Govt withdraws history textbooks

Govt withdraws history textbooks

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A historian has said history can sometimes be "his story".
Indonesia's prolonged controversy over the various historical
accounts of the now-defunct Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) in
the 1965 coup could fall into this description.

Recently, the issue surfaced once again following complaints
that the latest history curriculum excluded PKI's attempted coup
in Madiun, East Java, in 1948 and failed to mention its
involvement in the country's 1965 bloodbath.

The complaints have forced Minister of National Education
Bambang Sudibyo to withdraw the 2004 history curriculum.

The minister also banned the use of the history textbooks
based on the latest curriculum and instead required teachers to
temporarily use materials based on the 1994 curriculum.

"It applies to all secondary schools and we are considering
issuing a supplement for elementary history textbooks based on
the 2004 curriculum," Bambang said on Monday as quoted by Antara
during a meeting with the House of Representatives.

Bambang said the history textbooks issued based on the 2004
curriculum had not been evaluated and were not issued by the
ministry.

He asked the National Education Standardization Body (BSNP) to
revise the subject.

In response, BSNP chairman Bambang Suhendro said he would form
a working group consisting of historians and other related
experts to come out with the revisions to the history textbooks
sometime this year.

Suhendro promised that his appointed team would take into
account all versions and come out with an objective textbook.

"We will evaluate both the 1994 and 2004 curriculums," he
said.

In Monday's hearing, House Commission X gave the education
minister six months to correct the current history textbooks.

"Commission X and the national education minister have agreed
to solve the problems revolving around the history subject in six
months, so as to include the incidents surrounding the PKI revolt
comprehensively," commission chairman Heri Akhmadi of the
Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) said.

He added that the meeting also asked the minister to conduct a
comprehensive and thorough study of the history textbooks issued
based on the 2004 curriculum before being declared an official
subject in the national education.

In the meantime, teachers will have to stick to the old
history textbooks based on the 1994 curriculum which still
contain the story of the 1948 coup in Madiun and directly blame
the outlawed PKI as the mastermind of the 1965 bloodbath.

Historians, however, have criticized what they call strongly
biased information about the PKI and all related events written
in the school textbooks, including those based on the 1994
curriculum.

They have called for revisions to the books.

"After the reformation, people started questioning accounts of
the country's history, especially some controversial issues such
as PKI-related events," said Ministry of Culture and Tourism's
assistant deputy for national history Susanto Zuhdi.

"PKI's involvement was a fact, but whether it was the
mastermind remains a question."

Susanto said that when an issue is still debatable, it would
need a national consensus before including it in school
materials.

"History in the context of education differs from that of
academic discourse," he said. "It requires a balanced perspective
that contains facts."

Zuhdi added that for the 1965 coup alone, there were five
versions among academicians. (003)