JAKARTA, JUL 13 (AFP/APP):The Indonesian government’s plans to issue new history books have sparked fears that mention of deadly riots in 1998 targeting mostly ethnic Chinese in the country will be scrubbed from the text.
The 10-volume account was ordered by the administration of President Prabowo Subianto, an ex-general accused of abducting activists in the unrest that preceded dictator Suharto’s fall, claims he denies.
Scholars fear his government could use the exercise to rewrite history and cover up past abuses.
Draft volume summaries and a chapter outline seen by AFP do not include any specific section on the 1998 violence.
A summary of Suharto’s rule in the volume dedicated to him only mentions how “student demonstrations… became a factor” in his resignation.
“The writing was flawed since the beginning,” said Andi Achdian, historian at Jakarta’s National University, who has seen the outline.
“It has a very strong tendency to whitewash history.”
Suharto ruled Indonesia with an iron fist for more than three decades after grabbing power in the wake of a 1965-6 massacre.
The culture minister overseeing the government’s history project, Fadli Zon, told lawmakers last week the account “does not discuss May ’98… because it’s small”.
Neither does it promise to include most of the “gross human rights violations” acknowledged by former president Joko Widodo in 2023.
Jajat Burhanudin, a project editor, contradicted Fadli and dismissed concerns, telling AFP the new volumes would include 1998 events, with the draft outline just a “trigger for discussion”.
Officials say the new historical account is needed to strengthen Indonesian identity, but warned that any omission about its darkest past will raise eyebrows over objectivity.
“What is feared is that… the cases that have been accepted by the previous government to be resolved will be ignored,” said Marzuki Darusman, a former attorney general and head of a civil society coalition opposed to the volumes.
