Administration
The State of East Indonesia was divided into five regencies which were in turn divided into districts (afdeling) and subdistricts (onderafdeling), and administrative structure inherited from the Dutch. Within the residencies were 13 autonomous regions. These regions, listed in Article 14 of the Regulations for the Formation of the State of East Indonesia (Peratoeran Pembentoekan Negara Indonesia Timoer) were South Celebes, Minahasa, Sangihe and Talaoed, North Celebes, Central Celebes, Bali, Lombok, Soembawa, Flores, Soemba, Timor and surrounding islands, South Moluccas, and North Moluccas. The residencies were to be eliminated after the construction of functioning administration in the 13 regions.
Complicating this structure was the fact that
More than 75% of the State of East Indonesia comprised autonomous regions, in total 115 autonomous regional governments under the rule of rajas (swaprajas). The position of these autonomous governmental heads was regulated by what were called korte verklaring (short-term declarations) and lange kontrakten (long-term contracts); these were actually intended as a recognition by the Dutch Indies Government of the special position of the rajas, whose power to govern the autonomous regions was handed down from one generation to the next.
The Autonomous Region Regulation of 1938 gave the swaprajas wide de jure autonomy but most of the rajas were puppets of Dutch administrators. The State of East Indonesia sought to curtail the power of these regions. The Regulations for the Formation of the State of East Indonesia obliged the state to recognise the special status of the raja-ruled regions.
The remaining area of the state not part of the swaprajas comprised directly governed regions (rechtstreeks bestuurd gebied). Directly governed areas included Minahasa, the South Moluccas, Gorontalo, the districts of Macassar and Bonthain, and Lombok.
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