Page 81 - BUKU A CENTURY OF PARLIAMENTARY LIFE IN INDONESIA

A CENTURY OF PARLIAMENTARY LIFE
IN INDONESIA

3. The Netherlands wishes to develop and maintain an eternal bond
between the Netherlands and Indonesia (Staatsverbond). Indonesia
shall remain a federation;

4. Between the Republic of Indonesia and the Netherlands a joint ad
interim government shall be formed;

5. The Republic of Indonesia, together with the Netherlands, shall fund
and establish a joint foreign exchange institution;

6. The Republic of Indonesia must distribute rice to the Dutch-occu-
pied areas;

7. The Republic of Indonesia and the Netherlands shall organize a joint
ownership of imports and exports.

For the Indonesians, the Dutch’s request was unacceptable. Based on
this aide-memoire, Indonesia was seemingly “asked” to voluntarily re-
submit itself to the control of the Dutch East Indies Colonial Govern-
ment. In reality, the third point of the aide-memoire violated the main
point in the Linggarjati Agreement which had only been ratified by the
KNIP on March 5, 1947. In the Linggarjati Agreement, the soon-to-be-
formed Indonesian-Dutch Union could give Indonesia the right to have
its own head of state. The Indonesian-Dutch Union would be headed by
the King/Queen of the Netherlands, who would act as a “supervisor” .

To prevent war with the Dutch, PM Syahrir proposed a concession to the
Netherlands, namely the recognition of Dutch sovereignty over Indone-
sia during the transition period — something which had actually been
denounced by the parties and by BP KNIP. Syahrir’s cabinet finally fell on
June 26, 1947 due to the tremendous pressure associated with its con-
cessions with the Dutch. The Cabinet of Amir Syarifuddin (PKI faction),
which succeeded the Syahrir Cabinet, also had difficulties in responding
to the Dutch aide-memoire.

To that end, BP KNIP held a Closed Session with PM Amir Syarifuddin on
July 10 and 11, 1947. The BP KNIP session was of the opinion that Indone-
sia’s security was the responsibility of the Indonesian government, and
therefore BP KNIP denied the joint security control with the Netherlands.
The BP KNIP session together with PM Amir Syarifuddin reached an
understanding to provide the Netherlands with other concessions that
would give but little consequence to Indonesia.

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