Abstrack:
Wiji Thukul was a poet as well as a People?s Democratic Party (PRD) leader . His poems considered representing working class and other marginalised groups. His opposition to the New Order regyme has led him to be a victim of force disappearance. In the collective memory of activists and intellectuals in Indonesia today, he remembered as a radical activist as well as a human rights heroic icon. This study is about a process of rebranding Wiji Thukul as he moved from being a marginalized poet and radical activist change to heroic icon after reformasi. I argued, his image nowadays reconstructed and reproduced by his family, friends, activists, and media through commemorations related to the important historical days. He became the most important symbolic against dictatorship not only because of his role in prodemocration movement during the New Order, but because of his ability to capture the imagination of people, especially activists and intellectuals after reformasi.
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