JAKARTA – Historical books are not just a series of past chronologys, but also a reflection of how a nation understands itself. In the midst of changing times and new findings, history needs to be updated to remain relevant and reflect the true identity of the nation.

Therefore, the revision of Indonesia’s national history book is an important step to rearrange the national narrative from a more complete and balanced perspective, not from a colonial point of view.

The Director General of Cultural and Traditional Protection, Ministry of Culture, Restu Gunawan, said that the latest version of Indonesia’s history book is scheduled to be launched as part of the celebration of Indonesia’s 80th anniversary of independence.

“The launch will coincide with 80 years of independent Indonesia. At that time, we will have an updated Indonesian national history book,” said Restu when met at the Ministry of Culture office, Jakarta, as quoted by ANTARA.

Although he has not yet mentioned the exact date of the launch, Restu explained that the script for the book is currently in the stage of final review and editing. Previously, the manuscript had gone through public testing in four cities, namely at the University of Indonesia (Depok), Lambung Mangkurat University (Banjarmasin), Padang State University, and Makassar State University.

The Minister of Culture, Fadli Zon, emphasized the importance of the involvement of experts in this national historical rewriting project. According to him, this process must be carried out by competent historians so that the results can be scientifically accounted for.

“We cannot leave the writing of national history to people who are not experts,” said Fadli.

Fadli also said that this history book was not intended to cover all details of the nation’s journey, but to present an outline or main core of Indonesian history in 10 volumes of books. If you want to load everything, you may need 100 volumes,’ he said with a smile.

In this big project, the Ministry of Culture collaborated with 112 historians from 34 universities throughout Indonesia. This rewriting aims to present history from the point of view of the Indonesian nation itself, not from the narrative of colonialism.

Fadli added that many new findings need to be included in this latest history book, such as ancient 51,200-year-old paintings discovered in 2003. Findings like this confirm that Indonesia’s history continues to develop and need to always be updated so as not to be left behind by advances in science.

He also ensured that the writing of this history was carried out in a transparent and open manner towards scientific debate. There is no attempt to cover up historical facts, because healthy history is formed from an open dialogue space.

This book, continued Fadli, is not only a documentation of the nation’s journey, but also a reflective tool to strengthen collective awareness and solidarity between generations. This rewriting is expected to reaffirm the direction of struggle and ideals of the nation as inherited by the founders of the state.

The English, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and French versions are automatically generated by the AI. So there may still be inaccuracies in translating, please always see Indonesian as our main language.
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