Jakarta – Human rights activists deem history education materials as biased, especially toward the families of individuals who became victims of the nation's bloodiest events in the past.
"All history lesson materials are written from the perspective of the perpetrators, not from the victims," Andhy Panca Kurniawan, an activist, said during a workshop for history teachers in Jakarta on Friday.
"For example, every single victim who was killed during such tragedies as the 1965 Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) rebellion and May 1998 riots, is always depicted as the bad guy in history books," he added.
1965 saw mass arrests by the state of anyone related to the PKI. The state claimed that the PKI had masterminded a coup attempt on Sukarno's governance following the systematic murders of high-ranking army officers.
The alleged PKI supporters were then imprisoned, and anyone related to them, including their children and relatives, were neither allowed to work as state employees nor participate in general elections throughout the New Order era under the dictatorship of Soeharto.
The era spanned 32 years and was ended in 1998 by another bloody incident, known as the May Tragedy. Nongovernmental organizations on human rights said that around 1,000 people were killed during the tragedy.
Both the government and the House of Representatives have never acknowledged that a massive number of human rights violations took place during that incident.
"We have to remember that these victims are also humans and have husbands, wives and children," Andhy said. "That is why it is important for history teachers to teach and show their students that history is multidimensional," he added.
Suciwati, the wife of deceased human rights warrior Munir, said she hoped that history teachers would empower themselves to teach the true essence of history.
"All of the victims are only viewed as numbers in history books. I hope that in future, teachers will be able to fully explain the whole background and the reasons for a historical event," she said. (hdt)