Indonesia Merdéka (Malay “Free Indonesia” or “Indonesia Independence”) was the propaganda idea that, in September 1944, replaced Asia Timoer Raja as the official ideology of the Japanese occupation of Atjèh, and remained the watchword of Japanese propaganda until the Japanese capitulation of 15 August 1945. Piekaar’s Atjèh and the War with Japan treats Indonesia Merdéka as the second of the two propaganda periods of the occupation — the period in which “the fortunes of war turned, and Japan understood that its objectives would not be realized in the near future, but perhaps still in a distant future,” and in which the appeal to Indonesian patriotism was therefore substituted for the appeal to the common prosperity sphere of Greater East Asia.
The Koiso promise
The shift was triggered by Prime Minister Koiso’s declaration of 7 September 1944 in the 85th session of the Japanese parliament, in which he promised to grant “East Indies” (Hindia Timoer) independence in the future, “as a token of appreciation for the great support rendered in the conduct of the war.” It assured Indonesia “for the future the same status as that of the Philippines and Burma, which had already been recognized earlier by Japan as ‘independent’ states within the Great East Asia sphere.” “Indonesia Merdéka” now became “the watchword of the propaganda. The line of reasoning is easily understood: only with a Japanese victory could the promised independence be realized, a victory of the Allies would mean the end of every striving for freedom.”
Celebrations in Atjèh
The promise was celebrated throughout Atjèh with three days of flag-flying. In Koetaradja the celebration reached its climax on 9 September 1944 with a mass meeting that pledged “to cooperate with the Japanese army for the defense of the fatherland, to exert all forces so that final victory may be achieved as soon as possible, and with even greater enthusiasm to render assistance to the Japanese army in mutual cooperation, setting aside all minor disputes, so that as soon as possible an independent East Indies may be obtained.” The Atjèh Shimbun issued a 22-page special edition dedicated jointly to the celebration of Idoe’lfitr and the independence promise. Teukoe Nja’ Arif wrote that “the desire for freedom was in Indonesia for many years buried by Dutch imperialism,” and concluded: “We must always remember, we will not gain an independent Indonesia when the English and Dutch return.” Teungkoe Moehamad Daoed Beureu’éh — characteristically — remained evasive, choosing as the subject of his festive speech of 7 November 1944: “I am there for …”
Subordination to the war effort
Like its predecessor, Indonesia Merdéka was immediately subordinated to the war effort. The 4th session of the Atjèh Council on 20–21 April 1945 raised the rice-delivery quota from 22,000 to 33,000 tons, whereupon Masubuchi, as head of the economic affairs department, “felt compelled to remark that the population apparently still had little understanding of the requirements for an ‘Indonesia Merdéka’ and of the objectives of the war.” Theatrical and editorial propaganda — above all the play “Dibawah lindoengan hinomaru” (“Under the protection of the rising sun”) — likewise hammered home the message that “only with a Japanese victory could the promised independence be realized.”
Significance
Piekaar observes that “however little trust one may have placed in a realization by Japan of the Indonesia Merdéka-idea,” the idea — together with the anti-Western propaganda that accompanied it — “found fertile soil in the hearts of the Atjèhnese population.” Together with the religious institutionalisation of the Poesa, the Indonesia Merdéka campaign laid the groundwork for the rapid alignment of Atjèh with the 17 August 1945 Republic after the capitulation. The historian Henri J. H. Alers later treated this same wartime moment — Sukarno’s and Daoed Beureuh’s parallel appeals “over the heads of the Japanese authorities” — as the starting point of his comparative “red”/“green” framework for the Indonesian revolution as a whole; see Red or Green Merdeka (Alers’s comparative framework).
See Also
- Asia Timoer Raja
- Masubuchi
- Atjèh Shimbun
- Atjèh Council
- Teukoe Nja’ Arif
- Teungkoe Moehamad Daoed Beureu-éh
- Koiso
- Red or Green Merdeka (Alers’s comparative framework)
- 1944
- 1945
Sources
Atjèh and the War with Japan, by Dr. A. J. Piekaar, translated from the Dutch original Atjèh en de oorlog met Japan (1949) (‘s-Gravenhage/Bandung: N.V. Uitgeverij W. van Hoeve; English edition), Glossary and Chapter VII § 3.
Om een rode of groene Merdeka: Tien jaren binnenlandse politiek Indonesië, 1943–1953, by Henri J. H. Alers (Eindhoven: Uitgeverij Vulkaan, 1956), Chapter II §9 “Atjeh,” p. 84.