Amir Sjarifuddin - Dutch East Indies and Japanese Occupation

Dutch East Indies and Japanese Occupation

In 1937, towards the end of the Dutch period, Amir led a group of younger Marxists in the establishment of Gerindo ('Indonesian People's Movement'), a radical co-operating party opposed to international fascism as its primary enemy. The Soviet Union’s Dmitrov doctrine had called for a common front against fascism which helped swell the number of Indonesians taking a cooperative approach with regards to the Dutch colonial administration in an attempt to secure Indonesian independence. Gerindo was one of the more significant cooperative parties in the years leading to World War II whose objectives included a fully Indonesian legislature; It had modest goals in comparison to the Dutch-suppressed radical nationalists led by the likes of Sukarno and Hatta, who Sjarifuddin had met before the War. By 1940, Dutch intelligence suspected him of being involved with the Communist underground.

Having watched the increased strength and influence of Imperial Japan, Amir was one of a number of Indonesian leaders warned against the danger of fascism before the war. Prior to the Netherlands' invasion by Japan's ally Germany, the Netherlands Indies was a major exporter of raw materials to East Asia and to this end, Amir's groups had promoted boycotts against Japan. It is thought that his prominent role in these campaigns prompted the head of Dutch intelligence to provide Amir with 25,000 guilders in March 1942 to organise an underground resistance movement against Japan through his Marxist and nationalist connections. At this point, the Dutch colonial administration was crumbling against the Japanese onslaught and the top Dutch military fled Indonesia for Australia.

Upon their occupation of Indonesia, the Japanese enforced total suppression of any opposition to their rule. Most Indonesian leaders obliged either by becoming 'neutral observers' or by actively cooperating. Sjarifuddin was the only prominent Indonesian politician next to Sutan Sjahrir to organize active resistance. The Japanese arrested Sjarifuddin in 1943 and he escaped execution only due to intervention from Sukarno, whose popularity in Indonesia - and hence importance to the war effort - was recognised by the Japanese.