The Best of the Bureau/The_Best_of_the_Bureau_Bureau_Development_Inc._1992.iso/dp/0020/00207.txt

Text File | 1992-08-07 | 31KB | 480 lines

$Unique_ID{bob00207}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{Indonesia
Chapter 1D.   The Decision to Grant Independence}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Donald M. Seekins}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{dutch
sukarno
indonesia
republic
pki
forces
java
republican
military
indonesian
see
pictures
see
figures
}
$Date{1982}
$Log{}
Title:       Indonesia
Book:        Indonesia, A Country Study
Author:      Donald M. Seekins
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1982

Chapter 1D.   The Decision to Grant Independence

     The increasingly desperate position of the Japanese, signaled by the fall
of the government of Tojo Hideki in July 1944, led to an unexpected decision
by his successor, Prime Minister Koiso Kuniaki, to grant independence to the
archipelago. This was announced on September 7, 1944, and was a vindication of
the position of Sukarno and other cooperating nationalists who had been
increasingly criticized as lackeys of the Japanese. The announcement was
especially gratifying because the territory to be given independence included
not simply Java but the entire archipelago, on which Sukarno had repeatedly
insisted. The Investigating Committee for the Preparatory Work for Indonesian
Independence, founded in March 1945, included delegates from the Outer Islands
and took up the question of what kind of government the new nation would have.
A republican constitution was proposed in July, providing for a centralized
presidential system: there would be an elective Indonesian People's Congress
which would select the president and vice president of the republic; during
the president's five-year term, he could have broad powers and would be
responsible only to the Congress, which would meet as infrequently as once
every five years. Emphasis on mutual aid, collectivism, and consensus building
reveal Sukarno's predominant influence. Hatta lobbied unsuccessfully for a
Western-style parliamentary system and the inclusion of provisions recognizing
individual rights.

     It was agreed that the territory of the new republic would include not
only the former Dutch East Indies but also Portuguese Timor and British
possessions on Borneo and the Malay Peninsula. Thus the basis for a postwar
Great Indonesia policy, pursued by both Sukarno and his successor, Soeharto,
was established. The committee also addressed the delicate question of
religion. Muslim delegates protested the establishment of a secular state as
Sukarno had wanted. A compromise, known as the Jakarta Charter, was worked out
in which the state would be based upon belief in God, and Muslims were
required to follow Islamic law.

     On June 1, 1945, Sukarno had given an address outlining the five
principles (pancasila) of the Indonesian nation. Much as the concept of
Marhaenism had been used by him to create a common denominator for the people
in the 1930s, so pancasila would provide a common foundation for the country
after achieving independence. The five principles were belief in one God,
humanitarianism, national unity, democracy, and social justice. Broad and
imprecise as the five principles were, they would continue to serve as the
ideological basis of the Indonesian state long after their first advocate had
passed from the scene.

     On August 15 Japan surrendered, and the leadership, pressured by radical
youth groups, had to move quickly. On August 17 independence was formally
declared, with Japanese compliance, and the new republic began its highly
uncertain career.

The National Revolution, 1945-50

     The period of National Revolution witnessed the survival struggle of the
new republic and stubborn Dutch efforts to suppress it through policies of
military intervention and of divide and rule. The struggle was complicated by
the emergence of conflicting forces within the republican camp. In late 1945
these included Sukarno and Hatta, the older nationalist leaders who had
cooperated with the Japanese; antifascist leaders, of whom the most important
was Sutan Sjahrir; and radical youth groups who came to support the
revolutionary Tan Malaka. This period also saw the rise of the most important
political actor in postindependence Indonesia: the armed forces.

     One of the terms of the August 15 surrender was that Japanese troops
would maintain order in the occupied territories until Allied forces arrived
to take over. The Allies, hampered by lack of knowledge of internal conditions
and the last-minute transfer of authority for the archipelago from United
States forces under the command of General Douglas MacArthur to Lord Louis
Mountbatten's South East Asia Command, had no consistent policy concerning
Indonesia's future, apart from the vague hope that the Dutch and republican
forces could be induced to negotiate peacefully.

     To Indonesians, however, the intention of the Allies was clear: the
restoration of Dutch colonial rule. Thus in the weeks between the formal
declaration of independence and the first Allied landings on Java on September
29, republican leaders engaged in a frantic consolidation of their position.
Sukarno was named provisional president of the republic and Hatta vice
president, an association of two very different men that had survived the
occupation era and would continue until 1956.

     Because there was no opportunity for nationwide elections, the emergency
Central Indonesia National Committee (KNIP), with 135 members, was set up;
eight provincial republican governments were established on Java and the Outer
Islands. Those on Java retained the personnel and apparatus of the Java
Service Association. On August 27 Sukarno established a single national party,
giving it the old name of the Indonesian Nationalist Party (PNI).

     One of the most significant steps in this early period was the creation
of the armed forces. Local battle units (Laskar) were created in different
parts of the archipelago from military units established by the Japanese. Arms
were obtained from Japanese storehouses. A national defense force was
officially created on October 5 in order to coordinate the different Laskar
units. This became the nucleus of the republican armed forces.

     The first encounters between Allied troops, mostly British with some
Dutch units, and republican forces were tense and hostile. Major violence
erupted in Surabaya on October 28, 1945, when British troops were attacked by
a much larger force of Laskar soldiers and activist youth armed with Japanese
weapons. At first, republican leaders in Jakarta urged moderation; a tough
British counterattack on the city following the death of the British commander
Brigadier A.W.S. Mallaby, however, unified the Indonesian public behind the
resistance. The Battle of Surabaya of November 10-24, costing thousands of
lives, was the bloodiest single engagement of the National Revolution and
obliged the Allies to come to terms with the republic's existence.

     Sukarno found his predominant position undermined from two sides: the
allies distrusted him as a collaborator, making it impossible for him to
represent the republic in negotiations, and leftists excoriated him as a
lackey of the Allies for not advocating total resistance. In October 1945 he
was obliged to step down in favor of the socialist Sutan Sjahrir. Sukarno
remained president, but with few powers, and Sutan Sjahrir became prime
minister, foreign minister, and minister of the interior. During the next
year, he was involved in intense negotiations with the Dutch. The result was
the Linggajati Agreement of November 1946, which provided for Dutch
recognition of republican rule of Java and Sumatra and the creation of a
Netherlands-Indonesian Union under the Dutch crown, consisting of the
Netherlands, the republic, and the states of the eastern archipelago-the
latter two forming the United States of Indonesia. This agreement was
ratified by the KNIP, but only after it was packed with over 300 new members.
Neither the Dutch nor the Indonesians, however, were happy with it.

     The Dutch busied themselves wi