1.
Proclamation of Indonesian Independence
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The Proclamation of Indonesian Independence was read at 10.00 a. m. on Friday,17 August 1945. In 2005, the Netherlands declared that they had decided to accept de facto 17 August 1945 as Indonesias independence date, in a 2013 interview the Indonesian historian Sukotjo, amongst others, asked the Dutch government to formally acknowledge the date of independence as 17 August 1945. The United Nations, who mediated in the conflict, formally acknowledge the date of independence as 27 December 1949, the document was signed by Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta, who were appointed president and vice-president respectively the following day. The draft was prepared only a few hours earlier, on the night of 16 August, by Sukarno, Hatta, the original Indonesian Declaration of Independence was typed by Sayuti Melik. Maeda himself was sleeping in his room upstairs and he was agreeable to the idea of Indonesias independence, and had lent his house for the drafting of the declaration. Marshal Terauchi, the highest-ranking Japanese leader in South East Asia and son of Prime Minister Terauchi Masatake, was however against Indonesias independence, the declaration was to be signed by the 27 members of the Preparatory Committee for Indonesian Independence symbolically representing the new nations diversity. The particular act was inspired by a similar spirit of the United States Declaration of Independence. Instead, the radical activists demanded that the signatures of six of them were to be put on the document. All parties involved in the moment finally agreed on a compromise solution which only included Sukarno. There was no evidence for the growing suspicions, as the Japanese had already surrendered to the Allies. An English translation of the proclamation was broadcast overseas, proklamasi Kami, bangsa Indonesia, dengan ini menjatakan kemerdekaan Indonesia. Hal2 jang mengenai pemindahan kekoeasaan d. l. l, 17-8-45, changed to hari 17, boelan 8, tahoen 05, Wakil-Wakil Bangsa Indonesia, changed to Atas nama bangsa Indonesia. P R O K L A M A S I Kami, bangsa Indonesia, hal-hal jang mengenai pemindahan kekoeasaan d. l. l. Diselenggarakan dengan tjara saksama dan dalam tempo jang sesingkat-singkatnja, djakarta, hari 17 boelan 8 tahoen 05 Atas nama bangsa Indonesia, Soekarno/Hatta. An English translation published by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as of October 1948 included the speech as read by Sukarno. It incorporated remarks made immediately prior to and after the actual proclamation, PROCLAMATION WE THE PEOPLE OF INDONESIA HEREBY DECLARE THE INDEPENDENCE OF INDONESIA. MATTERS WHICH CONCERN THE TRANSFER OF POWER AND OTHER THINGS WILL BE EXECUTED BY CAREFUL MEANS AND IN THE SHORTEST POSSIBLE TIME. DJAKARTA,17 AUGUST1945 IN THE NAME OF THE PEOPLE OF INDONESIA SOEKARNO/HATTA This proclamation is printed in the front of the Rp.100,000 Indonesian banknote of the year 1999 and 2004 series, java in a Time of Revolution, Occupation and Resistance, 1944-1946
2.
Sukarno
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Sukarno was the first President of Indonesia, serving in office from 1945 to 1967. Sukarno was the leader of his countrys struggle for Independence from the Netherlands and he was a prominent leader of Indonesias nationalist movement during the Dutch colonial period, and spent over a decade under Dutch detention until released by the invading Japanese forces. Sukarno and his fellow nationalists collaborated to support for the Japanese war effort from the population. Upon Japanese surrender, Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta declared Indonesian independence on 17 August 1945 and he led Indonesians in resisting Dutch re-colonization efforts via diplomatic and military means until the Dutch acknowledgment of Indonesian independence in 1949. The early 1960s saw Sukarno veering Indonesia to the left by providing support and protection to the Indonesian Communist Party to the irritation of the military and he also embarked on a series of aggressive foreign policies under the rubric of anti-imperialism, with aid from the Soviet Union and China. The 30 September Movement led to the destruction of the PKI and his replacement in 1967 by one of his generals, Suharto, the spelling Soekarno, based on Dutch orthography, is still frequently used, mainly because he signed his name in the old spelling. Sukarno himself insisted on a u, not oe, but said that he had told in school to use the Dutch style. He said that it was too difficult to change his signature, official Indonesian presidential decrees from the period 1947–1968, however, printed his name using the 1947 spelling. The Soekarno–Hatta International Airport which serves near Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, Indonesians also remember him as Bung Karno or Pak Karno. Like many Javanese people, he had one name. He is sometimes referred to in accounts as Achmad Sukarno. The first name was added by a British journalist, who felt his readers would be confused over someone with just a single name. He was originally named KusnoJavanese pronunciation, following Javanese custom, he was renamed after surviving a childhood illness. After graduating from a primary school in 1912, he was sent to the Europeesche Lagere School in Mojokerto. Subsequently, in 1916, Sukarno went to a Hogere Burgerschool in Surabaya, where he met Tjokroaminoto, in 1920, Sukarno married Tjokroaminotos daughter Siti Oetari. In 1921, he began to study engineering at the Technische Hoogeschool te Bandoeng. During his study in Bandung, Sukarno became romantically involved with Inggit Garnasih, the wife of Sanoesi, Inggit was 13 years older than Sukarno. In March 1923, Sukarno divorced Siti Oetari to marry Inggit, Sukarno later divorced Inggit and married Fatmawati
3.
Fatmawati
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Fatmawati is a National Hero of Indonesia. As the first Indonesian First Lady, She was the wife of Sukarno, the first president of Indonesia. She constructed the first flag flown by Indonesia, Fatmawati was born on 5 February 1923 in Bengkulu to Hasan Din and Chadijah. One of her ancestors was a princess of a Minangkabau kingdom, when she met Sukarno she was a teenager and he was married to a 53-year-old woman named Inggit. Unsurprisingly, Sukarnos wife was unwilling to release her husband but, Sukarno rationalised the need for his new wife by stating his desire to have a child to carry on his name. In 1943 Fatmawati became the wife of Sukarno and the following year gave birth to his first child. Sukarno named his child Guntur meaning thunder, in 1945 she was his wife when Indonesia declared independence. The flag of the new country was sewn by Fatmawati, and she was not his first wife, as he had married several times before. However, all his previous wives had been divorced in accordance with state law, Fatmawati was therefore his only wife at that time. There was a movement to reform womens rights in Indonesia. Fatmawati was not initially in favour of reforming these laws until she found out about her husbands intentions to marry again, moreover, this time Sukarno had decided that he did not want to divorce Fatmawati but intended to have two wives. Fatmawati objected when her husband took Hartini, his new wife, Sukarno married another woman from Java in 1953 and Fatmawati moved out of the presidential palace and lived separately in Jakarta. As part of the settlement Fatmawati was allowed to keep the title of First Lady and this development was a major blow to the growing womens movement. Fatmawati decided that she was going to divorce the President, the womens organisation consoled and advised Fatmawati and they tried to encourage her to return to the palace and reestablish her rights. Sukarno himself was annoyed by this development although his new wife understood Fatmawatis anger, Sukarno returned and had her thrown out of the meeting and exiled to Bogor. In 1953 Fatmawati became concerned about the plight of children with tuberculosis and she founded the Ibu Soekarno Foundation to fund a hospital. The following year a hospital was opened with the assistance of government funding and this was called the Madam Soekarno Hospital and Fatmawati laid the foundation stone in 1954. The birth of the hospital was a long one, the construction of the new building was halted by financial problems and it was not until 1961 that the hospital opened
4.
National Monument (Indonesia)
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The National Monument is a 132 m tower in the centre of Merdeka Square, Central Jakarta, symbolizing the fight for Indonesia. It is the monument of the Republic of Indonesia, built to commemorate the struggle for Indonesian independence. Construction began in 1961 under the direction of President Soekarno, Monas was opened to the public in 1975. It is topped by a covered with gold foil. The monument and the museum are open daily from 07.00 am until 12.00 am Western Indonesia Time throughout the week except for the last Monday of each month when the monument is closed. On 17 August 1954, a National Monument Committee was established, a repeat competition was held in 1960, but once again, none of the 136 entries met the criteria. The chairman of the team then asked Silaban to show his design to Sukarno. However, Sukarno did not like the design as he wanted the monument to be in the form of a linga and yoni. Silaban was asked to design such a monument, but his design was for a monument so large that it would have been given the economic conditions at the time. Silaban refused to design a monument, suggesting that construction be delayed until the Indonesian economy improved. Sukarno then asked the architect R. M, soedarsono to continue with the design. Soedarsono incorporated the numbers 17,8 and 45, representing the 17 August 1945 Proclamation of Indonesian Independence, the construction of Monas proceeded in three stages. The first period, from 1961/1962–1964/1965 began with the start of construction on 17 August 1961 with Sukarno ceremonially driving in the first concrete pile. A total of 284 piles were used for the foundation block, a further 360 piles were driven in for the museum foundations, with work being completed in March 1962. The walls of the museum in the base were completed by October, construction of the obelisk then commenced and was finished in August 1963. Work in the stage, from 1966 to 1968, was delayed by shortages of funding. In the final phase, from 1969–1976, the dioramas for the museum were added. Problems remained once construction was complete, and work was needed to solve problems with water leaking into the museum, Monas was officially opened to the public on 12 July 1975
5.
Majapahit
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The Majapahit Empire was a vast thalassocracy based on the island of Java from 1293 to around 1500. Majapahit reached its peak of glory during the era of Hayam Wuruk and his achievement is also credited to his prime minister, Gajah Mada. Its influence extended beyond the territory of Indonesia and has been the subject of many studies. The name Majapahit derives from local Javanese, meaning bitter maja, german orientalist Berthold Laufer suggested that maja came from the Javanese name of Aegle marmelos, an Indonesian tree. The name originally referred to the area in and around Trowulan, the cradle of Majapahit and it was said that the workers clearing the Tarik timberland encountered some bael trees and consumed its bitter-tasting fruit that subsequently become the villages name. In ancient Java it is common to refer the kingdom with its capitals name, Majapahit is also known by other names, Wilwatikta, although sometimes the natives refer to their kingdom as Bhumi Jawa or Mandala Jawa instead. Little physical evidence of Majapahit remains, and some details of the history are rather abstract, nevertheless, local Javanese people did not forget Majapahit completely, as Mojopait is mentioned vaguely in Babad Tanah Jawi, a Javanese chronicle composed in the 18th century. Majapahit did produce physical evidence, the ruins dating from the Majapahit period are clustered in the Trowulan area. The Trowulan archaeological site was discovered in the 19th century by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles and he reported the existence of ruins of temples. Scattered about the country for miles, and referred to Trowulan as this pride of Java. By the early 20th century, Dutch colonial historians began to study old Javanese and Balinese literature to explore the past of their colony, two primary sources were available to them, the Pararaton manuscript was written in the Kawi language c. 1600, and Nagarakretagama was composed in Old Javanese in 1365, Pararaton focuses on Ken Arok, the founder of Singhasari, but includes a number of shorter narrative fragments about the formation of Majapahit. The Nagarakretagama is an old Javanese epic poem written during the Majapahit golden age under the reign of Hayam Wuruk, the Dutch acquired the manuscript in 1894 during their military expedition against the Cakranegara royal house of Lombok. There are also inscriptions in Old Javanese and Chinese. The Javanese sources incorporate some poetic mythological elements, and scholars such as C. C, berg, an Indonesia-born Dutch naturalist, have considered the entire historical record to be not a record of the past, but a supernatural means by which the future can be determined. Most scholars do not accept this view, as the record corresponds with Chinese materials that could not have had similar intention. The list of rulers and details of the structure show no sign of being invented. The Chinese historical sources on Majapahit, mainly owed to Zheng Hes account — a Ming Dynasty admiral reports during his visit to Majapahit, Zheng Hes translator Ma Huan wrote a detailed description of Majapahit and where the king of Java lived
6.
Jakarta
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Jakarta /dʒəˈkɑːrtə/, officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta, is the capital and most populous city of the Republic of Indonesia. Located on the northwest coast of the worlds most populous island of Java, Jakarta is the economic, cultural and political centre. The official metropolitan area, known as Jabodetabek, is the second largest in the world, established in the fourth century, the city became an important trading port for the Kingdom of Sunda. It was the de facto capital of the Dutch East Indies, today, the city has continued as the capital of Indonesia since the countrys independence was declared in 1945. Jakarta is listed as a city in the 2012 Globalization and World Cities Study Group. Based on the global metro monitor by the Brookings Institution, in 2014, Jakarta has grown more rapidly than Kuala Lumpur, Beijing, and Bangkok. Jakarta has been home to multiple settlements along with their names, Sunda Kelapa, Jayakarta, Batavia, Djakarta. Its current name derives from the word Jayakarta, the origins of this word can be traced to the Old Javanese and ultimately to the Sanskrit language. Jayakarta translates as victorious deed, complete act, or complete victory, Jakarta is nicknamed the Big Durian, the thorny strongly-odored fruit native to the region, as the city is seen as the Indonesian equivalent of the US city of New York. In the colonial era, the city was known as Koningin van het Oosten, initially in the 17th century for the urban beauty of downtown Batavias canals, mansions. After expanding to the south in the 19th century, this came to be more associated with the suburbs, with their wide lanes, many green spaces. The area in and around modern Jakarta was part of the fourth century Sundanese kingdom of Tarumanagara, following the decline of Tarumanagara, its territories, including the Jakarta area, became part of the Hindu Kingdom of Sunda. From 7th to early 13th century port of Sunda was within the sphere of influence of the Srivijaya maritime empire. According to the Chinese source, Chu-fan-chi, written circa 1225, Chou Ju-kua reported in the early 13th century Srivijaya still ruled Sumatra, the source reports the port of Sunda as strategic and thriving, pepper from Sunda being among the best in quality. The people worked in agriculture and their houses were built on wooden piles, the harbour area became known as Sunda Kelapa and by the fourteenth century, it was a major trading port for Sunda kingdom. The first European fleet, four Portuguese ships from Malacca, arrived in 1513 when the Portuguese were looking for a route for spices, in 1527, Fatahillah, a Javanese general from Demak attacked and conquered Sunda Kelapa, driving out the Portuguese. Sunda Kelapa was renamed Jayakarta, and became a fiefdom of the Sultanate of Banten which became a major Southeast Asia trading centre, through the relationship with Prince Jayawikarta from the Sultanate of Banten, Dutch ships arrived in Jayakarta in 1596. In 1602, the English East India Companys first voyage, commanded by Sir James Lancaster, arrived in Aceh and this site became the centre of English trade in Indonesia until 1682
