Indonesian critics ask: what use is Dutch recognition of 1945 independence without reparations?

The Netherlands' recent recognition of the official independence day of its former colony Indonesia is "not sincere" and a "huge insult" to Jakarta as its acknowledgement lacks the requisite legal repercussions, observers have said.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte had said on June 14 that the Netherlands "recognises fully and without reservation" that Indonesia became independent on August 17, 1945.

"We see the proclamation as [a] historical fact," Rutte said during a parliamentary meeting in The Hague, adding that he "will consult" Indonesian President Joko Widodo on how to "reach a joint realisation of that independence day".

Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team.

Widodo said the next day that the recognition was "a good thing" but he would consult the minister of foreign affairs about its potential impact.

Rutte's statement, however, is a "huge insult" to Indonesia, according to Jeffry Pondaag, chairman of the Netherlands-based The Dutch Honorary Debts Committee Foundation, which actively seeks compensation from the Dutch for their military offensives.

"Our government must be careful, don't just accept the recognition, what about [reparations for] the 350 years of Dutch colonisation in Indonesia? We can't just forget about it," Pondaag said.

Sukarno, Indonesia's first president, declared independence on August 17, 1945 but the Dutch tried to take back the colony through a four-year diplomacy and military war from 1945 to 1949 - a period known in Indonesia as revolutionary war, and bersiap in the Netherlands.

The Dutch finally acknowledged Indonesia's independence on December 27, 1949 in a treaty known as the Hague Agreement.

The Netherlands, however, has been quick to avoid the legal consequences that could result from Rutte's statement. The Dutch leader said his acknowledgement "would not change any existing legal grounds", while his spokesperson said The Hague would continue to recognise 1949 as the year of Indonesia's independence.

"Sovereignty was transferred in 1949. We cannot reverse that," the spokesperson said, as quoted by Dutch media NL Times.

Observers have criticised Rutte's acknowledgement, which stopped short of legal recognition, as avoiding the Netherlands' liability for returning the reparations Indonesia made during the revolutionary war.

The 1949 Hague Agreement called for Indonesia to pay 4.5 billion guilders for Dutch losses from the war. Jakarta eventually repaid the sum in full in 2003.

Rutte's "ungentlemanly" statement meant the Netherlands was "avoiding the liability to [return the money] that we paid for war reparations, as well as being labelled as war criminals because they still treated Indonesia as their colony until 1949", said Bonnie Triyana, a Jakarta-based historian and founder of Indonesian-language history magazine Historia.

Bonnie said recognition of the August 17, 1945 date could have meant the Netherlands invaded a sovereign country when it launched military offensives in 1947 and 1948.

The United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on December 10, 1948, nine days before the Dutch's second offensive in Indonesia, "which means that the aggression is a human rights violation, of which justice has no expiry date", he said.

Rutte's statement was nothing new, Bonnie added, as Dutch former foreign minister Bernard Rudolf Bot had already said in 2005 that The Hague accepted "in a political and moral sense" that Indonesia went independent in 1945.

Indonesia's former foreign minister Hassan Wirajuda also slammed Rutte's statement as "not sincere".

"The statement recognising independence is accompanied by various qualifications which ultimately negate the statement itself," Hassan told local channel Metro TV on Friday. The statement came "too late" compared to other Western countries' apologies to their former colonies, such as Britain, Belgium and Germany, Hassan added.

Bonnie called on Widodo to seek "concrete results" in any meeting with Rutte, such as visa-free access for Indonesians when they visit the Netherlands.

"We need to have a bit more dignity as we are not a small nation," Bonnie said.

Rutte's statement last week was delivered at the lower house of the Dutch parliament, which met to discuss the investigation into Indonesia's revolutionary war in the 1940s following the release last year of a study that found the Dutch military systematically used "extreme violence" on Indonesians during that period.

The six-year study by a team of 115 researchers from the Netherlands and Indonesia also found the Dutch carried out "extrajudicial executions, ill-treatment and torture, detention under inhumane conditions".

The Hague has resisted calls from some Dutch political parties to classify the violence as "war crimes", the NL Times reported.

Dr Agus Suwignyo, a historian from the University of Gadjah Mada in Yogyakarta, said Netherlands had chosen to classify its actions in Indonesia as "extreme violence" out of consideration for the Dutch military veterans who took part in the invasions. Dutch defence minister Kajsa Ollongern last week said most of the veterans "are not to blame" for the violence, the NL Times reported.

"With the government's statement that August 17, 1945 is Indonesia's official independence day, all actions by the Dutch military after that up to December 27, 1949 are considered aggression against the territory of other sovereign countries. The veterans feel morally disadvantaged, because they are in the category of aggressors," Agus said.

The historian also noted that the younger generations of Dutch people felt uncomfortable about the country's colonial past.

"The new generations who are not directly related to the colonial period feel uncomfortable when they enter museums, read textbooks at school which state that the Dutch at that time took back their colonies, brought large collections from the Dutch East Indies and displayed them at Dutch museums as their property," Agus said.

While pressure from the public would not be enough to force the Netherlands to take legal responsibility for the military invasions of Indonesia, Agus urged Jakarta to also ask for compensation for the "mass killings" during the four-year war.

In the seven months following the second Dutch offensive in December 1948, at least 46,000 Indonesian combatants were killed, the study said, adding that the Dutch side had about 5,300 casualties, including several Indonesians loyal to the Dutch crown.

.

This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

Copyright (c) 2023. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.