Indonesia-Netherlands relations revisited

Indonesia-Netherlands relations revisited

A debate is now raging in the Netherlands over Queen Beatrix's
planned visit to Indonesia in August this year. Noted political
scientist Dewi Fortuna Anwar argues that the debate is a wholly
internal Dutch matter and that Indonesians attitude towards the
colonial period, 50 years after independence, is one of letting
bygones be bygones.

JAKARTA (JP): Relations between Indonesia and the Netherlands
are again the subject of public discussion. In fact in the
Netherlands the issue is a cause for heated debate. The
controversy revolves around Dutch actions towards Indonesia some
fifty years ago. As we know, the Netherlands refused to recognize
Indonesia's declaration of independence on Aug. 17, 1945, and
launched a police action to recover the colony which it had lost
to the Japanese in 1942. The Dutch finally conceded defeat and
transferred sovereignty to Indonesia only in December 1949, after
encountering fierce and determined nationalist resistance and
international pressure. Today there is a major controversy in the
Netherlands over whether the Dutch government should now
apologize to the Indonesian people for what the former did five
decades ago.

Although the two countries have developed diplomatic ties as
two sovereign states, relations between Jakarta and The Hague
seem to be unable to entirely escape their shared past. The
struggle to liberate West Irian continued to sour Indonesian-
Dutch relations until 1963. Cordial and close relations only
began to develop after the advent of the New Order in 1966,
particularly after the founding of the Inter-Governmental Group
on Indonesia (IGGI) in 1967, a consortium of aid donor countries
and institutions which was headed by the Netherlands.

But Jakarta eventually came to view the IGGI, which brought
Indonesia and the Netherlands closer together for 25 years, as
detrimental to bilateral relations. The Indonesian government and
the political public felt that Jan Pronk, the chairman of the
IGGI, all too often used his position to intervene in Indonesian
domestic politics. The issue came to a head after the Dili
incident in November 1991 and in early 1992 President Soeharto
unilaterally dissolved the IGGI. The IGGI was soon replaced by
the Consultative Group on Indonesia (CGI) which does not include
the Netherlands.

Problems

The IGGI incident shows very clearly the problems in
Indonesian-Dutch relations. The Netherlands, or at least some of
its officials, apparently continues to feel that it has some
claims on and responsibility towards Indonesia. While the Dutch
are undoubtedly very concerned about human rights generally,
there was a perception here that Pronk's criticisms smacked more
of paternalism and a desire to chastise the former Dutch colony.
Indonesia, for its part, tends to be extremely sensitive about
any criticisms coming from its former colonial master. The same
criticisms leveled by the United States or Great Britain would
not have aroused the same kind of anger in Jakarta. The fact that
the Dutch contribution to the IGGI was relatively insignificant
was of course another factor in Indonesia's decision to dissolve
the organization and form the CGI without Dutch membership.

At the same time, the IGGI incident shows the growing maturity
in Indonesian-Dutch relations, at least on the Indonesian side.
After dissolving the IGGI the Indonesian government ensured that
its overall bilateral ties with the Netherlands were not
affected. Indonesia recognizes that the Netherlands can play a
very important role in helping to promote Indonesia's interests
in Europe. Indonesia seems to be keen on developing mutually
beneficial ties with the Netherlands, based on rational and
common interests, and unburdened by history.

Because of this increasing maturity, Indonesians' response to
the brewing controversy in the Netherlands over whether the Dutch
government should apologize to the Indonesian people, as argued
by none other than Pronk, has been muted. Many Indonesians feel
that the Netherlands should apologize for its war atrocities
against Indonesia, as was reflected in a recent popular radio
talk show. However, the general feeling is that we should let
bygones be bygones. Indonesia, after all, won its independence 50
years ago, and the revolutionary period of 1945-1949 is looked
upon with great pride by Indonesians as a time when great deeds
and achievements were accomplished by the generally untrained and
uneducated Indonesian people. The revolution gave Indonesia's
emergent nationalism a baptism by fire, and led to the
development of a strong sense of national unity and self-
confidence.

The debate taking place in the Netherlands is a purely
internal matter of the Dutch people. It is a way for the Dutch to
come to terms with their own history. Such debates are probably
necessary to cauterize the wound that many Dutch people clearly
still feel when talking about Indonesia. It is to be hoped that
these exercises will help the Netherlands to begin a new era of
close cooperation with Indonesia.

The writer is head of the Regional and International Affairs
Division of the Center for Political and Regional Studies at the
Indonesian Institute of Sciences.