On August 17th 1945 Sukarno read the Proklamasi or Declaration of Independence and the Panitia Persiapan Kemerdekaan Indonesia (PPKI) moved to form an interim government. A constitution, drafted by the PPKI preparatory committee was announced on 18th August 18th and Sukarno was declared President with Hatta as Vice-President. The PPKI was then remade into the KNIP (Central Indonesian National Committee) and the KNIP became the temporary governing body. The new government was installed on August 31, 1945. Indonesia's founding fathers Sukarno (Soekarno) and Hatta declared the independence of the Republic of Indonesia.
The Dutch mounted a diplomatic and military campaign to reclaim their former colony from the nationalists. Disputations, negotiations, partitioning and armed conflict prevailed between the newly independent Indonesia and the Netherlands. Several nations including the US were highly critical of the Dutch in this immediate post war period and at one stage in late 1949 the US government suspended aid provided to the Dutch under the Marshal plan. The matter was also raised by the newly formed UN. After four years of fighting, the Dutch accepted defeat and on December 27, 1949 and they formally transferred sovereignty to "Republik Indonesia Serikat" (Republic of United States of Indonesia). In August 1950 a new constitution was proclaimed and the new Republic of Indonesia was formed from the original but now expanded Republic to include Sumatra Timur and East Indonesia/Negara Indonesia Timur. Jakarta was made the capital of the Republic of Indonesia however the Netherlands and Indonesia remained in a theoretical constitutional union with Indonesia holding the status of a fully independent state.
In September 1950 Natsir and the Masyumi party led the first government of fully independent Indonesia. Sukarno returned again to the role of President and over time came to assert greater power in that role. For a time Indonesia used a provisional constitution modelled upon that of the US which also drew heavily on the 1948 United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. On September 26, 1950 Indonesia was admitted to the newly formed United Nations. The 1950 constitution appears to have been an attempt to set up a liberal democracy system with two chambers of parliament. Later in 1955, still under this provisional constitution Indonesia held its first free election.
The new government was tasked with finalising a permanent and final version of the constitution but after much wrangling consensus was not reached leading to organised public demonstrations in 1958. In 1959 President Sukarno issued a decree dissolving the then current constitution and restored the 1945 Constitution. Indonesia then entered the era of Guided Democracy with the Head of State assuming stronger presidential powers and also absorbing the previous role of Prime Minister.
From their initial declaration of independence Indonesia claimed West Papua as part of their nation, but the Dutch held onto it into the 1960s, and in the early sixties there was further armed conflict over that region. After a UN-brokered peace deal, and a referendum, West Papua became part of Indonesia and was renamed as Irian Jaya, which apocryphically stands for Ikut (part of) Republic of Indonesia, Anti Netherlands. It's now called simply Papua, but the independence movement smolders on to this day.
Sukarno's tribute to independence and unity ? National Monument, Jakarta
During the post war and Cold war period Sukarno made friendly advances to the USA, the Soviet Union and later, China. He also tried to play one against another as he attempted to develop the nation as a non-aligned state. Much to the dismay of post war Western governments Sukarno became engaged in extensive dialogue with the Soviets and accepted civil and military aid, equipment, and technical assistance from the USSR. Sukarno publicly claimed that his engagement with the Soviets was to assist in promoting the new Republic of Indonesia as a non-aligned post war state and to assist in rebuilding the nation following the Pacific war.
At this time US were trying to consolidate their control over regional and strategic interests in South East Asia and Indo-china.
The US, confronted by an archepelgo apparently in the grasp of emerging Indonesian nationalism sought to gain and maintain control over the important resources and shipping routes of the region. They viewed Indonesia as potentially unstable and in a power vacumn left in the wake of the Japanese defeat in Indonesia. The Dutch, their nation ravaged by the European war were unable to fully reclaim their colony and maintain control over the rising tide of Indonesian nationalism.
The Dutch were also subject to pressure from the US and other western governments in addition to their own considerable problems at home. The US covertly supported anti Sukarno activities and operations to destabilise the the nationalist movement. In 1957-58, the CIA infiltrated arms and personnel in support of regional rebellions against Sukarno. Covert actions at this time led to the capture of an American pilot and plane. The activities involved the use of mercenary forces as well as the material and financial support of insurgents. Funding, arms, logistical support and training were provided covertly by the US to breakaway factions, right wing elements, and radical Islamist groups including Darul Islam in an attempt to gain US and western control of Indonesian nationalism. The actions were supported from the US embassy in Singapore, by elements of the US 7th fleet stationed of Sulawesi and Sumatra and with the co-operation and support of the UK government and western intelligence agencies.
The US, with the participation of other Western powers including the UK later seized upon Sukarno's emerging dialogue and dealings with the Soviets and later the Chinese as a threat to the region. Former Director of the CIA William Colby later compared their own operations in Indonesia to the Vietnam Phoenix Program conducted in Vietnam. Indeed some of the equipment including military aircraft were later transferred onto that program. Colby further admitted directing the CIA to concentrate on compiling lists of members of the PKI and other leftist groups, Colby was at that time the Chief of CIA's Far East Division. Cloaked by the fears and propaganda of the Cold war period the US maintained an extended overt and a covert campaign to destabilise Sukarno.
The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about Indonesia
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Indonesia Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.
