De staatkundige ontwikkeling van Indonesië in de 20e eeuw (Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen)

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tagsdocument, book, source, colonial, post-colonial, political, 20th-century, koninklijk-instituut-voor-de-tropen, atjeh, sumatra, nationalism, revolution
aliasesDe staatkundige ontwikkeling van Indonesië in de 20e eeuw, Staatkundige ontwikkeling Indonesië, Political development of Indonesia in the 20th century, KIT political development survey, Bureau Cursussen en Vertalingen political survey

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De staatkundige ontwikkeling van Indonesië in de 20e eeuw — “The Political Development of Indonesia in the 20th Century” — is a survey of the political history of Indonesia from the beginnings of the Indonesian nationalist movement through the souvereiniteitsoverdracht (transfer of sovereignty) of 27 December 1949 to the post-colonial developments of the mid-1950s, published by the Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen (Royal Tropical Institute) at Amsterdam as an publication of its Bureau Cursussen en Vertalingen (Bureau of Courses and Translations). The work treats the Atjeh-oorlog as one of the three great 19th-century resistance actions of the Netherlands Indies, records Atjeh as a Republican stronghold during the Indonesian revolution, notes Atjeh’s prospective elevation to provincial status, and records the Daud Beureu’eh revolt of August 1953 in its chronological survey.

Contents

The work is organised into nine chapters, covering:

  • I. The Netherlands-Indonesian relations before the sovereignty transfer; the development of Indonesian nationalism; the ethical policy; the non-cooperative movement; the Volksraad; the war, occupation, and revolution.
  • II. The Round Table Conference (Ronde Tafel Conferentie, R.T.C.) and the development of Netherlands-Indonesian relations after the R.T.C.
  • III. The New Guinea question (de kwestie Nieuw Guinea).
  • IV. Foundations and structure of the Indonesian state — the 1945 Constitution, the Pantja Sila, the Provisional Constitution of the Republic of the United States of Indonesia (December 1949), the unitary state (August 1950), the general elections of 1955.
  • V. Democracy in practice — the party system and the unsatisfactory functioning of the parliamentary system.
  • VI. Federalism and unitarism — the growth of federalism between 1946 and 1949 and the liquidation of the constituent states.
  • VII. Islam-State and Pantja Sila-State — the Darul Islam and the Negara Islam Indonesia.
  • VIII. General political development since the sovereignty transfer — the successive cabinets and the armed forces.
  • IX. Foreign policy of the Republic of Indonesia, with biographical data on Sukarno, Hatta, Sjahrir, Natsir, and Ali Sastroamidjojo.

Atjeh content

The Atjeh-related content of the work is distributed across four of the nine chapters:

  1. The Atjeh-oorlog as 19th-century resistance (Ch. I). The work places the Atjeh-oorlog alongside the Padri-oorlog (1833) and the Java-oorlog (1825–1830) as one of the three great verzetsacties van grote omvang en lange duur (resistance actions of great scope and long duration) of the 19th century, but notes that even then there was no question of Indonesian national resistance: “Van enige saamhorigheid tussen de onderscheiden delen van Indonesië was geen sprake” — of any solidarity between the different parts of Indonesia there was no question. Those who by adat and tradition were called to lead the people had, in general, reconciled themselves with the Dutch authority and had become dependent on it for the maintenance of their position.

  2. Atjeh as a Republican stronghold (Ch. I). After the two politionele acties (police actions) of 1947 and 1948, the work records, the Netherlands succeeded in pushing the factual power of the Republik Indonesia back to “de moeilijk toegankelijke gebieden van het zuidelijke gedeelte van west- en midden-Java, Atjeh en onherbergzame streken op Sumatra en in zuid-Borneo” — the difficult-to-access areas of the southern part of west- and middle-Java, Atjeh, and inhospitable regions on Sumatra and in south-Borneo. Atjeh is thus recorded as one of the three Republican holdouts that survived the Dutch police actions.

  3. Atjeh as a prospective province (Ch. IV). In its survey of the administrative division of Indonesia, the work records that the Republic was initially divided into 10 provinces, and that the number was under consideration for expansion: “Men overweegt thans een uitbreiding van het aantal provincies, waarbij bv. Borneo in 3 en Celebes in 2 provincies zou worden verdeeld. Ook aan Atjeh zou de status van provincie worden toegekend” — one is now considering an expansion of the number of provinces, whereby for example Borneo would be divided into 3 and Celebes into 2 provinces. Also to Atjeh the status of province would be granted.

  4. The Darul Islam in Atjeh and the Daud Beureu’eh revolt (Ch. VII and the chronological survey). The work records that the Darul Islam operated in “West-Java, Atjeh en Zuid-Celebes” — West Java, Atjeh, and South Celebes — and the chronological survey records, under the year 1953: “Augustus 1953 — Onder leiding van Daoed Beurouch breekt een opstand uit in Atjeh” — In August 1953, under the leadership of Daud Beureu’eh, a revolt breaks out in Atjeh.

Significance

For AcehWiki, De staatkundige ontwikkeling van Indonesië in de 20e eeuw is significant as a mid-1950s survey of Indonesian political history that treats the Atjeh-oorlog, the revolutionary Atjeh, the prospective provincial Atjeh, and the Daud Beureu’eh revolt within a single narrative framework. The work’s characterization of the Atjeh-oorlog as a 19th-century resistance action — alongside the Padri-oorlog and the Java War — places it in the wider history of Indonesian anti-colonial resistance, and its record of Atjeh as a Republican stronghold and as a Darul Islam theatre connects the Atjehnese history to the Indonesian revolution and to the post-colonial Islamic-state movement. The chronological survey’s entry for August 1953 — “Onder leiding van Daoed Beurouch breekt een opstand uit in Atjeh” — is a concise independent source for the outbreak of the Daud Beureu’eh revolt, complementing the fuller account in Alers’s Om een rode of groene Merdeka.

See Also

Source

De staatkundige ontwikkeling van Indonesië in de 20e eeuw, uitgave van het Bureau Cursussen en Vertalingen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen (Amsterdam: Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen). Herziene en bijgewerkte uitgave, afgesloten Mei 1955 met latere aanvullingen. Hoofdstuk I (Atjeh-oorlog als 19e-eeuwse verzetsactie; Atjeh als Republikeins bolwerk), Hoofdstuk IV (Atjeh als prospektieve provincie), Hoofdstuk VII (Darul Islam in Atjeh), and chronologisch overzicht (August 1953: Daoed Beurouch opstand in Atjeh).

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