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6 J. Thomas Lindblad and Peter Post Private business in action Economic nationalism prescribed private economic activities to be conducted first and foremost by Indonesian nationals, which obviously represented a radical departure from the colonial economy with top positions reserved for Dutchmen. A key analytical tool to further our understanding of economic decolonization in Indonesia, therefore, is the concept of Indonesianisasi (‘Indonesianization’). This term was introduced into the academic literature by John Sutter in the late 1950s and defined as ‘a conscious effort to increase the participation and elevate the role of the Indonesian – and more particularly the “indigenous” Indonesian – in the more complex sectors of the economy’ (Sutter 1959:2; Lindblad 2002:52). This effort could assume many shapes, ranging from promotion of Indonesians into supervisory and management positions in private companies, to full-scale appropriation and nationalization of foreign-owned firms. Sutter and other contemporary writers viewed Indonesianisasi as a process of emancipation. Indonesians were to be liberated from Western, in particular Dutch, control of vital sectors of the economy. The Finec Agreement in 1949 included a loose commitment by remaining Dutch enterprises to increase participation of Indonesians in higher staff functions and eventually replace Dutchmen by Indonesian nationals. Throughout the 1950s, Indonesianisasi figured prominently in the public discourse about how to gain control over the nation’s economic resources and achieve economic decolonization. Indonesianisasi had a strong ideological component. It can be argued that it first emerged as an important driving force of Indonesian nationalism with the establishment of the Sarekat Islam in 1912, the first mass organization of the Indonesian nationalist movement. In the late 1920s, it gained momentum with the establishment of the Bandoeng Studieclub (Bandung Study Club) and the Persatoean Bangsa Indonesia, PBI (Indonesian People’s Association) of Dr Sutomo. By the second half of the 1930s, Indonesianisasi had evolved as an essential part of the ‘nationalist struggle’ for Independence. Initially, it was part of a movement aiming at a wider indigenous economic participation in the existing Dutch colonial economy, but later it was increasingly influenced by a more global discussion about the failure of Western capitalism to suit the needs of economic development in Indonesia. Its outlook became more socialist and anti-capitalist. Indonesianisasi also had an ethnic aspect. To many Indonesians it meant emancipation, not only from Dutch, but also from Chinese control of the economy. In particular this applied to control as exercised by ethnic Chinese (usually peranakan groups with roots in Indonesia), who maintained close relations with Dutch capital and were often seen as figureheads of Dutch capitalism. This became a highly complex matter in the 1950s, when officially
Indonesian economic decolonization in regional and international perspective 7 sanctioned discrimination of non-nationals could be construed as discrimination against those ethnic Chinese who had not unambiguously opted for Indonesian citizenship. The quest for Indonesianisasi offered opportunities for overt expressions of anti-Chinese sentiments, as demonstrated by the Assaat movement in 1956 and the infamous PP 10 (Peraturan Pemerintah, Government Regulation) in 1959, which barred ethnic Chinese from trading in the countryside. Some historians, including Bambang Purwanto in this volume, therefore tend to equate Indonesianisasi with pribumisasi (from pribumi, ‘indigenous’). Indonesianisasi or pribumisasi was not confined to the post-Independence period. In his contribution to this volume, Peter Post points out that economic decolonization started already in the late 1920s, when Japanese investment began to enter the Netherlands Indies. A Japan-oriented niche was created in the colonial economy that brought pribumi business groups in direct contact with Japanese industrial capital. Using the example of one leading pribumi entrepreneur of the time, Agoes Moesin Dasaad, Post demonstrates that private indigenous business interests managed to influence economic policies to a significant degree during the late 1940s and 1950s. The role of Japan in Indonesia’s economic decolonization was twofold. Japanese private capital offered unique opportunities for indigenous entrepreneurship during both the late colonial period and the Japanese occupation (March 1942-August 1945), which went against the very foundations of the Dutch colonial economy. In addition, as Post emphasizes, substantial financial support from the Japanese government to Indonesia materialized in December 1957, precisely at the time when the Dutch enterprises were taken over by local labour unions. There is still disagreement in the international literature whether or not the Sukarno government was involved in, or informed about, the takeovers beforehand (Gardner 1997; A. Kahin and G. Kahin 1995). In any case, the government must have felt so strengthened by the simultaneous agreement on Japanese war reparations and long-tem loans that it retroactively legitimized the actions of labour with great speed. Indonesianisasi implied competition as well as confrontation. Efforts to promote Indonesian traders at the expense of Dutch (and ethnic Chinese) rivals by means of positive discrimination failed dismally. The Indonesian government’s attempt to wrest control over interisland shipping from the fully Dutch-owned KPM (Koninklijke Paketvaart Maatschappij, Royal Packet Company) met with a similar fate, as is shown by Daan Marks in his application of an international comparative perspective. There is, however, evidence to the effect that indigenous Indonesian business did flourish in the 1950s, possibly even despite policies of positive discrimination (Lindblad 2004). Confrontations in private business became especially intense when the interests of foreign owners clashed with those of labour, locals or the
Page 1 and 2: indonesian economic decolonization
Page 3 and 4: VERHANDELINGEN VAN HET KONINKLIJK I
Page 5 and 6: Contents Abbreviations vii J. Thoma
Page 7 and 8: Abbreviations ALS ANRI AVROS BANAS
Page 9: Abbreviations ix SOEIMEX SPA STII S
Page 12 and 13: 2 J. Thomas Lindblad and Peter Post
Page 20 and 21: 10 J. Thomas Lindblad and Peter Pos

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