Crucial historic milestones

Crucial historic milestones

I would like to comment on the legal and political identity of
Indonesia, as conceived by the New Delhi Conference on Indonesia
of Jan. 20-22, 1949. In The Jakarta Post editions of April 12 and
13, 1995, the role and repercussions of this identity were
eloquently discussed in the articles of Prof. Jai Singh Yadav. In
response to those articles, it is noteworthy that under the
science of law, with particular reference to International Law
and Constitutional Law, the "Indonesia" conceived of at that time
differs remarkably from the nation as it prevails today.

Three resolutions were adopted on Jan. 22, 1949, by the
Conference, and Resolution I in paragraph A (2), (3) and (7)
obviously referred to the republic that was conceived under the
Linggarjati (March 25, 1947) and Renville agreements (Jan. 17-
Jan. 19, 1948) between the Republic of Indonesia and the
Netherlands.

It must be noted that the territorial extent of the Republic
of Indonesia, under the Linggarjati and Renville agreements, was
substantially circumscribed on the one hand, whereas on the other
hand, the Republic of Indonesia was to be incorporated into a
contemplated federal state structure.

The legal and political identity of Indonesia under paragraph
A (7) of Resolution I of the New Delhi Conference was envisaged
as that of a federal state. The same federal structure was
conceived under the UN Security Council Resolution of Jan. 28,
1949.

Having in view the forthcoming commemoration of the 50th
anniversary of the Republic of Indonesia's independence, it seems
worthwhile to take a retrospective view of the vital factors
instrumental in effectuating the shift from the federal state
system (Jan. 1, 1950 to Aug. 15, 1950) to the present unitary
state system stipulated under the 1945 Constitution.

Within the process of returning to the unitary state system,
the vital factors that must be noted as historic milestones were
the change of the Constitution of the federal state into the
Provisional Constitution of RI of 1950, by means of Act No. 7 of
Aug. 15, 1950, and the Presidential decree of July 5, 1959, which
dissolved the Constitutional Assembly and effectuated the return
to the 1945 Constitution. This took place after the constituent
assembly failed in its cumbersome dilatory toil to enact a new
constitution.

Among the vital factors, which played a historic role in
effecting the track-clearing accommodation between the
Dutch government and the republican government were the Roem-Van
Roijen Statements of May 7, 1949. The accommodation came about
through the implementation of the UN Security Council Resolution
of Jan. 28, 1949, paving the way toward creating a federal State,
to which the Netherlands was to transfer sovereignty. The
statements loomed large due to their unique legal implications in
that the official or full-fledged constitutional republican
government at that time was not yet restored to Yogyakarta. The
cabinet members, along with the president and the vice president,
were still under detention in Bangka by the Dutch authorities at
that time.

If Anak Agung Gde Agung could accomplish writing a
dissertation on the Renville Agreement, I believe that the legal
scholars of the younger generation in the nation's universities
should have the opportunity to write dissertations on the legal
and political aspects, status, role, and legal impact of the
Roem-Van Roijen Statements. These essentially constituted an
agreement despite the term "statement" that was applied as the
result of traditional legalistic overcautiousness on the part of
Dutch jurists.

Finally, the vital factor materialized in the agreement
between RI and the Netherlands, relating to the transfer of West
Irian to RI, signed in the United Nations Headquarters in New
York on Aug. 15, 1962, must not be ignored. The latter episode,
according to the Dutch historian Dr. C. Smit, marked an
irrevocable termination of the decolonization process in
Indonesia.

To Indonesia, this marked the final consummation of the
independence proclaimed on Aug. 17, 1945.

SAM SUHAEDI

Jakarta