The second politionele actie (18 December 1948) was the second Dutch military action of the Indonesian National Revolution, beginning at midnight on 18 December 1948. The action was, the source records, “een groot militair succes” (a great military success). The first day saw paratroopers capture Jogjakarta; Soekarno and his followers were arrested and taken without difficulty to Banka. All the major places on Java and Sumatra — except in Atjeh, which was “om zijn bijzondere mentaliteit voorlopig ontsagen” (for the time being spared on account of its particular mentality) — were occupied.
The Atjeh exemption
The Atjeh exemption is the source’s most significant Atjeh-related observation for the 1948 action. Atjeh — alone of the major regions of Sumatra — was not occupied in the second politionele actie. The reason given is “zijn bijzondere mentaliteit” (its particular mentality). The phrase is the source’s only explicit characterisation of Atjehnese particularism in the revolutionary period.
The Jogjakarta capture
The source records: “De eerste dag veroverden valschermtroepen Jogjakarta. Soekarno en de zijnen werden gearresteerd en zonder enige moeite naar Banka overgebracht” (The first day paratroopers captured Jogjakarta. Soekarno and his followers were arrested and taken without difficulty to Banka). The Jogjakarta capture — the operational high-point of the action — was the type-specimen of Dutch airborne warfare in the Indonesian revolution.
The guerrilla
A guerrilla broke out after the action, but “deze schaadde de bevolking meer dan de Nederlandse troepen” (this harmed the population more than the Dutch troops). The source’s verdict — that the guerrilla harmed the population more than the Dutch troops — is the standard Dutch official reading of the revolutionary guerrilla. The Atjeh exemption, however, indicates that the source’s confidence in this reading did not extend to a recommendation that Atjeh be occupied.
The reversal
The Dutch military success was, the source records, reversed by “de krachtige interventie van het buitenland en het zwakke Nederlandse verzet daartegen” (the forceful intervention of foreign powers and the weak Dutch resistance to it). The second politionele actie was thus, despite its military success, the prelude to the 1949 transfer of sovereignty.
Significance
The 18 December 1948 second politionele actie is, in the source’s narrative, the final Dutch military action of the Indonesian revolution. The Atjeh exemption — the sparing of Atjeh “om zijn bijzondere mentaliteit” — is the final Dutch acknowledgment of Atjehnese particularism in the source’s narrative.
See Also
Source
Nederlanders over de Zeeën: 350 Jaar geschiedenis van Nederland buitengaats, onder redactie van Dr. H. J. de Graaf, met medewerking van Prof. G. Gonggrijp, W. R. Menkman en Prof. Jhr Dr P. J. van Winter, 2e geheel herziene druk (Utrecht: W. de Haan N.V., MCMLV), p. 267.