1948 is the year of the second Dutch politionele actie (police action) of 18 December 1948, in the course of which — the source records — “alle grote plaatsen op Java en Sumatra, behalve in Atjeh, dat men om zijn bijzondere mentaliteit voorlopig ontsag, werden bezet” (all the major places on Java and Sumatra, except in Atjeh, which was for the time being spared on account of its particular mentality, were occupied). The 1948 exemption of Atjeh from military occupation is, in the source’s narrative, the final Dutch acknowledgment of the Atjehnese particularism that had shaped Dutch-Atjehnese relations for three-quarters of a century.
The second politionele actie
The second politionele actie began at midnight on 18 December 1948. The first day saw paratroopers capture Jogjakarta; Soekarno and his followers were arrested and taken without difficulty to Banka. The action was, the source records, “een groot militair succes” (a great military success). A guerrilla broke out, but “deze schaadde de bevolking meer dan de Nederlandse troepen” (this harmed the population more than the Dutch troops).
The Atjeh exemption
The Atjeh exemption is the source’s most significant Atjeh-related observation for the 1948 year. 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 1948 guerrilla
The guerrilla that broke out after the 1948 action is the source’s only reference to armed resistance in the post-1945 Indonesian revolution. The source’s verdict — that the guerrilla “deze schaadde de bevolking meer dan de Nederlandse troepen” (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.
Significance
1948 is the year of the second Dutch politionele actie and of the Atjeh exemption. The exemption is the final Dutch acknowledgment of Atjehnese particularism in the source’s narrative — the institutional recognition that the Atjeh of the 1945-49 revolution was, in Dutch military planning, a special case.
See Also
- Acheh
- Second politionele actie (18 December 1948)
- Soekarno
- Jogjakarta
- Banka
- Sumatra
- 18 December
- 1945
- 1949
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.