133 Views
Southeast Asia
Organized Panel Session
With the ever-increasing number of social media users in Indonesia, the digital platform helped in facilitating debates on “unfinished histories” such as the 1965 mass killings. The meaning of “unfinished histories” is where there are still no conclusive agreement about how to present certain Indonesian historical narrative within Indonesian general public.
Digital social media platform, for example, the comments section on the Indonesian History Facebook page provided glimpses of these debates. Within this context, the digital online platform has provided an avenue where new historical information becoming available, while also sparking debates that are accessible to any online users. Sometimes the nature of these debates can be lively, harsh and even controversial. Moreover, there are several recurring “unfinished histories” that appeared more than others in these online discussion. This paper will identify what are those recurring “unfinished histories” and examine in what way these debates are being presented online. These online debates more often than not continue the ideological contentions that have occurred since the early formation of the Indonesian State back in 1945.
Yosef Djakababa
Universitas Pelita Harapan, Indonesia