How much Dutch inheritance debt did Sri Mulyani have? All pages

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com – The Minister of Finance (Menkeu), Sri Mulyani Indrawati, said that Indonesia faced difficult conditions even from the time of independence.

According to the former managing director of the World Bank, independent Indonesia was not in a stable economic situation. This is because the Netherlands itself only recognized Indonesian independence in the 1949s.

“So from 1945 to 1949 Indonesia was still in a situation of Dutch intimidation, confrontation and even aggression. Those political, military, security and economic conditions were uncertain,” Sri Mulyani said some time ago.

“Our economy has a legacy, not just a damaged economy, but also the debt of the colonial government,” he continued.

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Quoting the news Kompas Daily, On December 27, 1985, the debt inherited by the Dutch East Indies was one of the high prices that the Indonesian government had to pay to obtain the recognition of sovereignty from the former colonial power.

Despite proclaiming its independence on August 17, 1945, Indonesia de facto dry Y de jure It only obtained sovereign state status after the agreement of the Round Table Conference (KMB) in 1949.

There were 3 delegates who negotiated at the UN facilitated KMB, namely the Indonesian delegation, the Netherlands delegation and the United States Republic (RIS) delegation.

At the KMB, the Indonesian delegation was led by M. Hatta and M. Roem as representatives. The Indonesian delegation consists of several committees chaired by Prof. Supomo, Dr. Juanda, Dr. Leimena and Dr. Ali Sastroamidjojo.

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Meanwhile, the Dutch delegation also had several committees headed by the Minister of the Sea Sebrang Region, Van Maarseveen. Next is delegation Federalis / Federal Consultation Meeting (BFO) is a committee established by the Netherlands to administer the Republic of the United States of Indonesia (RIS).

This delegation was led by Sultan Hamid, who was a KNIL officer and also the eldest son of the 6th Sultan of Pontianak.

At the KMB, the agreement on who should assume the debt of the Dutch East Indies became one of the most difficult points of debate to fulfill.

This considering that the debt of the Dutch government that remained in the Dutch East Indies was very large. The increase in the debt of the Dutch Indies was due to the large expenses that the Dutch had to pay to carry out two military attacks.

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The Dutch delegation was ready to acknowledge the sovereignty of Indonesia with a note that Indonesia had to assume debts from the era of the Dutch East Indies government until the transfer of sovereignty.

On the other hand, the Indonesian side only wanted to assume the debt of the Dutch East Indies until March 1942, or the end of the era of the Dutch East Indies after the arrival of the Japanese. So that you do not carry debts derived from the war expenses during the Dutch military aggression.

The Indonesian delegation itself was eventually forced to agree to pay part of the debt left by the Netherlands on behalf of the Dutch East Indies, which amounted to 4.3 billion guilders or the equivalent of 1.13 billion dollars. Americans at that time to obtain recognition of sovereignty from the Netherlands.

In other words, by assuming this debt, the government of the Republic of Indonesia indirectly admitted that it was forced to finance the war waged by the Dutch to re-colonize Indonesia.

Aside from the debt problem, another economic agreement in the KMB is that Indonesia must obtain Dutch approval to nationalize Dutch companies in Indonesia.

Indonesia must also support 17,000 employees of Dutch companies during the next two years after the KMB.

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