Jakarta, IO – June 14, 2023. More than 77 years after Indonesia gained its Independence, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte finally issued an official statement recognizing Indonesia’s independence “completely and unconditionally.” Next, he said he would “discuss with my Indonesian counterpart about how to reach a joint realization of that Independence Day.” This statement did not come out of thin air. The Dutch government was sued 21 years ago, on March 20, 2002 to be exact. So, it can be said that the Dutch government has been dragging its feet, making the statement seem half-hearted.
This statement was conveyed by Mark Rutte in the Dutch Parliament during a debate on reports by three Dutch research institutes Nederlands Instituut voor Oorlogsdocumentatie (NIOD), Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde (KITLV) and Netherlands Institute of Military History (NIMH). They carried out a four-year research project, at a cost of 1.1 million Euros, funded by the Dutch government, on events that took place in Indonesia between 1945–49, a period referred to by Dutch government as “decolonization”, because the occupier refused to recognize Indonesian independence, actually proclaimed on August 17, 1945. The Dutch government still holds the view that the territory of the Republic of Indonesia was still its colony, until the establishment of a federation called the Verenigde Staten van Indonesie (the United States of Indonesia) or Republik Indonesia Serikat (RIS) on December 27, 1949. This period is known in Indonesia as the Dutch Military Aggression, where the Dutch invaded the newly-independent republic with the support of the allied forces under the American-British-Dutch-Australian Command (ABDACOM).
The official report from the three institutes was submitted to the Dutch government in February 2022. After reading the summary of the study, Mark Rutte expressed his deep apologies for the “systematic and extreme violence committed by the Dutch army” between 1945-49, in its attempt to regain control of its former colony.
During the debate, several political parties, including GroenLinks, D66, SP, and ChristenUnie firmly denounced the actions taken by the Dutch soldiers as war crimes. However, the other right-wing parties, including PVV, JA 21, Forum Voor Democratie and Groep van Haga, still regard the Dutch soldiers deployed to launch military aggression against Indonesia as heroes.
After the debate, a spokesperson for the Dutch prime minister hinted that Mark Rutte would “fully recognize” Indonesian independence as of August 17, 1945. But it turned out that what Mark Rutte meant was not de jure (“from the law”) recognition, but only de facto (“from the fact”) acceptance, even with some unreasonable notes.
Mark Rutte also said: “We see the [1945] Proclamation as a historical fact.” This makes it clear that the Dutch government’s position on this matter is only a de facto recognition .
The spokesman said that legally nothing would change, meaning that the Dutch East Indies continued to exist legally until 1949, when the Dutch unconditionally and irrevocably transferred full sovereignty over its former colony to the Republic of Indonesia, after years of bloody war. “Sovereignty was transferred in 1949. We cannot reverse that,” he said.
This de facto acceptance had actually been conveyed verbally by the Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs Bernard “Ben” Bot, when he visited Jakarta on August 16, 2005.
Historical backdrop
Japan launched its military campaign against the west on December 7, 1941 by attacking the US naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. At the same time, Japan mobilized all of its armed forces to attack countries in East and Southeast Asia, including the Dutch East Indies. In January 1942, the US, Britain, Netherlands and Australia formed a joint command, called ABDACOM.
However, ABDACOM failed to curb Japanese aggression, as one by one, countries in East and Southeast Asia fell to the Japanese Imperial Military, which landed in Java on March 1, 1942. After being pounded for a week, the Dutch colonial government surrendered. On March 9, 1942, the Commander of the Dutch army in the Dutch East Indies, Lt. Gen. Hein ter Poorten, on behalf of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, signed an unconditional surrender in Kalijati, West Java. March 9, 1942 can be said to mark the end of Dutch colonial rule in the territory that is now the Republic of Indonesia.
After the war in Europe ended, with Germany’s surrender on May 8, 1945, the Allied nations convened the Potsdam Conference in Germany, lasting from July 17-August 2, 1945, to discuss the new world order, postWorld War II. On the sidelines of the Conference, on July 26, 1945 the US, Britain and China (represented by the Kuomintang Party) issued the Potsdam Declaration which, apart from calling on Japan to surrender unconditionally, also decided that all the territories that had been occupied by Japanese forces were to revert to the status quo, namely, to their former owners or occupiers before the Japanese aggression. In the case of colonized countries, this referred to their former colonial rulers.
On August 15, 1945, Japanese Emperor Hirohito ordered an unconditional surrender, with all Japanese troops in East Asia and Southeast Asia ceasing all military activities, including those in the former Dutch colony. With Emperor Hirohito’s proclamation, the Asia-Pacific War formally ended. However, the unconditional surrender had not been signed by Japan; not had it been accepted by the Allied forces. The United States Army Air Corps was still bombing Japanese cities to destroy its industry – especially its arms industry.
The document of unconditional surrender was only signed by representatives of the Japanese government, and acknowledged by the US-led Allied forces on September 2, 1945, aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. On August 17, 1945, Indonesian nationalist leaders had unexpectedly proclaimed Indonesia’s independence. This move shocked Dutch society in the Netherlands, giving birth to the slogan “Indie verloren, rampspeed geboren” (“The Indies is lost, disaster is born”). At that time, the Dutch called its Southeast Asian colony the “Dutch East Indies”, and called its inhabitants “Indians”.
The Dutch, who sought to regain control of its former colony, realized that they would need a strong military force – while their own army was destroyed by the German Wehrmacht, and in the Asia Pacific, the KNIL was decimated by the Japanese forces. Once the Pacific War ended, on August 15, 1945, the Netherlands was significantly weakened militarily. Thus, It asked for assistance from its wartime ally, Great Britain.