2020: a Year of Historical Significance
2020: a Year of Historical Significance Bambang Soemarwoto, Leiden, The Netherlands, 15 August 2020 (A shortened version is published as an op-ed in in the Jakarta Post on 15 August 2020, excluding the speech in the opening of THB/ITB on July 3, 1920, A year of historical significance - Opinion - The Jakarta Post ) On 17 August 1945, Soekarno-Hatta proclaimed the independence of a new nation state, the Republic of Indonesia. They did it on behalf of the peoples, the inhabitants of the vast archipelago, whose ancestors had lived in societies rich of cultures and knowledge. Independence from what? The preamble of the constitution of the new republic states "freedom is truly the right of all peoples, and therefore colonial domination throughout the world should be abolished, because it is contrary to the principles of humanitarianism and justice" (Mohammad Hatta’s translation in Journal Asian Survey, March 1965, pp. 139-143). Independence means freedom, that is free fro...