Year 1945: the kingdom of the Netherlands, the proclamation of the independence of the Republic of Indonesia (August 17, 1945) and the beginning of a new constitutionalism in Asia. A study on history of constitutionalism and decolonization

The Japanese saw themselves as liberators of the Asiatic peoples. As a Japan’s war aim, the establishment of the so-called Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere was to be understood as a decolonization and liberation of the East Asian peoples which were living under colonial rule. Against this background, in her Radio address made on December 6, 1942 Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands promised a conference at which a joint consultation would take place after the end of World War II about the structure of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and its parts in order to adapt it to post-war world. The plans of Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands comprised the creation of a commonwealth of the Netherlands, Indonesia, Surinam and Curaçao. In any case, any ideas on the constitution of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, including a dominion status for the Dutch East Indies, a federation between the Netherlands and Indonesia or the regulation of the relations of the Netherlands and Indonesia on the basis of equality of position, excluded any demand for complete independence. After the surrender of the Dutch troops to the Japanese on March 8, 1942, the liberation of the Dutch East Indies was never at the top of the list of American priorities. As the emerging leading power in the Pacific – supplanting the British – it is important, in this context, to know the attitude of the United States of America towards the political future of colonialism in general and the Dutch East Indies in particular. There was in the United States of America a widespread opinion unfavourable to colonialism. It seems that the American public opinion, besides the independence, did only accept a Dutch mandate under international law, excluding therefore the possibility of the East Indies continuing to be considered a part of the Netherlands. Against this background, it is worth to stress that both the Covenant of the League of Nations (1920) and the Charter of the United Nations (1945) foresee the independence of territories put under mandate. Unlike the Covenant of the League of Nations (1920), the Charter of the United Nations (1945) establishes that dependent territories could be voluntarily placed under mandate by states responsible for their administration. This means that colonial powers could, on a voluntary basis, place colonial territories under mandate. Consequently, the Charter of the United Nations (1945) ignores “… the staunch European opposition to trusteeship or any other formula which would challenge their sovereignty”. Not long after the Charter of the United Nations (1945) was drafted, a new balance of power unfavourable to colonial powers became evident. This was the beginning of an evolution that would eventually led to an important transformation of International Law: the decolonization as a new manifestation of the principle of self-determination of peoples adequated to regulate the access of colonial peoples to independence. Beginning in 1945, the Proclamation of the Independence of the Republic of Indonesia (August 17, 1945) can be considered the starting point of this transformation of International Law and praxis. Two days after Japans’s surrender (August 15, 1945), on August 17, 1945, Indonesian nationalist and independence activist Sukarno, in the name of the Indonesian people, proclaimed the independence of the Republic of Indonesia. The decision to proclaim Indonesia’s Independence taken by the nationalist leaders Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta and the following political course taken by the Indonesian Republic confirmed their desire of giving legal form to a pure Indonesian, Asiatic, non-Western Independence, that eventually did not contradict the spirit of the Japanese version of the principle “Asia for the Asians”. Anticolonialism and independence are to be considered expression of humanity and justice. Therefore, in the context of the so-called “Five Obligations” (Pantja Dharma) where the alliance with Japan occupies a central place, Indonesian Antiwesternism has its roots in the inhumanity and injustice of colonialism. In other words, against the background of European imperialism and colonialism, the Proclamation of Indonesia’s independence reveals the beginning of a new, Asiatic, eventually, Indonesian constitutionalism based on the principle “Asia for the Asians” with its Antiwesternism and Pan-Asiatic elements amalgamated by Indonesian nationalists during the period of Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies