Whose history? The opening session of the first National History Seminar, held on Dec 14, 1957, in Yogyakarta. — Indonesian National Archives/JP/ANN
WHEN I was growing up in Indonesia in the 1990s, history was something to be memorised, not understood.
Like most Indonesian schoolchildren of my generation, I was taught a single, sanitised version of the national past. It came bound in flimsy government-issued textbooks, was echoed by our teachers, and reinforced by the encyclopaedic RPUL (Rangkuman Pengetahuan Umum Lengkap) that glorified an endless roster of national heroes. For a shy, disinterested student, it was a distant, flat reality; full of names, dates, and acronyms that bore little connection to my own life.
