Shedding light on a clouded history

Already at a loss over scarce, pricey basic commodities, Indonesians now come up against mind-boggling questions about their history. Better to forgive and forget and get on with overcoming the crisis? The trouble is there has only been one, unbending version of the nation's history. The Jakarta Post team of reporters -- Benget Simbolon Tnb, Budiman Moerdijat, Devi M. Asmarani, Ida Indawati Khouw, Primastuti Handayani, Reiner Simanjuntak, Sugianto Tandra and Asip Agus Hasani in Yogyakarta -- explores the new era of looking at the past.

JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto's resignation in May opened doors to issues previously sealed and unquestioned during his 32- year rule.

Looming large is the heated debate over the accuracy of historical facts drilled into Indonesians since they were young.

Some of the issues -- such as the 1965 abortive communist coup and the document known as Supersemar which effectively brought Soeharto to power -- pose even greater questions about the legitimacy of the New Order government.

Minister of Education and Culture Juwono Sudarsono has pledged to revise the version of national history contained in school textbooks.

Juwono said on Tuesday his ministry would invite the Indonesian Historians Society to "retrace" the nation's history back to the proclamation of independence in 1945. The organization would rewrite history comprehensively but in a "proportional" way. For instance, Soeharto, despite his faults, should be remembered for his contribution in squashing the coup attempt, he said.

Hermawan Sulistyo, a historian and political observer at the National Institute of Sciences (LIPI), was circumspect in welcoming the government pledge.

"The idea is good as long as it is not used to replace the whole history," Hermawan told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.

"If they do so, once the new regime is in place, they will also change the previous government's version of history."

He recommended that the "revised history" should serve as a supplement to the existing version.

"Just let people read as many versions of history as possible because this will eventually educate them," he said.

"We all have been 'stupid' in the past 30 years because we have been forced to read one version of history."

He urged the government to allow all sources of information regarding the nation's history -- including foreign publications which in many cases appear to contradict the government's version -- to be read by the public.

The government should express its disagreement with dissenting interpretations "through writing, analysis or whatever, not by banning the books", Hermawan said.

Soegijanto Padmo, a historian and lecturer at Yogyakarta's Gadjah Mada University, said that writing history from an accurate perspective was the process to creating a rational and objective people.

"To achieve this, we need to have freedom of expression. We did not speak up and kept quiet until after May 21," Soegijanto said, referring to Soeharto's downfall amid student protests, deadly riots and the country's worst-ever economic crisis.

He described the objectivity of the established historical literature as dubious, written under an autocratic government which repressed freedom of expression.

Corrective thinking never had room because there was no dialog, "while the writing of good history needs dialogs, freedom and democracy".

He cited the battle against the Dutch of March 1, 1949, in Yogyakarta, of which Soeharto claimed to be the initiator. The version has been popularly spread through films.

"If anyone ever challenged with the belief the real initiator was the (late) Sultan Hamengkubuwono IX, he would for sure be beaten down during Soeharto's regime."

In a recent interview with the Post, Hermawan said the intense public discussions on the 1965 coup attempt indicated that a battle was continuing among the political elite.

He said the government of President B.J. Habibie -- which is still regarded by some as a carbon copy of the Soeharto regime -- is apparently trying to distance itself from the former government by allowing the open discussions to go on with the hope that they may lead to the conclusion that Soeharto and his supporters made a mistake.

The discussions have also gained support from witnesses of the coup attempt. With the fall of their old nemesis Soeharto, they now have an opportunity to speak up on the facts, some of which they say have been manipulated.

The relatively free rein given to the discussions could boomerang on Habibie, Hermawan warned. People will become more critical about their civil rights and may reach the conclusion that the transfer of power from Soeharto to Habibie in May was also unconstitutional.

A willingness to tolerate more than one version of our history is also a barometer for how far we have come in achieving democracy. "Historical writing that is comprehensive and diverse is the character of freedom of expression," Soegijanto said.