Minister kicks off public discussion on Indonesia's controversial new history books
JAKARTA – Culture Minister Fadli Zon has reassured the public that the forthcoming history books 'are not hiding anything' as he launched a public campaign on the project despite concerns past human rights abuses may be whitewashed.
Fadli held the first round of discussion on Friday at the University of Indonesia's (UI) main campus in Depok, West Java, and said in his remarks there that the new history books were aimed at taking an 'Indonesia-centric' perspective in updating the country's history.
'This forum is a kickoff for public discussions to show that we are not hiding anything in our history. We can debate it, but we cannot simply leave our history unwritten,' he said in the livestream event.
Deflecting concerns of being a rushed project, the minister said the ongoing efforts to rewrite the country's history is '26 years too late'. He noted that the last state-sanctioned revision took place at the start of the Reform era in 1999.
The upcoming 10-volume publication will include everything from the latest archaeological findings on early civilizations in the archipelago up to the end of former president Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo's second term in October of last year.
The project involves 112 historians from 34 state universities across Indonesia, whom Fadli described as the 'maestros' of their respective fields.
'History cannot be written carelessly. If it is written by an activist, the result will be different. If it is written by a politician, it will also reflect differing political interests. That is why history must be written by qualified historians,' he said.
The project has come under fire from activists and independent historians, who fear that the government might be looking to take a revisionist approach by emphasizing only positive legacies of past presidents, including Soeharto, whose authoritarian rule was marked by widespread human rights abuses and systemic corruption.
Fadli has also come under heavy criticism for his repeated dismissal of the mass rapes that took place during the May 1998 riots.
While Fadli did not provide a specific publication timeline, he said he hoped the books would serve as a 'gift' for the nation's 80th Independence Day on Aug. 17.
Restu Gunawan, director general for the protection of culture and tradition at the Culture Ministry, said that, in addition to the event at UI, three more discussions are set to follow in the coming weeks in Lambung Mangkurat University in South Kalimantan, followed by Padang State University in West Sumatra and at Makassar State University in South Sulawesi.
'The books are currently in the editing stage by the volume editors. Hopefully, public input from these forums can help fill in any remaining gaps before it moves on to the general editor for final refinement,' Restu said.
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