Prime Minister Mark Rutte Acknowledged Indonesia’s Independence

Written by: Lamtiar N. S. M. Nababan

Through its definition, it is stated that decolonization is known as the process of transferring authority to a recognized nation-state and is often defined as the surrender of foreign political jurisdiction together with the development of autonomous areas where the West had previously dominated (Springhall, 2001).

For the past few years, it is visible that Mark Rutte –the Dutch Prime Minister — has been echoing this concern for the past few years, sometimes indirectly. The long-debated recognition of Indonesia’s independence from the Dutch in 1945. With a long history of colonization and wars, a well-known proclamation occurred on the 17th of August, 1945. After 78 years, the debate of the Dutch Parliament has been circling around the notion of ‘Independence, Decolonization, Violence, and War in Indonesia, 1945–1950’. PM Mark Rutte stated that the Netherlands acknowledges the proclamation as an undeniable historical fact and has been considering the possibilities of a joint realization on Indonesia’s independence day. Moreover, PM Mark Rutte attended several sequences of events during the independence day celebrations at the Indonesian embassy (Afifa, 2023).

The recognition of this long history of colonialism has been a controversial topic and is open to many debates regarding the Dutch’s occupation of Indonesia, questions regarding the truth of history are even being debated often. Even though the Netherlands recognized Indonesia’s sovereignty as a country after the Dutch-Indonesian Round Table Conference (Konferensi Meja Bundar), the acknowledgment of the Netherlands has never been about the independence day. One year ago, on February 17th, 2022, PM Mark Rutte addressed a statement of a full apology for the extreme direct and systemic outbreaks of violence during the Dutch’s colonialism that has been discovered through historical reviews (Sterling & Deutsch, 2022).

However, on June 14th, 2023, the Netherlands uses the term “fully recognizes without reservation” regarding the gain of Indonesia’s independence, on August 17th, 1945, during the parliament debate. Considering that there are also several implications of the tragedy that resulted in economic exploitation, war casualties, resource exploitation, social inequalities, and more to mention, demands on the debate of decolonization in Indonesia pushed the recognition to happen. Although the Dutch parliament has only focused on the military aggressions that happened during 1945–1950, concerns from the public on the long haul of the ‘Vereenigde Oost Indische Compagnie (VOC)’ or the Dutch East India Company remain circulating.

The heavy discussions on the post-independence proclamation of Indonesia or the four-year war of decolonization keep the discussion in the aftermath echoing in order to raise concerns about the possible recognition of Indonesia’s Independence. Now that the recognition has been declared and announced, the implications of the recognition are important to also be taken into account. However, debates on the recognition are also intriguing as it is seen as a political and normative statement that cannot be the basis of a possible legal sanction or consequences towards the Netherlands (Nordholt, 2023). Therefore, in this most recent update regarding the recognition of Indonesia’s independence day and the means of decolonization, more upcoming debates are still open.

References

Afifa, L. (2023, June 15). Dutch PM Recognizes Indonesia’s 1945 Independence Date. Tempo. https://en.tempo.co/read/1737541/dutch-pm-recognizes-indonesias-1945-independence-date

House of Representatives of The Netherlands. (2023, June 14). Debat over het onderzoeksprogramma “Onafhankelijkheid, dekolonisatie, geweld en oorlog in Indonesië 1945–1950.” www.tweedekamer.nl. https://www.tweedekamer.nl/debat_en_vergadering/plenaire_vergaderingen/details/activiteit?id=2022A10179

Pascoe, R. (2023, June 15). NL “recognises” August 1945 as Indonesian independence date. DutchNews.nl. https://www.dutchnews.nl/2023/06/nl-recognises-august-1945-as-indonesian-independence-date/

Springhall, J. (2001). Decolonization since 1945 : the collapse of European overseas empires. Palgrave.

Sterling, T., & Deutsch, A. (2022, February 17). Dutch apologize for violence in Indonesian War of Independence. Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/world/panel-finds-dutch-used-excessive-violence-indonesian-war-independence-2022-02-17/