The Souvereiniteitsoverdracht (27 December 1949) — the transfer of sovereignty of 27 December 1949 — was the formal end of the Dutch colonial state in the Indonesian archipelago, by which the Netherlands recognised the sovereignty of the Republik Indonesia Serikat (the Federal Republic of Indonesia) over the former Dutch East Indies, dissolved the K.N.I.L., and abandoned the Ambonese soldiers who had served the colonial army since the Aceh War. It is the political closure of Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L..
The Round Table Conference
The *Round Table Conference|Round Table Conference]] at the Hague — the negotiation that produced the transfer of sovereignty — concluded in November 1949 after the failure of the *Tweede Politionele Actie of December 1948-January 1949 and the realisation that the military offensive could not be translated into a political victory. The Conference produced the Souvereiniteitsoverdracht of 27 December 1949, by which the Netherlands recognised the sovereignty of the Republik Indonesia Serikat.
The transfer of the K.N.I.L.
The K.N.I.L. was dissolved by the Souvereiniteitsoverdracht. Its Ambonese soldiers were transferred into the Federale Legers and Negaratroepen of the federal Indonesia the Dutch had constructed — the Negara Pasundan, the Negara Indonesia Timur and the rest — and then, with the federal Indonesia’s dissolution into the unitary Republic in 1950, into the army of the Republic that had been their enemy. The tangsi culture that had made Oom Ambon was dissolved.
The abandonment of Oom Ambon
The closing arc of Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L. is the abandonment of the Ambonese soldiers who had served the colonial army. The book’s quiet point is that the Souvereiniteitsoverdracht of 27 December 1949 handed the federal Indonesia the Dutch had built over to the unitary Republic, and the Ambonese soldiers who had served the Dutch were left without the institution that had made them. The chapter Tamaela — the last narrative chapter of the book — is the figure through whom this argument is made: the Ambonese korporaal whose tangsi culture was dissolved in the new federal formations.
The Republic of the South Moluccas
The Souvereiniteitsoverdracht also triggered the *Republic of the South Moluccas|South Moluccas self-determination]] — the unilateral declaration of independence of the Republik Maluku Selatan by the Ambonese soldiers who refused to be handed over to the unitary Republic. The declaration was the political consequence of the abandonment: the Ambonese soldiers who had served the Dutch and were now to be handed over to their enemy refused, and declared their own state. The Republic of the South Moluccas would be crushed by the Indonesian army in 1950-1952.
Significance
The Souvereiniteitsoverdracht of 27 December 1949 is significant in Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L. as the political closure of the colonial arc. The book’s argument is that the Ambonese soldier of the colonial army was, in 1949, used in a war whose political outcome would leave him stateless, and that the tangsi culture that had made him was, with the disbandment of the K.N.I.L., dissolved. The Souvereiniteitsoverdracht is therefore the book’s political closure: the end of the colonial army, and the abandonment of the soldiers who had served it.
See Also
- Tegen de rood-witten (1946-1949)
- Tweede Politionele Actie
- Renville Agreement
- K.N.I.L.
- Tamaela
- Andjing Nica (5e Bataljon)
- Tangsi
- Oom Ambon
- Politionele actie
- Round Table Conference
- 27 December
- 1949
- 1950
- 1952
Source
Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L., by G. W. T. Dames, Maj. Inf. K.N.I.L. b.d. (‘s-Gravenhage: Koninklijke Bibliotheek, 1954), chapter “Tamaela” and the Nawoord.