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.