REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has handed over the state documents of his government during the 2004-14 period to the National Archives Agency (ANRI).
"What my government did during a decade of governance must be made known to the state and the people," Yudhoyono said at the Presidential Palace in Bogor, West Java, Friday.
The president noted that apart from a peaceful and orderly government succession, he wanted to establish a new tradition of delivering important state documents to the ANRI. With state documents accessible at the National Archives, the nation can trace its history and the contents can make their way even to historical books or papers.
Yudhoyono added that the availability of documents at the National Archives could also help avoid polemics and discourses in the future, such as the Eleventh March Warrant in 1966. Besides, law authorizes the Archives Agency to collect and maintain state documents. Hence, Yudhoyono said he also expected his ministries to hand over some selected documents to the agency.
"Hundreds of thousands of important documents will become part of the nation's history, and they will shape the culture of a modern country's modern administration," he remarked.
State Secretary Sudi Silalahi said some of the documents handed over were related to regulations, laws, presidential documents, manuscripts of interviews, pictures, and videos.
"We collected about 500 bundles of static archives and we hand them over to the agency today," he pointed out.
The handover ceremony was also attended by Coordinating Minister of Political and Legal Affairs and Defense Djoko Suyanto, Education Minister M Nuh, Public Works Minister Djoko Kirmanto, Deputy Minister of Defense Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin, and Cabinet Secretary Dipo Alam.