August 11, 2025 | 10:03 am
Indonesia's Minister of Culture, Fadli Zon, is targeting the completion of the rewrite of Indonesia's history on November 10, 2025. The release date of the history book project from President Prabowo Subianto's government was previously postponed from the initial estimate, which was in August 2025 or coinciding with the 80th Anniversary of the Republic of Indonesia.
Fadli mentioned that the government now aims to publish the official history book on November 10, coinciding with Heroes' Day. "Our plan for this year, hopefully we expect it in October or November, on Heroes' Day," said Fadli at the Istiqlal Mosque, Central Jakarta on Sunday night, August 10, 2025.
At present, Fadli said, the Ministry of Culture is still conducting various activities in the context of rewriting history. One of them is a public review in academic forums.
Fadli said that the public review of history has been conducted openly at four universities. The four are the University of Indonesia, State University of Padang, Lambung Mangkurat University, and State University of Makassar.
After this, he said, there will be a public review agenda in other forums. "We will do it again with history enthusiasts, other historians," said the politician from the Gerindra Party.
Fadli mentioned that there were a number of input points from the completed public review forums. He did not disclose whether the Ministry of Culture will revise the official history draft after receiving the input. "There are quite a lot of interesting inputs and I think this is what we expected," said Fadli.
Chairperson of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) Puan Maharani previously urged the government not to rush in the project to rewrite history. The granddaughter of former President Sukarno called on the government not to ignore public protests. "Don't rush, let's see again how the existing historical facts are," said Puan at the parliament complex, Jakarta, on Thursday, July 3, 2025.
The government's version of the history rewrite project has been criticized by civil society. In July 2025, the Civil Society Coalition Against Impunity rallied Minister of Culture Fadli Zon during a working meeting with Commission X of the People's Consultative Assembly. The Civil Society Coalition said this interruption was a symbolic action.
The action also protested Fadli Zon's statement denying the occurrence of mass rape in 1998. "To protest the whitewashing of history and also to condemn Fadli Zon's statement that the 1998 mass rape is a rumor and has no evidence," said Jane Rosalina, an activist from the Civil Society Coalition, when met around the parliament complex of the People's Consultative Assembly, Jakarta, on Wednesday, July 2, 2025.
Dian Rahma Fika contributed to the writing of this article.
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