Cornell SEAP, April 1978), pp. 151–182

Read the full report →

Ask the White Book

A model that has read the English translation (April 1978) answers, and gives the pages it used.

Chronicle, 1945–1998

  1. 194517 Aug 1945Indonesia proclaims independence
  2. 194624 Mar 1946Bandung Sea of Fire: the south of the city is burned rather than handed over
  3. 195518–24 Apr 1955The Asian–African Conference meets in Bandung
  4. 19651 Oct 1965The 30 September Movement; mass killings follow into 1966
  5. 196611 Mar 1966The Supersemar order passes Sukarno's authority to Suharto
  6. 197415–16 Jan 1974Malari: student protests during Japanese Prime Minister Tanaka's visit end in riots in Jakarta1
  7. 197814 Jan 1978The ITB Student Council rejects another term for Suharto216 Jan 1978The ITB Student Council publishes the White Book31 Feb 1978The army occupies the ITB campus49 Feb 1978The army occupies ITB again5Apr 1978The English translation is published in the journal Indonesia2
  8. 199821 May 1998Suharto resigns
  1. 1Husein Abdulsalam, “Malari 1974: Protes Mahasiswa yang Ditunggangi Para Jenderal”, Tirto, 14 January 2018
  2. 2Indonesia Vol. 25 (Cornell SEAP, April 1978), pp. 151–182
  3. 3Buku Putih Perjuangan Mahasiswa 1978, Dewan Mahasiswa ITB, dated Bandung, 16 Januari 1978
  4. 4Sukmadji Indro Tjahjono, “Indonesia di Bawah Sepatu Lars”, defence plea (Bandung, 1979)
  5. 5Aura Biru: Catatan Para Pelaku Sejarah ITB, pp. 140–143

ITB

The campus and the people who tied it to national politics.

Global

Indonesia's part in world politics, from Bandung to the Cold War.

Craft

The technical side: machine learning, geophysics and the maths.