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Contested histories: Soeharto and the March 1, 1949 attack on Yogyakarta
Presidential Decree (Keppres) No. 2/2022 has disappointed such hopes. It shows that the manipulation of history is still very much alive.
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The General Offensive of March 1, 1949 Monument in Yogyakarta was inaugurated on March 1, 1973 to remember the historic attack on Yogyakarta, which was then occupied by the Dutch, by Indonesian troops. (Courtesy of/@jogjaseni)
I
ndonesians who lived through Soeharto’s New Order will be familiar with the way in which history was manipulated in the interests of the political elite. The still murky and terrible events of Oct. 1, 1965 spring readily to mind.
Students of the late Prof. Sartono Kartodirjo (1921-2007) will also remember how he withdrew from editing later editions of the sixth volume of the Indonesian National History to protest against the regime’s manipulation of history. De-Sukarnoization was then the order of the day.
So too was a pernicious ethnic bias in official histories. This saw Chinese Indonesians intentionally disappeared from the official record. Four prominent peranakan (Indonesian-Chinese) – Liem Koen Hian, leader of the Indonesian Chinese Party (PTI), Oey Tiang Tjoei, owner of the Hong Po daily, Oei Tjong Hauw (son of the sugar “king” Oei Tiong Ham, and Tan Eng Hoa, a Batavia-based lawyer – who played a role in the Agency for the Preparatory Work for Indonesian Independence (BPUPKI), were expunged from the record.
Regime ideologue and official historian Prof. Nugroho Notosusanto ordered their removal. They were replaced by fictitious Indonesian Arabs. In reality, only one such figure, the national hero grandfather of Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan, AR Baswedan (1908-86), actually existed.
Despite numerous revised editions, the Sejarah Nasional or National History (1975) and its companion, Indonesia dalam Arus Sejarah or Indonesia in the stream of history (2011), the record has never been rectified.
In the current reformasi era, with President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo who was still in pre-school when the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) was being hounded to destruction, one might have expected history writing to enter a new and more enlightened age. Sadly, Presidential Decree (Keppres) No. 2/2022 has disappointed such hopes. It shows that the manipulation of history is still very much alive.
But now the record is twisted in the opposite direction. Instead of the nation’s tragic first president, his successor is the target of present regime ideologues. De-Soehartoization is the order of the day. The Keppres recognised the March 1 date (with reference to the General Offensive of March 1, 1949 in Yogyakarta) as the Day of the Upholding of National Sovereignty.
