What 'Indonesian Nationalism'? (Part 2)

ACEHNESE WOMEN FOR FREEDOM .... Acehnese do not identify themselves with the Javanese Despite all the contradictions an "Indonesian nationalism" was promulgated and made a key part of Indonesia's State ideology, the pancasila. But for all intents and purposes, "Indonesian nationalism" became, in fact, a cover-up for the nascent Javanese nationalism, that of the real new ruling class, whose aims, purposes and symbolisms were projected to represent "Indonesian nationalism", that is the projection of a sectional, partial, local interest as the national, general interest. This fact can be easily observed.

For example, all symbols of "Indonesian nationalism" are expressed in Javanese language idioms: the State ideology is called pancasila, Javanese for "five principles"; the Indonesian "national" motto is Bhinneka tunggal ika, Javanese for "unity in diversity"; the names of all Indonesian State decorations are in Javanese; the status of first-class national hero is reserved for Javanese and all positions of power and prestige in Indonesia are reserved for the Javanese.

Colonialism and militarism are inseparable; one cannot exist without the other. Since 1949, the time of the illegal transfer of sovereignty, hardly any island has not been used as a battlefield, and there is hardly any non-Javanese nationality whose blood had not been shed by Javanese troops. There have been revolts against Javanese colonialism on every island, just as there were revolts against Dutch colonialism before. In addition the names of the State's administrative divisions and the titles of functionaries are expressed in Javanese: desa for a village and lurah for a village head; kecamatan for sub-district and camat for head of sub-district; kabupaten for district, and bupati for its head, and so on. The supposed official language may not be Javanese yet, but this is only because nobody would understand Javanese in 95.4 percent of Indonesia's territory; therefore Malay has to be used.

The Javanese are in a favourable position to expropriate "Indonesian nationalism" for themselves for a number of reasons: first, they are the favoured groups by the deliberate choice of the Dutch. Second, although not the majority, they represent the largest single group among the inhabitants. Third, their homeland happened to be on the island of Java that was chosen by the Dutch to be the centre of the colonial administration because it was the first to he colonized and because of the "reliability" of its population from the Dutch point of view, thus facilitating Javanese control over it. Finally, it was indeed to them that the Dutch had officially transferred their "sovereignty" over all of Indonesia on December 27, 1949, to the exclusion of all other nationalities.

Even Aceh Sumatra was given to the Javanese instead of being returned to the Acehnese who have more claim to the territory because the Dutch had taken it from them and not from the Javanese.

Nor could this fact have been forgotten easily, because the Dutch had to fight the Acehnese for almost a century. Yet instead of returning the country to the people of Aceh Sumatra, the Dutch gave it to the Javanese. In doing so, the Dutch violated all the known rules of international law and decolonization procedures of the United Nations which prohibited any transfer of sovereignty over any colonial territory by a colonial power and stipulated that sovereignty over each colonial territory belongs to the indigenous people of that territory.

The real reason, however, went even further than the mere calculation of economic interests: if the Dutch had turned Aceh Sumatra over to the Acehnese, it would have become the first Islamic State to re-emerge in Southeast Asia.

All these, however, did not alter the fact that Java represents only 7 percent of Indonesia's territory. The other 93 per cent of Indonesia's territories are overseas from Java; some are two to three thousand kilometres away and inhabited by peoples of different nationalities, races, languages, and cultures totally alien to the Javanese, making the 93 percent of Indonesia's territories in fact overseas colonies of Java, as it were.

Thus, to make a sham "nationalism" look real, a geographic expression has been called a "country" and a "nation". Malay, a language of Sumatra, was commandeered to become "Indonesian", although the Javanese do not speak (let alone write or understand) it. So today they have ruined it - they have made it the equivalent of Pidgin English to the English language. This so called "Bahasa Indonesia", alias Javanese Malay, is a kind of "Pidgin Malay" where the grammar of the classic Malay - a Muslim tongue - has been violated and its syntax disregarded. Further, it has been mixed up indiscriminately with unassimilated and unnecessary foreign words of assorted European languages, making it no longer intelligible to the Malay people themselves.

Javanese Malay has become a grotesque language that is no longer fit for literature, poetry or serious discourse as far as the Malay peoples are concerned. The name of Indonesia itself is Greek to the peoples of the East Indies, a foreign nomenclature that bears no relation whatever to their history, language, culture and literature.

To complete the paraphernalia of the "new" nation and the brand new "nationalism", an upside-down Polish flag was adopted as the "Indonesian flag" - a flag without history and without glory as far as the peoples are concerned. The plagiarized Yale Boola-Boola song was adopted as the "Indonesian national anthem". And to top it all, a two sentence "declaration of independence", devoid of any idea, much less a philosophy or a programme, was issued. Among civilized nations, a declaration of independence is a symbol, next to the flag, a statement of moral excellence and legitimacy, a brief for that nation's raison d'etre. Indonesia's "declaration of independence", however, was but a brief news bulletin.

The whole affair would be a farce if it were not for the river of blood that it has been spilled and which still continues to flow to this day. The farce inaugurated forty years of continuous bloodshed, of anarchy of the State. Forty years of officially condoned massacres, resistances and repressions that finally brought the military back to the helm - that is back to the stark reality of colonialism, and the exercise of its illegitimate and illegal power.

The Dutch sword has merely been replaced by Javanese guns to keep the "unity" of the "Indonesian nation" for no other purpose than western exploitation as the cheapest source of raw materials for the west's industries. Western journalists and scholars have found it agreeable to call this "stability" and "economic progress".

Indonesian nationalism and the Javanese military state

The emergence of the Javanese colonialist State is patent proof of the death - in fact of the non-existence - of "Indonesian nationalism". Since the sixteenth century, Indonesia has always been (with the exception of Aceh Sumatra) a colonial empire and a colonial empire can only be ruled by force of arms.

Colonialism and militarism are inseparable; one cannot exist without the other. The Dutch had created and preserved this colonial empire by force for 350 years, from 1599-1949, when they transferred it to the Javanese. Since then, the Javanese mercenaries have carried out the "white man's burden" with catastrophic consequences for all colonized non-Javanese peoples of the East Indies, from Aceh Sumatra to West Papua and from the Moluccas to Timor.

Since 1949, the time of the illegal transfer of sovereignty, hardly any island has not been used as a battlefield, and there is hardly any non-Javanese nationality whose blood had not been shed by Javanese troops. There have been revolts against Javanese colonialism on every island, just as there were revolts against Dutch colonialism before.

The Dutch East Indies were never decolonized, in contrast to all colonial territories in the rest of the world. The Dutch merely transferred their colonies to the Javanese, lock, stock and barrel, without returning even one inch of territory to the rightful people of that territory as prescribed by the Decolonization Law of the United Nations. The Dutch simply made the Javanese - for an agreed price - the heir of their colonial empire, disregarding the rights of the non-Javanese peoples to self-determination and independence.

The Dutch and Javanese conspiracy against the International Law and Decolonization principles of the United Nations was justified by the fiction of "Indonesian nationalism" and an "Indonesian nation". Yet the massive and desperate struggles for self-determination, waged by the Muslim majority and even by non-Muslim minority groups, were and have never been truthfully reported in the western media, which insisted on calling the freedom-fighters "separatists", "fanatics", or "insurgents".

One book written by a western journalist is even called Rebels Without a Cause, as if there are people on earth eager to die for no cause. All this resistance against the Indonesian State proves that the peoples concerned knew that "Indonesian nationalism" and "nationhood" were merely a hoax to disenfranchise and colonize them.

The ink of the Dutch and Javanese signatures had barely dried on the Treaty transferring Dutch "sovereignty" to the Javanese, when the Muslims in Pasundan (West Java) declared an Islamic State there under the leadership of Imam Kartosuwirjo. In April 1950, the people of the South Moluccas declared their independence from Javanese Indonesia, under the leadership of Dr Soumokil. In 1952, the Muslims of the Celebes (Sulawesi), under the leadership of Abdul-Qahar Muzakkar, declared the establishment of an Islamic State there and severed all relations with the Javanese regime of Indonesia. The Muslims of Borneo (Kalimantan) followed suit under the leadership of Ibnu Hadjar. In 1953, the Muslims of Aceh (Sumatra) also announced the re-establishment of the Islamic State there and severed all relations with Javanese Indonesia.

These armed resistances against the Javanese republic of Indonesia, in 93 percent of the territory claimed by the Javanese republic, should have been enough evidence for all thinking men and women about the non-existence of the so-called "Indonesian nationalism". Instead, the Western press chose to call these wars of liberation and self-determination of the non-Javanese peoples the "growing pains" of the Indonesian republic.

The Javanese colonialists called these freedom-fighters "traitors" but on their own homelands they were called heroes of the peoples - mujahideen. Could this sort of thing have happened if there were a real Indonesian nationalism that really united these peoples?

Clearly, there was no shared "collective pride and humiliation, pleasure and regret" between the Javanese and the rest of the peoples of the East Indies. These are sentiments which, according to John Stuart Mill, are key indicators of the existence of a nationality. Apparently none existed in Indonesia.

By 1965, all the leaders of Islamic liberation movements, such as Imam Kartosuwirjo of West Java, Abdul-Qahar Muzakkar of Sulawesi, and Ibnu Hadjar of Kalimantan, were murdered by the Javanese regime. Dr. Soumokil of the South Moluccas, who was a Christian, was also murdered by the Javanese Indonesian forces.