Ethics Policy: Fill & Download for Free

Q : What are the major events that led to the independence of Indonesia?A : There are several major events that led to the independence of Indonesia. Those are Ethical Policy, Youth Pledge and Japanese Occupation.There are several major events that led to the independence of Indonesia.1. The Ethical Policy (1901–1942)The first major event is Dutch Ethical Policy (Ethische Politiek, Politik Etis. 1901–1942) especially the educational aspect. Before the policy, the available education system for natives was traditional system, either royal-based or folk Islamic-based. After the policy, Western-based education was available for the natives, albeit limited. These limited privileged Western-educated people become the primary actors during independence.2. The National Awakening, Youth Pledge (28 October 1928)The Youth Pledge (28 October 1928) was a major event. The event primarily showed that the youth (as from the photos, were well-educated) declared the ‘national identities’. The event showed that the national identities has been formed (even before the country it self).3. The Japanese Occupation (1942–1945)The last important events was the Japanese Occupation. Indonesia would reach independence. However, Japanese Occupation created the form of the independence of Indonesia. The effect of Japanese Occupation has been answered here.Thus, those are the major events that led to the independence of Indonesia, those are Ethical Policy, Youth Pledge and Japanese Occupation.

As with most historical events, the reasons of the Dutch failure to recolonise Indonesia is a mix of compounding policy errors that were often decades in the making, and decisions made by third parties that the Dutch had little power or chance to address or prepare for. (This answer will try to touch on reasons other answers have not covered)Let’s start with the first category:The Ethical Policy Debacle: The “Ethical Policy” was a colonial policy enacted by Amsterdam after the book “Max Havelaar” (1860) (which criticised the colonial conduct of Netherlands in the Dutch East Indies, future Indonesia) became massively popular in the Dutch public. {1}Basically, the Ethical Policy was a shift of colonial policy from simple “Suppress & Exploit” to “Enlighten & Develop” in an attempt to ‘redeem’ the Dutch of their previous behaviour {2}. It was an exceedingly benevolent policy with genuinely idealistic goals {3}.There were 2 main problems with the Ethical Policy. The first, was that although there was wide public support for it from as early as the 1870s, the Great European Depression of 1873–1896 {4} greatly delayed its implementation until 1901. The second problem was that even at it’s height, the Ethical Policy was stymied by a lack of funds and resistance from colonial administrators {5}, and was then shot and buried once the Great Depression of 1929–1934 (the American caused one) rolled around.It’s results were that it managed to educate a small subset of ‘indigenous colonial elites’, produce a slew of half-hearted reforms (which were almost uniformly rolled back once Amsterdam started needing more cash), and a modest amount of new infrastructure which ended up falling into disrepair or simply left half completed in the first place.In short: The Ethical Policy produced a central group of Indonesians that were educated and well connected enough to rally their people against the Dutch, and then gave them a slew of reasons to do just that. {6}To build on Alvin Trisnadi’s answer: This was one of the reasons Indonesia’s political elites firmly refused to enter a commonwealth agreement with the Netherlands: A promise for ‘guidance & better conditions’ sounded eerily similar to what the Ethical Policy offered, and it was a policy that had demonstrated Dutch inability to fulfil their promises.Now let’s got to the second category:WW2 War Exhaustion: Simply put, the Allies were sick and tired of war and bloodshed. This is important as the Dutch heavily relied on Britain & American support in their colonial suppression effort, mainly in transport and logistics. It’s no small coincidence the post-WW2 era saw many ex-colonial powers voluntarily relinquishing their colonies: Their population were sick and tired of going to war, and the actions of Nazi Germany gave many reason to sympathise with their colonial subjects. While America supported Indonesia in hopes for mining concessions and anti-communist support, Britain was simply unwilling to waste money, resources, and lives {7} in supporting the colonial war of a frankly insignificant ally that contributed little in the war in Europe.Japanese Apathy: One of the reasons the freedom fighters in Surabaya managed to put up enough resistance to make the British reconsider their support of Netherland’s colonial war was because many Japanese military officers reacted to the armistice very negatively. This resulted in an apathetic and often passive-aggressive attitude in many commanders, who often disregarded orders from High Command to relinquish their weapons to Allied soldiers, preferring to allow Indonesian fighters to ‘raid’ their weapon depots instead {8}. This tacit support greatly aided the Indonesians in many occasions. {9}Notes:Max Havelaar was a story written by a former colonial administrator, and as such gave striking insight of the Dutch East Indies method of governance, which was characterised as corrupt, distant, and exploitative. The main point of it was that despite not being European, the indigenous population were still subjects of the Queen and King of Netherlands, and deserved their protection.Main problematic behaviour stemmed from 3 policies. The first was the Cultivation System where all farmers were given a flat quota of Sugar and Coffee to harvest for the government, which often forced farmers to starve as the quota left them unable to plant enough food crops to sustain themselves.The second was the Tax Commission System, wherein colonial tax collectors received a commission on all the taxes they collected, which greatly encouraged overtaxation of colonial subjects.The final one was the Opium Trade. Unlike the British, who had the good sense to grow the Opium but sell it to the Chinese, the Dutch sold Opium directly to their subjects, and raised revenue by establishing a government monopoly on Opium, wherein any competitors were declared smugglers and executed (and their opium confiscated).In short, before the Ethical Policy, Dutch colonial practices could be summed up as “Starve em’ Drug em’ and Over-Tax em’”Main focus of the Ethical Policy was to increase the material prosperity of their colonial subjects. This included providing full education (till tertiary level) to the colonial elites, as well as providing better overall healthcare and infrastructure. Also included reforms to taxation and administration.Taken from Eric Hobsbaum’s “The Age of Capital: 1848–1875”. While nowhere near as disruptive as the Great Depression, the European Depression was a prolonged slump in economic growth wherein “Half the blast-furnances in Europe stopped operating”. As blast furnaces produced steel, one can reasonably infer that there was a huge drop in construction and economic growth.Mainly stemming from racist views of white supremacy and an accurate if cynical view that educated elites will use their education to cause trouble for the colonial authority.The Colonial Elites (Indonesia’s founding fathers) Dutch education allowed them to understand (and later diplomatically exploit) European issues. They also realised just how much damage colonial occupation had caused. The Dutch teased them with promises and then gave them front-line seats to see them all collapse into nothing.A main turning point was the Battle of Surabaya in November 1945. Brigadier-General Mallaby of the British armed forces was ambushed and killed by Indonesians. While Air and Armoured superiority paved the way for a clear British victory, there was great fear of outcry that the British public would voice if they found out British soldiers were dying after Japan had surrendered.To clarify, only a few Japanese military commanders (or even soldiers) were outwardly supportive of the Indonesian Independence movement, but if you think its hilarious to expect minimum-wage shop attendants to risk their lives resisting a robbery, then it’s even more so to expect Japanese Soldiers to risk life and limb to uphold the colonial power of a hated opponent. Most simply gave their weapons to the first people who asked… which were often the Indonesians.The Indonesian proclamation of Independence was planned out while in hiding in a Japanese Admiral’s house, for example.

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