Discourses of the “1965’s Bloody Coup” in Indonesian Education Historiography

Abstract

 This article examined the discourse about the 1965‘s bloody coup. The study was motivated by the controversy that has long been grown in Indonesian society about who is the mastermind of the incident. The problem studied is what kind of discourse about the 1965‘s bloody coup taught to high school students? The method used was discourse analysis to the content of high school history textbook from Indonesia New Order era (1966-1998) to Reformation era (1998-now). The results show that in the New Order era, history textbooks produced a discourse that Indonesia Communist Party was the antagonistic mastermind of the 1965‘s bloody coup. On the other hand, the Army and Major General Soeharto were the protagonistic heroes. In Reformation era, history textbooks produced a discourse that there were many interpretations toward the mastermind of the bloody coup. But the discourse was strongly protested by interest groups outside of the school.