Jakarta – The project to rewrite Indonesian history initiated by the Ministry of Culture has attracted the attention of a number of historians. It is hoped that the rewrite will not to ignore the dark chapters of Indonesian history, especially related to gross human rights violations that have been committed by the state.
The Minister of Culture (Menbud) Fadli Zon has said that the Indonesian history rewrite will not change the history of the 1965 massacre, which are often referred to as G30S-PKI (30 September Movement-Indonesian Communist Party) or the October One Movement (Gestok).
Zon said there is no controversy related to bloody history that caused the death of millions due to political events. "It's clear okay. Those people declared it [the coup] by themselves, right. So what do you want (changed), specifically don't distort history", said Zon.
Zon is targeting to complete the project by August 2025 to coincide with the 80th Anniversary of the Republic of Indonesia. According to Zon, the book will later renew the history of Indonesia based on the study by historians.
He also said that the history rewrite will be the latest book on official Indonesian history and that it would become a teaching guide in schools.
"Yes, everything that needs to be updated, we'll update it. For example, the last period is the period before Pak [Mr] SBY [former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono] if I'm not mistaken. Later, of course it will be added to", he said.
Write whatever there is
Historian Asvi Warman Adam says that ignoring the dark events in the journey of the nation would only repeat what has already been done by former president Suharto's New Order and contradicts the ethics of writing history itself.
"So if [he] says it won't be changed that is something that is contradictory with the nature of the writing", said Adam said when contacted on Thursday May 8.
Adam said that the Ministry of Culture's decision that it would not revise the events of 1965 through to the history of gross human rights violations committed by the state in 1998 needs to be questioned. According to Adam, ignoring these events is contrary to the ethics of historical writing.
He questioned the historical facts in the planned book if there was no novelty in it. In fact, many new books written by academics have already revealed the facts behind the gross human rights violations that have been committed by the state.
"One of the features in the making of such a standard history. That history also shows what is, the recent updates or writings. The development of new writing in the field of history on certain events", he said.
Among others, Adam gave the example of the many history books about the 1965 rebellion that had been written by historians. Including also the gross human rights violations committed by the state in 1998, one of which implicates President Prabowo Subianto.
In principle, history books according to Adam must contain novelty. That is, if you do not have this element, it conflicts with Indonesia's national history. Historical writers must find new facts in historical events that are to be written about.
He considers that the government's plan to update the history of colonialism to say that the Dutch did not control Indonesia for 350 years is also not something new because it has already been written about by Dutch historian G.J. Ressink in his book "Not Colonised for 350 Years".
"If the only thing that is changed is saying that Indonesia was not colonised for 350 years, it has already been written about in a book, it has been translated into Indonesian, a book written by Ressink", said Adam.
Not an official history
Adam also noted that the Indonesian history rewrite project being worked on by the Ministry of Culture is not official. According to Adam, so far the government has only written two official history books or official histories.
First, the white book about the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) rebellion issued by the State Secretariat (Setneg) in 1994 titled, "The September 30 Movement: Background, Actions and Establishment". The book is commonly referred to as the White Book.
Second, a book titled "Treatise on the BPUPKI [Indonesian Independence Preparation Investigative Assembly] and the PPKI [Preparatory Committee for Indonesian Independence] meetings", which was also published by the State Secretariat in 1998.
While an Indonesian history book edited by Nugroho Notosusanto in 1977 at the beginning of the New Order regime, which consisted of six volumes, was not an official history book. According to Adam, the book is only a kind of handbook.
"Now in my view and also according to their own admission it's called a standard history. A standard history, the original history, in English a handbook", he said.
Although they were both published by the government, Adam said there are fundamental differences between an official national history and an unofficial history or handbook.
According to Adam, official history is the state's opinion on an event or a number of events as stated in the white paper on the extermination of the PKI in 1965 and the treatise on the BPUPKI and PPKI in 1998.
Meanwhile, the Indonesian history book that was first published in 1977 cannot be called a state opinion because it was written by many authors, including those involved in the history rewriting project that is currently underway.
"How is it possible, it was issued in a short time with various authors, we can't say it's an official state opinion, about one event or another. There were 90, even now it is said there are 100 authors", he said.
"We can't say that everything written in this book is the official state view like that", he added.
Adam has repeatedly warned that the rewriting of Indonesian history must not be to legitimise the regime's narrative of the nation's history, especially by ignoring historical facts that have already been written about by many academics.
For example he highlighted 12 gross human rights violations that are not included in the outline of the book. Out of these events, it is said that the Ministry of Culture will only include the Tanjung Priok shooting on September 12, 1984, and the Talangsari incident in Lampung in 1989.
Yet a number of other gross human rights violations have already been acknowledged by the state, including the 1965 affair and the abduction of pro-democracy activists in 1997-98.
"Now, that includes the gross human rights violation that occurred in 1998. Including the forced disappearance of activists that involved Prabowo Subianto's name and so on. In my view, this must be written about like that", he said.
In many cases, countries write their own history. However, generally these countries do not adhere to democratic systems such as in countries like Japan, Russia or China.
Japan for example, once wrote the "New History Textbook Reform" in 2001. The book was considered controversial because it eliminated the facts surrounding Japanese crimes during World War II related to the Nanjing massacre and exploitation of comfort women in several countries, including Indonesia.
As a consequence, the book attracted a strong reaction from several countries such as China and South Korea and this impacted upon Japanese diplomatic relations in the form of boycotting the country's products in East Asian countries.
"Many parties considered this, yes, to be embarrassing, right", said Adam.
There was also a book called "History of the Great Patriotic War" written by the government of the Soviet Union. The book described Josef Stalin as a great hero in World War II, but ignored human rights violations, concentration camps and political cleaning.
The book was criticised by Russian historians for being too one sided and hiding the truth.
Militarisation of history
Jakarta National University (Unnas) historian Andi Achdian hopes that the government will include the 12 gross human rights violations in the history rewrite because the 12 cases were acknowledged by the government under former President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo in January 2023m and the state has apologised for them.
Moreover in a statement, Widodo recommended that 12 cases be included in the narrative of writing an Indonesian history. "One of the recommendations is to include the narrative of human rights violations in writing Indonesian history", Achdian said.
According to Achdian, the state must open a space for public debate to multiply perspectives. The best move to do this should be by handing over the history writing to universities that are free from government intervention.
The legitimisation of Indonesian national history was once carried out by the New Order government through the six volumes of books edited by Nugroho Notosusanto. According to Achdian, institutions have patience in writing history.
"In the case of Indonesia, why has the military built its historical legitimacy since the New Order era, when they emerged as political power", he said on Thursday.
Based on the outline, Achdian said that the history rewrite only contains a glorification of presidential administrations from Indonesia's founding president Sukarno to Widodo.
Meanwhile, said Achdian, several important events such as the human rights violations in 1965 to the abduction of pro-democracy activists toward the end of former president Suharto's New Order are not included in the book outline.
"So there are no historical wounds. Everything is fine. Now that's a problem from history, of the official history", he said.
According to Achdian, the writing of an official history by the state is no longer talking about debate or about the methods or material selection. According to Achdian, the state should also be responsible to the public.
Because, history is also closely related to the victims of violence committed by the state. Achdian believes that the state should look at these aspects. "But now, for example, what about the victims' families. What about other communities whose stories are removed in the official history", he said.
Achdian acknowledges that there was an effort to militarise history by the New Order government in order to show the role of the military rather than civilians in books published by the government.
He gave the example of the glorification of the military's role in the history of the Revolutionary Government of Indonesia (PRRI/Permesta) rebellions in 1956 but negated the role of civilians. Achdian therefore suspects the rewriting Indonesia's history, especially related to gross human rights crimes, is because it allegedly involved President Prabowo during his active military service.
"For example, what is very striking in with regard to Prabowo Subianto himself, like that. That he was the person who was involved in one of the, yeah, at the very least human rights violations that occurred during the New Order era. Yes, in my opinion that [should] just be written about", he said. (thr/ugo)
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Penulisan Ulang Sejarah RI Jangan Jadi Legitimasi Rezim".]