Merdeka down under

This thesis takes up current public debates in the Netherlands on the role played by the Dutch in the years following the 1945 Indonesian Proclamation. This research is done with special attention paid to the Dutch Indies military personnel who were withdrawn or escaped to Australia, a gap in the many debates and historical publications. The research conducted for this thesis made use of quantitative analysis and extensive qualitative analyses of archival materials from the Netherlands as well as from Australia, where the outcomes are described using a narrative-based approach. The key argument this thesis asserts is that the NEI High Command in Australia used their military justice system for the political repression of Indonesians, and this conflicted with Australia’s views regarding the legality of the Indonesians’ internment. The NEI Army high command incarcerated Indonesians to prevent them from returning to the Indonesian Republic to fight on the side of the independence movement. Although this political motivation was not widely proclaimed by the NEI Government-in-Exile and the Military High Command, it was often pronounced by Australians after the Asia-Pacific war.