Dutch PM Recognizes Indonesia's 1945 Independence Date

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Seventy-eight years after Soekarno proclaimed Indonesia as a sovereign nation, the Dutch government on Wednesday finally recognized its former colonies’ independence date of August 17, 1945. The legal implications of the statement, however, remain unclear. 

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, speaking in Parliament on Wednesday in The Hague, said that “the Netherlands recognizes August 17, 1945, completely and without reservations. We view that proclamation as a historical fact.”

Prior to this, the Netherlands viewed Indonesia’s independence date as December 27, 1949, after a four-year diplomatic and military war on Indonesian soil. 

Rutte also said that he would “discuss with my Indonesian counterpart about how to reach a joint realization of that independence day,” adding that he has “frequently attended August 17 celebrations at the Indonesian embassy.”

The Prime Minister was in Parliament to discuss the follow-up of a major Dutch study released last year titled ‘Independence, Decolonization, Violence, and War in Indonesia 1945-1950’. 

However, it is unclear what the implications of Rutte’s statement will be since his spokesperson said after the parliamentary debate that the independence date recognition does not have any “legal” consequences, as reported by public Dutch broadcaster NOS. “The spokesperson pointed to the contracts made by the Netherlands about matters in Indonesia between 1945 and 1949. Nothing changes there,” NOS reported.

Jeffry Pondaag, chairman of the Dutch-based foundation KUKB (Honorary Debts Committee Foundation), said in a statement prior to the parliamentary discussion on Wednesday that the Dutch state is trying to avoid the legal question “of whether it is liable for reparations to the Indonesian state as a result of the war it has waged in Indonesia.” 

Leiden University Emeritus History Professor Henk Schulte Nordholt told Tempo that Rutte’s statement was “a political recognition of the Netherlands regarding August 17, 1945, without recognizing the legal consequences thereof.”

Linawati Sidarto (Amsterdam) 

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