# Growing Up Next to a Dictator: A Memoir of Indonesia's 1965 Coup Tari Lang recounts her youth in Jakarta as her family faced political persecution. - **Source:** [The Conversation – Australia](https://theconversation.com/au) - **Published:** 2026-11-09 - **Topic:** [culture](https://brifing.si/c/culture) - **Original article:** - **On Brifing:** https://brifing.si/s/619d1fde-d670-4a89-ada5-5c059856e23d ## The Morning of Tanks On October 1, 1965, fourteen-year-old Tari Lang witnessed military tanks surrounding her home in Jakarta. This event followed a failed coup attempt by young army officers against six generals. The sudden presence of armed soldiers on her street marked the beginning of a seismic shift in Indonesia's political landscape. ## Family Under Siege Tari’s parents, Carmel and Suwondo Budiardjo, were prominent figures in the government before being accused of communist sympathies. By September 1968, both were detained by the military. Carmel Budiardjo became the only British woman imprisoned by the regime, spending three years in detention without trial, including fifteen months in Bukit Duri. ## A Creeping Coup General Suharto, who orchestrated the military-dominated New Order, moved into a house just hundreds of metres from Tari’s family in 1967. This transition was characterized as a creeping coup, where power was consolidated slowly. Despite the political turmoil, Tari’s daily life initially maintained a deceptive veneer of ordinary social activity. ## Navigating Dual Realities While her parents were imprisoned, Tari navigated a world of contradictions. She attended an elite Catholic school and organized fashion shows while simultaneously helping people evade arrest. She was even detained overnight in 1966 and witnessed the torture of her boyfriend, highlighting the brutal reality hidden beneath the surface of normalcy. ## Comparative Testimonial Literature Tari’s memoir is often compared to Loung Ung’s account of the Cambodian genocide. However, unlike the total rupture experienced in Phnom Penh, Jakarta’s social geography remained largely intact. Schools and cinemas stayed open, creating a surreal environment where the dictator lived nearby while Tari continued her piano lessons and social life. ## The Mother-Daughter Perspective The memoir gains depth when read alongside her mother’s 1996 book, which details the horrors inside Indonesian prisons. While Tari observed the empty buildings and missing people from the outside, her mother documented the interrogation and psychological torment. Together, these accounts reveal how systemic state violence was obscured by secrecy. ## Exile and Advocacy In May 1969, Tari and her brother Anto were evacuated to London with the help of the World Council of Churches. Her mother joined them in 1971, eventually founding TAPOL to lobby for political prisoners. Her father remained in Indonesia until his release in 1978, when he finally joined the family in exile. ## Legacy of the Storm Suharto remained in power until 1998, and his legacy remains controversial, with current leadership recently elevating him to national hero status. Tari Lang concludes her memoir by lamenting the hundreds of thousands of families whose voices were silenced. Her work serves as a vital record of histories that remain largely untold. ## Sources covering this story - https://theconversation.com/when-tari-was-16-a-dictator-became-her-neighbour-then-her-parents-were-imprisoned-294572 — --- _Summary written by Brifing from the original reporting. Copyright in the original article belongs to its publisher; read the full piece at the link above._