Part 4: Colonial powers, church and UN in Indonesia - By Radha Rajan

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0 & Itemid=1 & limit=1 & limitstart=3> THE BRITISH IN INDONESIA AS

OCCUPATIONAL FORCE

 

The British return to Indonesia again only in the beginning of the

nineteenth century, in 1811 to be precise as a result of the Napoleonic

wars. The Netherlands was occupied by French troops in 1795, and a

French protectorate established. The new government abolished the VOC by

allowing its charter to lapse in 1799. VOC territories became the

property of the Dutch government. In 1808 Louis Bonaparte, who had been

made king of the Netherlands by his brother Napoleon, appointed Herman

Willem Daendels as governor general of the Dutch possessions. But in

1811, a year after the Netherlands had been incorporated into the French

empire, the British occupied Java. In August 1811, they seized Batavia

(Jakarta) and a month later received the surrender of French forces. At

the outset of the Napoleonic Wars, the British government had promised

the Dutch government-in-exile that at the end of the war occupied

territories would be returned to the Netherlands and true to its

promise, Dutch authority was reestablished in the Indonesian archipelago

in 1816.

 

It was History repeating itself in 1945. The British were back again in

Indonesia after Japan's surrender, this time under Admiral Louis

Mountbatten as the Supreme Allied Commander. And this time too it did

not seem as though the British desired to hold on to Indonesia. The

British and Australian forces arrive in Indonesia only in September,

nearly one month after Japan officially surrenders to allied forces. But

even before Louis Mountbatten assumes charge in Indonesia, Van Mook, the

Dutch Lieutenant General of the Indies meets Mountbatten in Ceylon and

asks him to instruct the Japanese to crush the infant Republic of

Indonesia. Mountbatten agrees! When Rear Admiral Patterson arrives in

Jakarta on September 16, he declares that the British mission and his

mandate are " to maintain law and order until the time that the

lawful government of the Netherlands East Indies is once again

functioning " . Indonesia's new-found independence, it was clear,

was seriously threatened not just by the Dutch but also by the British

and the Australians.

 

Dutch soldiers who had been arrested and interned by the Japanese were

set free and Dutch, British and Australian forces fan out across the

Indonesian nation, into every island and province. Arrayed against them

is Sukarno's new Republic, the youth of Indonesia and the Sultans

and Rajas, all of whom openly declared their support for the Republic of

Indonesia. Fighting escalates between the Republican youths and the

foreign occupying forces. Japanese forces were deeply divided over the

issue of support to the new Republic. While individual Japanese officers

and soldiers covertly helped the republican youth with arms, ammunition

and weapons, the official position of the Japanese forces asked to stay

on in Indonesia by the British to maintain law and order, was to crush

the nationalist movement. One Japanese admiral handed over Surabaya to

the Dutch but gave away his weapons to the republicans. The Japanese

push the republicans out of Semarang and Bandung and hand over the

cities to the British.

 

THE BRITISH HAND INDONESIA BACK TO THE NETHERLANDS

The Battle of Surabaya marks a turning point in the British agenda for

Indonesia. In October, the 49th Indian infantry arrives in Surabaya and

the British air-drop leaflets asking the republicans to surrender within

24 hours. Sukarno and Hatta too arrive in Surabaya and Major-general

Hawthorne from Jakarta. Sukarno, Hatta, Mallaby and Hawthorne sign a

cease-fire agreement. Within five hours of the truce, in the raging

battle on the streets of Surabaya between British troops and the

Indonesian troops and ordinary people of Indonesia, Mallaby is killed.

The British bomb Surabaya as punishment killing thousands of

Indonesians. The British also strafe civilians on the highway. But the

British are confronted by fierce resistance and fighting by Indonesians

determined to protect their independence and their republic. November 9,

the British 5th Indian Division lands at Surabaya. November 10,

Indonesian counterattack in Surabaya begins and fighting continues for

three weeks. Not surprisingly 600 Indian troops defect from the British

and join the Indonesians. The British Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin

calls upon the Dutch to begin talks with the Republic and to negotiate.

But the Dutch are not prepared to relinquish control of their colony and

declare their unwillingness to negotiate.

 

The Dutch gradually begin to take control of not only the eastern

territories under Australian control but also British controlled areas

too. In July 1946, the Allies turn over all of Indonesia except Java and

Sumatra, to the Dutch.

 

The Dutch send their first proposal to Sutan Syahirir, Indonesian Prime

Minister for a `democratic partnership' between the Netherlands

and Indonesia, but does not offer independence. Syahirir publicly

responds to the offer in March demanding of the Dutch that they accept

the reality of the Indonesian republic and recognize it. But in secret

negotiations with the Dutch, Syahirir accepts Republican control over

just Java, Sumatra and Madura while agreeing to a political union with

the Netherlands under the Dutch crown. This secret agreement forms the

basis for the British-brokered Linggajati agreement between the Republic

of Indonesia and the Netherlands East Indies. The agreement provided for

a Netherlands-Indonesian Union under the Dutch crown. In return, the

Dutch agreed to recognize republican rule on Java, Madura and Sumatra,

while the Dutch retained control of the entire east - the " Great East "

consisting of Sulawesi, Maluku, the Lesser Sunda Islands, and West New

Guinea. The agreement was signed on May 25, 1947.

 

LOUIS MOUNTBATTEN CREATES MALAYSIA FROM INDONESIA

The British had effectively throttled the flowering of the New

Indonesian Republic. Mountbatten had breathed life into the defeated

Dutch government in Indonesia and tied it around the republic's neck

as a mill-stone. The Linggajati Agreement shattered the Republic's

vision of an Indonesia Raya, the Greater Indonesian nation. The last of

the British leave Indonesia by November 1946, leaving the fledgling

nation at the mercy of the Dutch. For their part, the British leave

Indonesia leaving the thorn of British Malaya (Malay province) behind.

The British do not relinquish control of Melaka, Penang, and North

Borneo until 1957. Indians in the forefront of the Indian Freedom

Movement had already failed to learn their first lesson when they

allowed without protest, Louis Mountbatten to assume charge as the last

Viceroy of India before independence and later made him the first

Governor-General of India. The result of this monumental folly was not

only the partition of India and the coming into being of the obscenity

called Pakistan but the festering wound of J & K, the unresolved question

of the Princely states, and also the direction into which Nehru,

enamored with Edwina Mountbatten which fact was utilized to the full by

Louis Mountbatten to get Nehru to accede to all his demands, led the

infant post-independent Indian state. It is therefore not surprising

that after the British finally surrender control of the Malay province

in 1957, the province becomes the new nation-state of Malaysia with the

active connivance of the British government.

 

On November 20, 1961, Malaya officially informs the Indonesian

government of the plans for the new Malaysia and two years later, on

July 9, 1963, Malaya and Britain sign final agreements in London to have

the nation of Malaysia founded on August 31. Sukarno is furious. His

dream and conception of the Greater Indonesian nation had been

effectively broken by Malaysia's secession from the Indonesian

State. East Timor would be the next to go. (To be continued)