Indonesia (Cherry, Plum, and Chrysanthemum)

Indonesia, officially the Federation of Indonesia (Indonesian: Negara Indonesia Serikat), is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 17,508 islands. It consists of 23 federal provinces and 12 special-governed territories with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. The nation's capital city is Jakarta.

The country shares land borders with Papua New Guinea, East Timor, North Borneo and Sarawak. Other neighboring countries include Malaya, Sulu, Philippines, Australia, the Japanese territory of the Nan'yo Islands, and Andaman and Nicobar.

Indonesia is a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural nation. Across its many islands, there are over 300 ethnic groups and more than 700 living languages are spoken in Indonesia. The largest—and politically dominant—ethnic group are the Javanese. A shared identity has developed, defined by a national language, ethnic diversity, religious pluralism within a majority Muslim population, and a history of colonialism and rebellion against it. Despite its large population and densely populated regions, Indonesia has vast areas of wilderness that support the world's second highest level of biodiversity.

Prehistoric Indonesia
Austronesian peoples, the ancestors of most of modern Indonesian peoples, migrated to South East Asia from Takasago, Japan. They arrived in Indonesia around 2000 BCE, and as they spread through the archipelago, pushed the Melanesian peoples who inhabited earlier to the far eastern regions.

The Indonesian archipelago is the host of Austronesian megalith cultures both past and present. Several megalith sites and structures are also found across Indonesia. Menhirs, dolmens, stone tables, ancestral stone statues, and step pyramid structure called Punden Berundak were discovered in various sites in Java, Sumatra, Sulawesi, and the Lesser Sunda Islands. These megalith cultures remained preserved, isolated and undisturbed well into the late 19th century.

Ideal agricultural conditions, and the mastering of wet-field rice cultivation as early as the 8th century BC, allowed villages, towns, and small kingdoms to flourish by the 1st century AD. Indonesia's strategic sea-lane position fostered inter-island and international trade, including links with India and China, which were established several centuries BCE. Trade has since fundamentally shaped Indonesian history.

Hindu-Buddha civilizations
References to the Dvipantara or Jawa Dwipa Hindu kingdom in Java and Sumatra appear in Sanskrit writings as early as 200 BC. Starting from early centuries, a number of Hindu and Buddhist Indianized states flourished across Indonesian Archipelago. By the time of the European Renaissance, Java and Sumatra had already seen over a millennium of civilization and two major empires. One such early kingdom was Tarumanagara, which located in Western Java and close to modern-day Jakarta, flourished between 358 and 669 CE.

The political history of Indonesian archipelago during the 7th to 11th centuries was dominated by Srivijaya, a Malay kingdom that centered in the coastal trading center of present day Palembang, Sumatra, and also Sailendra that dominated central Java and constructed Borobudur, the largest Buddhist monument in the world. Both Srivijaya and Sailendra are considered to be Buddhist thalassocracies that held much influence on the Maritime Southeast Asia. The two kingdoms maintained the peaceful cordial relations with each other to ensure that Srivijaya had no need to fear the emergence of a Javanese rival and that the Sailendra had access to the international market.

As the Sailendra's influence declined, the centre of power in Java shifted from central to eastern region of the island around the 10th century. In Sumatra, Srivijaya's influence also declined by the 11th century. In the late 13th century, Kingdom of Singhasari in Java then launched a peaceful naval campaign northward towards the weak remains of the Srivijaya in response to continuous Ceylon pirate raids and Chola kingdom's invasion from India which conquered Srivijaya’s vassal of Kedah in 1025. By 1290, Singhasari totally drove any Srivijayan influence out of Java and Bali.

Followed by their success to conquer Japan in 1282, the Mongols invaded Singhasari in 1293. Aided by Raden Wijaya, the founder of the Kingdom of Majapahit, the Mongols successfully defeated and destroyed Singhasari. But, once Singhasari was destroyed, Raden Wijaya then surprisingly turned against the Mongols. In a chaos, the Mongols was forced to withdraw from Java on May 31, 1293. Raden Wijaya then ascended the throne as Kertajasa Jayawardhana, the first king of the Kingdom of Majapahit, on November 12, 1293.

Under the rule of Hayam Wuruk (1350–1389) and his Prime Minister, Gajah Mada (1331-1364), Majapahit emerged as a powerful maritime empire which its rule extended to all of parts of modern-day Indonesia, Sulu, southern Philippines, Sarawak, North Borneo, and Malaya. Although the Majapahit rulers extended their power over other islands and destroyed neighboring kingdoms, their focus seems to have been on controlling and gaining a larger share of the commercial trade that passed through the archipelago. As result, the outer states of Majapahit were most likely to have been connected mainly by a royal trade monopoly, rather than with a regular centralized authority.

Netherlands East Indies
The first regular contact between Europeans and the peoples of Indonesia began in 1512, when Portuguese traders, led by Francisco Serrão, sought to monopolize the sources of nutmeg, cloves, and cubeb pepper in Maluku. Dutch and British traders followed. In 1602 the Dutch established the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and became the dominant European power. Following bankruptcy, the VOC was formally dissolved in 1800, and the government of the Netherlands established the Dutch East Indies as a nationalized colony.

From the arrival of the first Dutch ships in the late sixteenth century, to the declaration of independence in 1945, Dutch control over the Indonesian archipelago was always tenuous. Although Java was dominated by the Dutch, many areas remained independent throughout much of this time including Aceh, Bali, Lombok and Borneo. There were numerous wars and disturbances across the archipelago as various indigenous groups resisted efforts to establish a Dutch hegemony. It was not until the early 20th century, that Dutch dominance was extended across to the future territory of modern-day Indonesia.

From about 1840, Dutch national expansionism saw them wage a series of wars to enlarge and consolidate their possessions in the outer islands. Although Indonesian rebellions broke out, direct colonial rule was extended throughout the rest of the archipelago from 1821 to 1910 and control taken from the remaining independent local rulers. The Bird's Head Peninsula (Western New Guinea), was brought under Dutch administration in 1920. This final territorial range would form the territory of Indonesia.

In 1901, Queen Wilhelmina announced that the Netherlands accepted an ethical responsibility for the welfare of their colonial subjects that could be summarized in the 'Three Policies' of Irrigation, Transmigration and Education. Upgrading the infrastructure of ports and roads in East Indies was a high priority for the Dutch, with the goal of modernizing the economy, facilitating commerce, and speeding up military movements. The government policy on education, however, brought the Western political ideas of freedom and democracy. During the 1920s and 30s, this small elite began to articulate a rising anti-colonialism and a national consciousness.

In October 1908, the first native emancipation movement was formed, Boedi Oetomo, which followed by the establishment of first nationalist mass movement, Sarekat Islam, in 1912. It brought the Indonesians together, using the banner of Islam in opposition to Dutch rule, however, it had not nationalist agenda, and was often more anti-Chinese than anti-Dutch. In contrast, the Communist Party of Indonesia (Indonesian: Partai Komunis Indonesia, PKI), formed in 1920, was a fully-fledged independence party inspired by European politics. In 1926, it attempted a revolution throughout Indonesia through isolated insurrections across Java that panicked the Dutch, who arrested and exiled thousands of communists, effectively neutralizing the PKI for the remainder of the Dutch occupation.

In approximately 1920 that the word "Indonesia" came into its modern usage. Created by English ethnologists, George Windsor Earl and James Richardson Logan, in 1850s to classify the ethnic and geographic area, "Indonesia" was seized upon by the nationalists as a word to imagine a unity of peoples of the archipelago. On October 28, 1928, the name "Indonesia" gain more political significance when the native pro-independence nationalist youth declared that acknowledge Indonesia as one motherland, one nation, and uphold Indonesian language, that based on Bazaar Malay language, as the language of unity.

However, after the World War I, the Dutch colonial government strongly repressed all attempts at change and suppressed the Indonesian nationalist movement. Political freedoms under the Dutch were limited at best. While Dutch aims to "civilize" and "modernize" the peoples of the Indies sometimes led to tolerance for native publications and organizations, the Dutch also strictly limited the content of these activities.

In the 20th century the colony gradually developed as a state distinct from the Dutch metropole with treasury separated in 1903, public loans being contracted by the colony from 1913, and quasi diplomatic ties were established with Hejaz to manage the Hajj pilgrimage from the Dutch East Indies. In 1922 the colony came on equal footing with the Netherlands in the Dutch constitution, while remaining under the Ministry of Colonies.

In 1918 a proto-parliament, the Volksraad, met for the first time, after being established two years before. The Volksraad was limited to an advisory role and only small portions of the indigenous population were able to vote for its members. Nevertheless, the Volksraad used as the medium of political struggle by the Indonesian nationalist to achieve the goal of independence or, at least, a self-government.

When the nationalist movements were mostly suppressed and its main leaders were arrested and exiled, the Indonesian independence movement began to shift its political strategy toward parliamentary struggle. Leading nationalist figures within the Volksraad that led by Betawi politician, Mohammad Hoesni Thamrin, had admitted the option for self-government for Indonesia to the Dutch parliament in 1939. However, the option was rejected by the Dutch government in 1941 that believed its biggest and most precious colony remained not ready and unprepared for even government itself.

Following the invasion of the Netherlands by the Third Reich in May 1940 and establishment of Dutch government-in-exile in London, Queen Wilhelmina delivered a radio speech that denouncing the invasion. Within the speech, the Queen also defining the future relations between the Netherlands and her Empire after the war as well, especially the Dutch East Indies. The speech was welcomed warmly by the Indonesian nationalists that supported for the self-governing right of the Indonesians. Prominent Indonesian nationalists that being exiled by the colonial government such as Dr. Tjipto Mangunkusumo and Sukarno even wrote the letters to the Governor-General in support for the Dutch cause and the Allies.

Thamrin, who had influenced mainly by the Japanese nationalist movement realized if the colonial government had not forced to accept the cause of Indonesian nationalists, the speech will be a mere propaganda. By late 1940, Thamrin became increasingly vocal for the self-government movement. The Indonesian Political Federation (GAPI, Indonesian: Gaboengan Politik Indonesia) as the main Indonesian nationalist movement was organizing political rallies on several cities such as in Batavia, Padang, Bandung, Surabaya, Banjarmasin, Jogjakarta, Solo, and Makassar, campaigned for the self-government for the Indonesians.

On his speech before the GAPI political rally on Batavia on March 1941, Thamrin delivered his famous speech, "We Are Indonesian", that emphasized the national identity of the Indies people as "Indonesian" and their motherland as "Indonesia" instead of "the Indies". The speech also against the social class system that implemented by the colonial government and the support for the self-determination right of every nation in the spirit of Atlantic Charter.

Thamrin's speech, while received enormously by the Indonesian nationalists, infuriated the colonial government that accused Thamrin as a spy who working for Thailand who had been declared war on the United Kingdom and the Netherlands recently. Those suspicion only increased significantly after the Battle of Malacca Strait and the Battle of Sabang between joint British-Dutch forces against the Thai navy on September 1941. Thamrin and other nationalist leaders such as Haji Agus Salim, G.S.S.J. Ratulangi and Ernest Douwes Dekker were taken into house-arrest by the colonial government shortly after the battles.

The arrest however only radicalized the nationalist movement throughout the Dutch East Indies. The exiled nationalist leaders such as Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta even begged the Governor-General with the letters for the release of GAPI leaders while Sutan Syahrir who always critical toward the colonial government wrote a letter that stated the arrest of the GAPI leaders will shifted the population's political action into radicalism which will throw the colony into chaos and anarchy.

After received such pressures, Governor-General Tjarda van Starkenbourgh-Statchouwer finally released Thamrin and other nationalist leaders on December 16, 1941. The release was welcomed throughout the East Indies as it was viewed for being the first victory for the nationalist movement against the colonial government. Following his release, Thamrin spoke before the crowd in Batavia that "the Indonesians are praying for the safety of Her Majesty Queen in London and her government for the Free Netherlands from Germany like they always do for the realization of Free Indonesia."

The speech itself was reached into Queen Wilhelmina's ears in London. The Queen was touched by the speech and promised to her subjects on the Dutch East Indies to determine its own status through "significant and extensive political discussions" after the war ended. Several major Indonesian political figures who had been exiled such as Sukarno, Hatta, Syahrir, and Ali Sastroamidjojo was released on January 1942 by Queen's amnesty.

Shortly after his arrival on Tanjung Priok port, Sukarno was welcomed by the thousand crowd of mass on Batavia. Unlike Thamrin's speech who always careful by only emphasized the self-governing right over the immediate independence, being a gifted and wonderful orator, Sukarno's impromptu speech before the crowd that welcomed him was as nationalistic and powerful as usual and addressed directly for the cause of Indonesian independence:


 * "Today, the Indonesians are not welcoming me as a liberated patriot, a liberated nationalist who really love his country like you all, ladies and gentlemen, that standing before me and who struggle for the independence of Indonesia. But today, the Indonesians are welcoming the new days, the days where of light of independence finally come to a beaming path, clearly and gloriously! We are now ready for our independence, the independence of Indonesian people, the independence of Indonesian soul, the independence of entire Indonesia!"

However, despite his high expectation for the cause of Indonesian independence, Sukarno was already promised to the colonial government for not involving on any political activity and will not joining any political organisations following his release. Nevertheless, Sukarno's presence was remaining being viewed as the centre of Indonesian independence movement due to his neutral political stance provides a stronger unity of the movement above different agendas of political parties.

Meanwhile, the Indonesian left-wing movement was able to organize itself and grow significantly following the January Amnesty. Syahrir and other prominent Leftist intellectuals, such as Tan Malaka founded the Indonesian People's Party (Indonesian: Partai Ra'jat Indonesia) on May 1942, while the smaller Communist group had been earlier re-established the Communist Party of Indonesia on April of following year. The PARI was following the GAPI for the cause of Indonesian self-governing right. As the Soviet Union was made part of the Allies, the PKI also showed its moderate support for GAPI's self-government option.

By 1943, the Indonesian politics was largely divided between the GAPI, represent the nationalist groups, led by Mohammad Husni Thamrin and Sukarno; the MIAI (Indonesian: Madjelis Islam A'la Indonesia, Indonesian Supreme Islamic Assembly), represent the Islamist groups, led by K.H. Hasyim Asy'ari and Haji Agus Salim; and the PARI (in alliance with the PKI), represent the Leftist groups, led by Sutan Syahrir and Tan Malaka. These three political organisations was formed part of the Indonesian People's Assembly (Indonesian: Madjelis Ra'jat Indonesia, MRI), a pro-independence umbrella camp.

Self-government
Following the liberation of the Netherlands on May 5, 1945, the MRI once again submitted the option for Indonesian self-government to the Dutch government in Amsterdam, known as the Mosi Bersama MRI (MRI's Joint Motion). The Mosi wanted the Queen and her Parliament to grant the wider political right to the Volksraad, the abolition of three-class social system, the recognition of Indonesian language as the official lingua franca for Indies people, and the reform of territorial and political division on the Dutch East Indies.

On November 1, 1945, Queen Wilhelmina and the delegation of Volksraad, led by Haji Agus Salim, signed the 1945 Indies Act on The Hague, the Netherlands. The act itself created the Executive Council and abolished the three-class social system. The Executive Council consisted of the Governor-General as its president, Deputy Governor-General, one member appointed by the Queen and five members elected by the Volksraad. Husni Thamrin, Mohammad Hatta, and Besar Mertokusumo from the GAPI, Haji Agus Salim from the MIAI, and P.F. Dahler from the Indo-European Association were the first five Volksraad-elected members of the Executive Council.

Despite the high resentment from Dutch Conservatives, the Act openly supported by Dr. Hubertus J. van Mook, who replaced van Starkenbourgh-Statchouwer as new Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies. On his inaugural speech before the Volksraad on November 23, Van Mook expressed his goodwill support toward the independence of Indonesia within the Dutch-Indonesian Union in the future. Van Mook also lifted the ban for hoisting red-and-white flag, the symbol of Indonesian nationalist movement on December 4, 1945.

The first Grand Conference of Insular Rulers (Indonesian: Moesyawarah Agoeng Radja-radja Kepoelaoean) was convened in Yogyakarta on December 11, 1945. Sultan Sjarif Kasim II of Siak was elected as its first president while Sultan Hamengkubuwono IX of Yogyakarta and Sultan Osman Al-Sani Perkasa Alamsjah of Deli, were elected as the deputy presidents. On December 15, 1945, the Conference of Rulers adopted the Jogjakarta Motion that supporting the reorganization of Dutch colonial administration in Indonesia. The Jogjakarta Motion also proposed for the name change of "Indies" into "Indonesia", or "Nusantara" alternatively.

On May 17, 1946, the representatives from the Volksraad and the Conference of Rulers gathered at the Buitenzorg Palace by Governor-General Van Mook in the negotiation for the future of Indonesia. The meeting resulted to an agreement called "Buitenzorg Agreement" that consist of following points:
 * "Indonesia" shall be the new name for the East Indies.
 * Indonesia shall be a commonwealth within the union with the Kingdom of the Netherlands which headed by Queen Wilhelmina. Indonesia shall be treated equally within the union, while the matters of economy, foreign affairs and defense of Indonesia will stayed as the direct responsibility for the Netherlands.
 * The future political structure of Indonesia shall be a federal state with a democratically-elected parliament. The sovereignty of princely states in Sumatra, Java, Madura, Borneo, Lesser Sunda Islands and Great Eastern Islands must be transferred from the colonial government to the future Parliament of Indonesia.