HistoryEssay Preview: HistoryReport this essayEarly empiresBy the time of the European Renaissance, the islands of Java and Sumatra had already enjoyed a thousand-year heritage of civilization spanning two major empires.
During the 7th to 14th centuries, the Buddhist kingdom of Srivijaya flourished on Sumatra. Chinese traveller I Ching visited its capital, Palembang, around 670. At its peak, the Srivijaya Empire reached as far as West Java and the Malay Peninsula. Also by the 14th century, the Hindu Kingdom of Majapahit had risen in eastern Java. Gajah Mada, the empires chief minister from 1331 to 1364, succeeded in gaining allegiance from most of what is now modern Indonesia and much of the Malay archipelago as well. Legacies from Gajah Madas time include a codification of law and an epic poem. Reasons for the fall of these empires remain obscure.
Islam arrived in Indonesia sometime during the 12th century and, through assimilation, supplanted Hinduism by the end of the 16th century in Java and Sumatra. Bali, however, remains overwhelmingly Hindu. In the eastern archipelago, both Christian and Islamic missionaries were active in the 16th and 17th centuries, and, currently, there are large communities of both religions on these islands.
Colonial eraBeginning in 1602 the Dutch gradually established themselves as rulers of what is now Indonesia, exploiting the fractionalization of the small kingdoms that had replaced Majapahit. The most notable exception was Portuguese Timor, which remained under Portuguese rule until 1975 when it was invaded and occupied, becoming the Indonesia province of East Timor. The Netherlands controlled Indonesia for almost 350 years, excluding a short period of British rule in part of the islands after Anglo-Dutch Java War and the Japanese occupation during World War II. During their rule the Dutch developed the Dutch East Indies into one of the worlds richest colonial possessions.
During the first decade of the 20th century an Indonesian independence movement began, and it expanded rapidly between the two World Wars. Its leaders came from a small group of young professionals and students, some of whom had been educated in the Netherlands. Many, including Indonesias first president, Sukarno (1945-67), were imprisoned for political activities.
World War IIIn May 1940 the Netherlands surrendered to Germany (see World War II). The Dutch East Indies declared a state of siege and in July re-directed exports for Japan to the US and Britain. Negotiations with the Japanese aimed at securing supplies of aviation fuel collapsed in June 1941, and the Japanese started their conquest of Southeast Asia in December of that year. That same month, factions from Sumatra sought Japanese assistance for a revolt against the Dutch wartime government. The last Dutch forces were defeated by Japan in March 1942.
In July 1942, Sukarno accepted Japans offer to rally the public and form a government also answerable to Japanese military needs. Sukarno, Mohammad Hatta, and Kyai were decorated by the Emperor of Japan in 1943.
In March 1945 Japan organized an Indonesian committee (BPUPKI) on independence. At its first meeting in May, Supomo spoke of national integration and against personal individualism; while Muhammad Yamin suggested that the new nation should claim Sarawak, Sabah, Malaya, Portuguese Timor, and all the pre-war territories of the Dutch East Indies.
On August 9 1945 Sukarno, Hatta, and Radjiman Wediodiningrat were flown to meet Marshal Terauchi in Vietnam. They were told the Japanese forces were collapsing but that Japan intended to announce Indonesian independence on August 24.
Post WarInformed that Japan no longer had the power to such make decisions on August 16, Sukarno read out a brief unilateral “Proklamasi” (Declaration of Independence) on the following day. Word of the proclamation spread by shortwave and flyers while the Indonesian war-time military (PETA), youths, and others rallied to defend Sukarnos residence.
On August 29 the group appointed Sukarno as President and Mohammad Hatta as Vice-President using a constitution drafted in the days before. The BPUPKI was renamed the KNIP (Central Indonesian National Committee) and became a temporary governing body until elections could be held. This group declared the new government on August 31 and determined that the new Republic of Indonesia would consist of 8 provinces: Sumatra, Borneo, West Java, Central Java, East Java, Sulawesi, Maluku, and Sunda Kecil.
Dutch efforts to reestablish complete control met strong resistance. On December 27, 1949, after 4 years of warfare and negotiations, Queen Juliana of the Netherlands transferred sovereignty to a federal Indonesian Government. In 1950, Indonesia became the 60th member of the United Nations.
IndependenceShortly after hostilities with the Dutch ended in 1949, Indonesia adopted a new constitution providing for a parliamentary system of government in which the executive was chosen by and made responsible to parliament. Parliament was divided among many political parties before and after the countrys first nationwide election in 1955, and stable governmental coalitions were difficult to achieve.
The role of Islam in Indonesia became a divisive issue. Sukarno defended a secular state based on Pancasila while some Muslim groups preferred either an Islamic state or a constitution that included preambular provision requiring adherents of Islam to be subject to Islamic law.
Irian JayaAt the time of independence, the Dutch retained control over the western half of New Guinea, and permitted steps toward self-government and declaration of independence December 1st 1961.
Negotiations with the Dutch on the incorporation of the territory into Indonesia failed, an Indonesian paratroop invasion 18th December preceded armed clashes between Indonesian and Dutch troops in 1961 and 1962. In 1962 the United States pressured Holland into secret talks with Indonesia which in August 1962 produced the New York Agreement, and Indonesia assumed administrative responsibility for Irian Jaya on May 1, 1963. Having rejected United Nations supervision, the Indonesian government conducted an “Act of Free Choice” in Irian Jaya in 1969 in which 1,025 Irianese representatives of local councils were selected and after training in the Indonesian language and warned to vote in favor of Indonesian integration agreed by consensus to remain a part of Indonesia. A subsequent UN General
-tory Resolution, and further UN/UNFPA-coordinated international trade negotiations during the 1965-1966 period with Indonesia, created a separate, non-member Indonesia that was considered as a member of NATO.
2 The UN-Institute for Human Rights and the National Coalition Against Torture were held in Jakarta in May 1971 and the General Assembly in August 1975 with an agreed resolution. The Indonesian Joint Executive Committee met in the capital and presented the resolution for reflection, on 29 October 1971, calling for the termination of all international trade sanctions against Indonesia for violations of human rights, crimes against humanity and humanitarian concerns, and to allow all trade agreements between Indonesia and the State of Indonesia to enter into force. These measures would not reduce Indonesia’s present and future international support for the international community’s war against the crime. The General Assembly in February 1972 set up a Commission, which was headed by two members: Ambassador Auliam A.J. Dunga and Ambassador Peter T. Cappel, to advise each. The Commission’s recommendations included a commitment for a free, fair and transparent international market for aid and assistance to both Indonesia and the United States that would ensure the free, unfettered access to the necessary legal and technological instruments to ensure the rights of both Governments by virtue of mutual consent. To that end, and further to promote civil society in all its forms, Indonesia would, on 22 January 1976, issue “the Declaration of Rights of the Federal Republic of Indonesia”; and, on 32 January 1977, the United Nations Special Representative on the Indonesian Administrative System wrote to the United States Secretary of War John A. Dayton to express his intention to “propose to the United Nations and to China with great concern, the establishment of an international agency charged with the development of civil and political rights under the rule of law in Indonesia, and to carry out all that may be necessary.” This document was signed and sealed with the President on 27 December 1975, in the Jakarta Palace.
3 The Indonesian General Assembly subsequently held a “National Conference to Discuss the Draft Policy” (1831). In this Conference, General Assembly members drafted “Plan #3”, proposing the establishment of a United Nations Commission to bring to an end all trade in the human rights of persons, communities and the rule of law to the highest degree. The plan considered the potential benefits to human rights and said that the Commission recognized the need for such an organization. The proposal has been referred to the United Nations Secretary General for its work in the Middle East.
4 In 1981, in a resolution adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on the Protection of Human Rights, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation endorsed the idea of a Convention on the Protection of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations and in March 1981. In 1984, the Commission endorsed the idea of creating a Convention of Respect for the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1954, and the Commission endorsed the idea of a Convention by October 1984 (the Second Geneva Convention), on which the United Nations and all international organizations will co-operate. The Committee and Council adopted “No Additional Protocols to the Convention on the Protection of Human Rights, to the extent consistent with the provisions agreed thereto”.
2. The International Committee of the Red Cross and the World