Kekeuhulisan Sejarah, Menbud Klaim Libatkan Sejarahwan Kompeten

Minister of Culture (Menbud) Fadli Zon (ANTARA/Feru Lintara)

JAKARTA - Minister of Culture (Menbud) Fadli Zon said the writing of Indonesia's national history must be written by historians who have competence in their respective fields.

"We cannot arbitrarily hand over the rewriting of Indonesia's national history to those who are not experts," said Fadli Zon when giving a speech at the Draft Public Discussion on the Writing of Indonesian History Books at the Faculty of Cultural Sciences, University of Indonesia (FIB UI) Depok, Friday, was confiscated by Antara.

Fadli said this book could not accommodate the entire existing national history, perhaps if all needed 100 volumes.

"But with just 10 volumes it can be the 'higlight' only," he said.

The writing of Indonesia's national history, Kemenbud collaborates with 112 historians from 34 universities throughout Indonesia.

Fadli said the process of completing this draft history writing had reached 80 to 90 percent of editing.

He said Indonesia needed to write history from an Indonesian perspective, not from colonialism. I hope this historical writing will become relevant as the identity of the Indonesian nation.

There are many new findings that need to be updated, such as ancient paintings recently discovered and the results of 2003 studies say they are 51,200 years old.

Fadli Zon also emphasized that nothing was covered up in the rewriting of Indonesia's national history, even historical writing is very open to debate.

He said that Indonesia's history was last written 26 years ago, so there needs to be an update from the previous version.

"I hope this book from the rewriting of national history can increase historical awareness for the younger generation," he said.