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Rights body calls for revision of history textbooks
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Human rights activists stage a rally in front of the State Palace to demand justice for past human rights abuses. Participants in the weekly protests, which began eight years ago and occur every Thursday, have called on President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to fulfill his campaign promise to create a rights tribunal. (JP/-)
T
he National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) has called on the government to revise school history books, which it believes have been manipulated for decades by those in power.
“We can’t depend on the version of history that was provided by the New Order government [from 1966 to 1998], for example. There should be new lesson materials based on the process of revealing the truth,” said Komnas HAM commissioner Dianto Bachriadi.
History textbooks should be revised after the government reveals the truth regarding past human rights cases, he added.
Komnas HAM has launched its own investigations into the cases but its recommendations have never been followed up by the Attorney General’s Office.
Dianto said the government should provide updated materials for history lessons in schools countrywide and compensate victims of past rights abuses.
However, Benny Susetyo of the Setara Institute said the most important thing in resolving past human rights cases was recognition and, therefore, the government should recognize the country’s dark past in order to bring about justice for victims.
“Our society discourages efforts to recognize the truth of the past as it would threaten perpetrators’ positions nowadays,” said Benny.
The government has expressed its wish to resolve seven past human rights violations, namely a 1989 massacre in Talangsari, Lampung; the forced disappearance of anti-Soeharto activists in 1997 and 1998; the 1998 Trisakti University shootings; the Semanggi I and Semanggi II student shootings in 1998 and 1999; the mysterious killings of alleged criminals in the 1980s; the communist purge of 1965; and various abuses that took place in Wasior and Wamena, Papua, in 2001 and 2003.
Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan said on March 17 that the government expected to resolve at least six of those cases by May 2. (vps/bbn)
