Menbud Fadli Zon: The Term Official History Is Just A Speech, Not Written In A Book

Minister of Culture Fadli Zon/ANTARA/HO-Ministry of Culture)

JAKARTA - Minister of Culture Fadli Zon discussed plans to rewrite Indonesia's history in a meeting with Commission X of the DPR.

Menbud Fadli Zon stated that the term official history that had been criticized was just his words, it would not be written in a book that is targeted to be published on August 17, 2025.

"If anyone mentions official history or official history, it may just be words, but it's impossible to write this is official history, nothing of that. But this is Indonesia's national history which is part of the writings of historians," said Fadli Zon at the DPR building, Monday, May 26.

Fadli said the rewriting of Indonesia's version of history would involve 100 historians from various universities. Historians are tasked with writing, revising, and editing book content based on scientific studies.

"Because this is a history of highlight, which covers so many fields, of course this cannot contain in detail, from events, which have become part of Indonesia's national history book, which already involved hundreds of previous historians. So it didn't start from scratch actually," explained Fadli.

"What we want to make is the history of the Indonesian version. So Indonesia is centrisal, Indonesia's perspective. From Indonesia's perspective, I think actor actors are also very different, of course. And this is what he wants to write," he continued.

Fadli said, writing is not just history or a record just a past. But in the context of Indonesia, history has become a bridge that connects national identity, political policy and collective struggle.

According to Fadli, the current historical narrative is not yet completely free from colonial perceptions and does not answer the challenges of the globalization era.

"So that it is considered less relevant to modern society or the younger generation. Many young people do not know history," he said.

For example, said Fadli, some cases of young people do not know Soekarno-Hatta are two different people.

"There are one or two cases that might also be investigated in several cases, maybe they don't know anything more between Soekarno-Hatta because it might be mentioning, he thought Soekarno-Hatta was one name. In fact, now it's abbreviated as Soetta, Soetta thinks it's a new name again. That's just an example of how in the globalization era this information is very massive, if we don't write down this history, it might be difficult," he explained.

"Of course, this written history is a history that is a highlight of the outline. It doesn't write too much detail. Because if it's too detailed maybe we need more than 100 volumes, it's not finished," added Fadli.

In addition, the former deputy chairman of the DPR also wanted to straighten out the misunderstanding that appeared on social media regarding the rewriting of Indonesia's history. One of them is related to the abolition of women's congress.

"A lot of hoax news that we may also see is a bit misleading, we need to straighten this out. Especially related to the judgment as if this book exists, and it seems like it's like this, like that. For example, what was conveyed earlier was an attempt to eliminate the women's congress. In fact, we want to strengthen the involvement of women in that history," said Fadli.