Arya News - Rights groups warn it reflects a growing effort to sanitise Indonesia’s violent past and erase the long-ignored suffering of Chinese-Indonesian women during one of the nation’s darkest chapters.
JAKARTA – Culture Minister Fadli Zon’s denial of mass rape during the May 1998 riots has triggered a wave of condemnation, with rights groups warning that it reflects a growing effort to sanitize Indonesia’s violent past and erase the long-ignored suffering of Chinese-Indonesian women during one of the nation’s darkest chapters.
The backlash followed Fadli appearance in a YouTube interview with IDN Times , during which he was asked about his ministry’s controversial project to release new history books that would adopt a “more positive tone” toward each of the country’s past presidents.
The project, set to launch during the nation’s 80th independence day in August this year, has already drawn pushback from scholars for omitting major human rights violations, especially those committed during the authoritarian rule of Soeharto, then the father-in-law of President Prabowo Subianto .
Among the events left out of the circulating draft are the May 1998 riots, which left more than 1,000 dead and saw Chinese Indonesians, who had been long scapegoated and discriminated against, subjected to violent attacks, including the mass rape of Chinese-Indonesian women, in unrest that preceded the Soeharto’s fall.
In the 41-minute interview, Fadli dismissed the mass sexual violence during the 1998 unrest as mere “rumors”, claiming there was no evidence substantiating the events and that reports of the violence were never officially recorded in historical documents.
“There was never any proof. It’s just a story,” said Fadli, who is also a politician of Prabowo’s Gerindra Party.
He also denied findings by a government-sanctioned fact-finding team that identified at least 85 victims of sexual violence, most of them Chinese-Indonesian women. The team was established by late president BJ Habibie shortly after Soeharto’s resignation.
Fadli’s remarks triggered fierce backlash from women’s rights activists, historians, advocates for survivors and members of the Chinese-Indonesian community, who accused the minister of distorting history and perpetuating a culture of denial.
Read also: Civil coalition rejects govt’s rewriting of history project
Diyah Wara Restiyati from the Indonesian Chinese Youth Association (IPTI) said Fadli’s comments were “deeply hurtful” and dismissive of the well-documented evidence of violence targeting the Chinese-Indonesian community.
“When government officials say the rapes didn’t happen, it deeply wounds us, especially Chinese Indonesian women, who lived through that horror,” Diyah told a press briefing on Saturday.
“The history of the Chinese-Indonesian community has never appeared in Indonesia’s history books,” she said. “We’ve faced discrimination and violence simply because of who we are. And when the government denies what happened in 1998, it deeply hurts […] like we’re not considered part of this country.”
Historian and activist Ita Fatia Nadia, who worked closely with survivors of the May 1998 rapes, accused Fadli of “deceiving the public” and demanded that he retract his statement and apologize to survivors and victims’ families.
“As culture minister, he should be helping us rebuild collective memory, work toward reparations and help the nation heal. Instead, he is erasing history and causing pain to those [who experienced what happened in 1998],” Ita said on Friday.
A coalition of rights groups and individuals calling itself the Civil Society Coalition Against Impunity also condemned Fadli’s remarks, accusing him of “manipulating history” and attempting to whitewash New Order-era human rights abuses.
Read also: International outcry grows over Soeharto national hero proposal
They also raised concerns over Fadli’s recent appointment as chair of the board of decorations and honorary titles, which has some say in deciding who becomes a national hero, after the minister voiced his support for awarding the title to Soeharto despite his human rights record.
“His dual role as culture minister and the board’s chair signals a larger agenda to reshape the direction of national historical narratives, including the political rehabilitation of problematic figures from the New Order era,” the coalition said.
On Sunday, government-sanctioned independent body the National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan) joined critics of Fadli and said his denial “is not only hurtful [to victims], but it also perpetuates impunity”.