Delhi conference vital to Indonesia

Delhi conference vital to Indonesia

By Jai Singh Yadav

This is the first of two articles describing the critical role a conference in New Delhi played in consolidating international support for the newly formed Republic of Indonesia in the 1940s.

YOGYAKARTA (JP): Of late there have been some reports in the press of a recent wave of soul searching and a sense of remorse over the atrocities committed by the Dutch during Indonesia's revolutionary war.

These reports say that the Dutch mobilized 150,000 soldiers to re-establish its colonial regime in Indonesia after World War II, resulting in the massacre of more than 100,000 Indonesians.

"We used violence against a state which had declared its independence. We did not have that right," a Dutch minister is reported to have said (The Jakarta Post Jan. 31, 1995).

The Dutch simply refused to read the writing on the wall and turned a deaf ear to Indonesian pleas for freedom and the appeals of the international community -- particularly the Asian countries and the United Nations -- to settle the Indonesian problem through negotiations. All this while colonialism was tumbling in different parts of the world, the older orders yielding place to the new.

When the Dutch launched the Second Military Action on Dec. 18, 1948, they were under the illusion that what could not be resolved through their scheming and violating of agreements, such as the Linggarjati and Renville pacts, could be achieved unilaterally with the use of force.

Whereas India was not yet independent when the Asian Relations Conference was held in New Delhi from March 23 to April 2, 1947, by the time the Second Dutch Military Action took place, India had already become independent (Aug. 15, 1947). It was none other than Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, who most outspokenly described the Dutch action "the most naked and unabashed aggression".

This Second Dutch Military Action, contrary to the expectations of the Dutch authorities, served to raise the tempers of the Asian leaders to the boiling point, generating a wave of shock and disgust, particularly in the United Nations and the Asian countries. In other words, what the Second Dutch Military Action really served to do was to further cement the Asian sentiment and solidarity realized when the Asian Relations Conference was held in New Delhi.

As a matter of fact, even before the Second Dutch Military Action and after the Dutch had given enough proof of their utter disregard of the earlier Security Council Resolution, Asian countries, including India, closed ranks in support of Indonesia. In a move initiated by Australia and India, a United Nations Committee of good offices was set up to settle the Dutch- Indonesian problem through negotiations. The first foreign policy decision of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in September 1946 was the withdrawal of Indian troops from Indonesia.

When the Dutch imposed a total blockade on the Republic of Indonesia, India's active vocal and material support of Indonesia also increased. Indian planes were able to slip past the Dutch Air Force and carried food, medicines, clothing and perhaps arms to the embattled freedom fighters in Yogyakarta.

The story of how a daring young Indian pilot, Biju Patnaik, flew out of Yogyakarta, with Mohammad Hatta, Indonesia's first vice president, in a secret mission to India, is a tale not only of courage but an expression of India's sentiments towards Indonesia at that time. Hatta was listed as a crew-member under the assumed name of Abdullah. The pilot later was to become a minister in the central government in New Delhi during the 1977- 1979 period and until recently was the chief minister of the State of Orissa in Eastern India.

During this period, whereas the United Nations had become a body of inaction, India and several other Asian countries had taken many practical steps to thwart the Dutch imperialistic forces. Along with India, other Asian countries such as Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and Burma (now Myanmar), closed their ports and air-space to Dutch ships and planes.

All India Radio had practically become the only 'Voice of the Indonesian Republic' to the outside world. It functioned as the official freedom radio of the republic. It carried special programs on conditions in the archipelago. When Sukarno and Hatta were captured by the Dutch and kept in confinement, they issued proclamations to the Indonesian people to continue their struggle against the Dutch invaders. These proclamations were broadcast by All India Radio.

At about the same time, the Indian Press Attache in Batavia, P.R.S. Mani was called to New Delhi for consultations. While he was boarding the KLM aircraft at the Kemayoran airport, a good Indonesian friend of his informed him that the aircraft would stop in Bangka where Sukarno, Hatta and Sjahrir were imprisoned by the Dutch, and that he should meet them before the flight took off from Bangka. During this very brief meeting a memorandum signed by Sukarno and Hatta, addressed to Nehru, was given to him to be carried to New Delhi.

Nehru lost no time in consolidating Asian support for Indonesia. Simultaneously, the Prime Minister of Burma, U Nu, also urged Nehru to convene a special conference of independent Asian and African states to discuss the Indonesian question. It was an angry Nehru -- angry at the Dutch brutally aimed at retaining its colonial empire and the inaction of the United Nations to bring to book the Dutch for their onslaught on the republic -- who issued the invitations to a special conference on Indonesia, on Dec. 31, 1948. Thus was conceived the New Delhi Conference on Indonesia held in New Delhi on Jan. 21-22, 1949. This historic meeting is also sometimes known as the 18 Nations Conference.

The countries that participated were Afghanistan, Australia, Burma, Ceylon, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Pakistan, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Siam (now Thailand), Syria, Yemen, Nepal and New Zealand. The unique feature, as is obvious, was the inclusion and participation of Australia and New Zealand in the conference. Siam, Nepal, New Zealand and China chose to send only observers, while all other countries were represented by their plenipotentiaries.