Sukarno proclaimed the Republic of Indonesia on August 17, 1945, two days after the capitulation of Japan. Independence had been the dream of many for years and now it was finally here. Down with the Dutch! But is this image correct? Historian Remco Raben gives his vision.
Before the Second World War, the Dutch were clearly the boss in the Dutch East Indies. They ruled the country, nipped any revolts in the bud and earned a lot of money from the export of colonial products.
The great majority of the millions of farmers and workers remained underdeveloped, but the middle class of the Dutch East Indies grew. Their children received a decent education for the first time and some even went to study at one of the Dutch universities of applied sciences.
This also applied to the later president Sukarno. Once in the student environment, the young people came into contact with the nationalist ideologies that also swept through Europe in the 1920s and 1930s. The young intellectuals adopted these ideas and wanted to get rid of the Dutch colonizer.
In 1927, Sukarno and other members of the General Study Club founded the PNI:Partai Nasional Indonesia or the Indonesian Nationalist Party. An independent republic was their ideal.
Happy welcome Japanese
During World War II, the Japanese invaded the Dutch East Indies. Historian Remco Raben of Utrecht University explains:“At first, many intellectuals welcomed the Japanese enthusiastically. They saw Japan as an example:the country that had never been a colony and had reinvented and modernized itself. And they threw those Dutch out. The 'ordinary' population, on the other hand, looked out of the woods and was not very involved in politics. But there was some promise and change in the air and people wondered if they could capitalize on the arrival of the Japanese.”
The Japanese promised the Indonesians that they would renew and improve the country. What this exactly entailed was not clear. Meanwhile, Dutch and Europeans were put in camps, along with Indonesian POWs and other dissidents in the eyes of the Japanese. But after a year of Japanese occupation, the love was over. The expected independence did not come, on the contrary; Japan used Indonesia for its own gain and the economy went into a doldrums.
Some Indonesians were able to take advantage of the occupiers:a good example of this were the artists, who came from the middle class. Under the Dutch they had few opportunities to develop, but the Japanese donated their money and education.
Many artists seized this opportunity with both hands. They received drawing lessons, the space and funds to exhibit their work and the opportunity to unite among themselves. Raben:“Above all, the artists wanted to improve their style and technique. This did not alter the fact that they did indeed see the Japanese as occupiers. The artists who made propaganda material for the occupying forces did this to earn a living, not for ideological reasons.”
Art legitimizes revolution
After the surrender of Japan in 1945, a troubled and violent period began in Indonesia. The struggle for independence broke out and many painters used revolutionary themes in their art. They supported the struggle with their paintings. In the Netherlands itself, the idea soon dawned that the Dutch East Indies would become independent, but in what capacity it was not yet clear.
Shortly after the war there was a lot of attention for the country and also for art. Mayor W.A.J.Visser from The Hague hoped to improve cultural relations between the Netherlands and Indonesia. In 1947 he opened the exhibition with works by the Javanese artist brothers Agus and Otto Djaya in the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague. Two years later, the Hague's Hotel des Indes an exhibition with work by the artist group Gelanggang (battlefield).
Raben:“Left-oriented museum directors with a preference for an independent Indonesia were happy to help. And among the works of art there were certainly paintings with a political charge, but reviews from those years actually paid little attention to them.”
The new president Sukarno thought that Indonesian art was very important:it gave the new republic a face of its own. From the research for the book ‘Beyond the Dutch. Indonesia, the Netherlands and the visual arts from 1900 to the present' it emerged that he also had a small finger in the pie at the exhibitions in the Netherlands.
Raben:“The president gave the artists permission to study and exhibit their work in the Netherlands. He called this cultural espionage. This mainly meant that Sukarno wanted to show the Dutch that Indonesia had a thriving national culture. Indonesian art justified the revolutionary claim of independence.”
Crackling and screaming
In Indonesia itself, it was mainly the intellectuals who were concerned with the struggle for independence. The idea is that the whole of Indonesia hated the Dutch. This image is confirmed by attacks by revolutionary fighters and rioters on Dutch people who were released from the camps after the war, the Bersiap.
Raben:“This image is not correct. The hatred towards the Dutch was not so great among the population, it was more a sentiment among the Indonesian elite. Many Dutch people can confirm that the staff were very loyal and happy when they came back from the camps. The armed groups that attacked the Dutch were initially small. Although the attacks were exceptions and not mass violence, they were enough to kill thousands and intimidate the Dutch community.”
After the independence of the Republic of Indonesia, which was finally recognized by the Dutch government in 1949, most Dutch people left Indonesia. As a result, the attention for the country also faded, while everything was going on. Raben:“The 1950s were a very exciting period. Indonesian autonomy was not the best option for everyone, because who should be in charge? Christian minorities and Indonesians who had fought with the Dutch, such as the Ambonese, fled to the Netherlands.”
“In Indonesia no one had experience with setting up their own state, so it was a big experiment. “Who are we and how are we going to shape it?” These kinds of discussions would continue for years after independence. Everyone, communists, Muslims and so on, wanted to shape the new state in their own way. There was a lot of fighting between Indonesians and revolts against the government in Jakarta broke out. Civil wars, ethnic conflicts, murder of old noblemen. So the battle was a lot more complicated than just the fight against the colonizer. Society was looking for a way to shape itself, with a lot of cracking and screaming. It is similar to the situation in Egypt now.”
Cooperating ministries
The transition from colony to state was investigated on site for the research project From India to Indonesia The investigation into this history of Indonesian independence was not without a struggle. Indonesian politicians suffered from nationalism and were afraid that the Dutch would run away with their history.
Raben:“Sometimes we really had to walk on eggshells and we also had issues with ministries. It was all about their freedom struggle. Another problem was that many archives were not yet public. It is too short a time since Suharto's dictatorship is gone (1998). But the openness about one's own history is now developing slowly.”
“About two years ago, a new archive law was introduced that provides more openness:archives from the 1950s will gradually become available. Unfortunately this was too late for our research so we used newspapers and interviews, and few government archives. But the new generation of local historians, who have been involved in the project and have received training, can continue the investigation of this crucial period from their own separate.”
These local historians were used on a large scale for the first time in a Dutch study. Together with the Dutch researchers, they interviewed the population about their experiences with the transition from the Dutch East Indies to Indonesia. Raben did not notice any negative sentiments towards the Dutch during the interviews:“The most important thing was showing empathy. And keep asking. In addition, the local population was eager to tell their story. In Indonesia itself, the history of colonization and revolution has become very stereotypical. But these Indonesians also had a lot of experience with violence from fellow Indonesians or even their own government and they could finally tell that story.”