As Palu's mayor, Rusdy was the second Indonesian government official (after Abdurrahman Wahid during his presidency in 1999 to 2001) to publicly apologize for the mass killings in 1965–66. His initial apology stemmed from a human rights event in March 2012 where he stated that he was ordered to guard a house where Indonesian Communist Party members were detained, and then apologized to the victims. Rusdy's family was affiliated with Masyumi, which during 1965 was actively conducting violence against the communists. In October 2013, he issued a mayoral order which officially apologized to the victims and became a legal basis for the victims to reclaim their rights.