VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Today in History over RRI World Service -Voice of Indonesia. We start from an event on August 23, 1939, when Germany and Soviet Union signed agreement not to attack each other.

On August 23, 1939, Germany and Soviet Union agreed to make Non-Aggression Treaty not to attack each other. The treaty was signed by foreign affairs minister of the two countries. This shocked the world because powerfully, the two countries competed. After Nazi invaded Czechoslovakia, England affirmed its position to face invasion of Nazi. Prime minister of Neville Chamberlain at that time also declared its concern that Poland was being threatened by Invasion of Nazi. England felt obliged to assist Poland to avoid from Nazi. Thus, the only power, which was considered to be able to counterbalance Germany, was Soviet Union. Unfortunately, Hitler read this purpose and rushed to close Stalin until the Non-Aggression Treaty between the two countries was formed. But Germany violated the treaty by launching Barbarosa Operation on June 21st, 1941 to invade Russia.

The next event was in 1945, when the establishment of People’s Security Agency became the forerunner of the Indonesian Military.

President Soekarno officially announced the establishment of People’s Security Agency on August 23rd, 1945. The establishment of People’s Security Agency was alteration of the result of the session of the Preparatory Committee for Indonesian Independence on August 19, 1945 which before planning to establish National Army. The alteration was finally decided on August 22nd, 1945 not to establish national army. The leaders at that time chose to take diplomatic approach in a bid to get recognition on the independence which was just proclaimed. Through the government’s declaration on October 5th, 1945, People’s Security Agency was changed to be People’s Security Army and after experiencing several times alteration of name, finally it became Indonesian Military.

And the last event is that in 1949, Round Table Conference began to take place in The Hague, the Netherlands.

Round Table Conference was a meeting which was held in The Hague, the Netherlands from August 23rd until November 2nd, 1949 between representatives of Republic of Indonesia, the Netherlands and Bijeenkomst voor Federaal Overleg to represent some countries which were created by the Netherlands on Indonesia islands. The conference was a bright moment for Indonesian people to gain recognition of dignity from the Netherlands in a bid to solve conflict between Indonesia and the Netherlands. Indonesia tries to become an independent country from the invaders. The outcome of the conference was that the dignity from the Dutch colonial government had to be handed over to Republic of Indonesia, except Western Papua. Indonesia wanted all ex-regions of the East Indies to become Indonesian regions, while the Dutch wanted to make the Western Papua separated because of different ethnic. The conference was closed without concrete decision on it. Therefore, paragraph 2 mentioned that the Western Papua was not part of the handing over and the problem would be solved within one year.