An amazing article that clearly shows the destructive ongoing effects of colonialism.
The reality of colonialism, its goals and its methods, is well-known
by most people. During colonial times the European countries used brute
military force to subjugate peoples in usually faraway lands,
predominantly Asia and Africa, and then organized these lands for the
purpose of exploitation. The role of the colonized land became to
provide cheap raw materials to the industries of the colonial nation,
and to serve as a market for the end products of these industries.
The era of colonialism ended during the 1960’s, as in the West the
view that colonialism was morally unacceptable became public opinion and
as in the colonized lands resistance against the foreign occupiers
strengthened. Independence followed for most of the colonized nations.
Ever since, however, not much has changed for most people in the
formerly colonized world. They have remained poor as the wealth of their
lands has continued to flow towards the West, instead of towards them.
Therefore today most people in the formerly colonized world realize
that “independence” has merely meant the substitution of colonialism for
what is now known as neo-colonialism. Under colonialism they had been
physically occupied for the purpose of exploitation. Independence had
removed the physically occupation, but the exploitation remained –
neo-colonialism.
So that neo-colonialism exists is clear to most people, because it
can be seen and felt around the formerly colonized world. But how
exactly neo-colonialism works, how the West can maintain exploitation of
the formerly colonized world without a physical occupation remains a
mystery to many. An analysis of the post-colonial history of Indonesia
provides important insight into this matter.
“Independence” for Indonesia
Resource rich, the lands of South-East Asia became a target for the
Europeans as soon as they realized their existence. Great-Britain ended
up occupying what is today Malaysia and Singapore. The lands that make
up the Philippines went from the Dutch to the British to the Spaniards
before ending up in the hands of the Americans. And Indonesia consists
of the lands that remained occupied by the Dutch throughout the era of
colonialism.
World War II saw The Netherlands coming under the control of Germany
(1940 – 1945) and its colony Indonesia coming under the control of the
Japanese (1942 – 1945). This greatly helped the Indonesian nationalist
movement headed by Sukarno and Mohammed Hatta, as the Japanese saw for
Indonesia a future as a client-state in the then still to be formed
Japanese Empire in South-East Asia. The Japanese therefore actively
supported the nationalist movement on the main Indonesian island of
Java, to the extent that they even provided military training to
Indonesian youth in preparation of a national army for Indonesia.
The eventual Japanese surrender in World War II on, August 15 of
1945, caused a temporary power vacuum in Indonesia because at that time
the Dutch, who had been liberated from German occupation on May 5 of
1945, had not yet reorganized their colonial occupation of Indonesia.
Sukarno and Hatta set out to make use of this power vacuum. They quickly
organized the preparation of a Declaration of Independence on the day
following the Japanese surrender. And then had this read out loud on
August 17, marking Indonesia’s claim to independence.
But the Dutch had different plans for Indonesia. The Dutch economy
was thoroughly destroyed by the war and the plan was to exploit
Indonesia as much as possible in order to pay for the recovery. So the
Dutch organized an army and sent it to Indonesia to suppress the
independence movement.
But the war between the Dutch and the Indonesian freedom fighters
dragged on, without any side developing a clear advantage over the
other. Until, one day, the Americans intervened. Under the Marshall plan
the Dutch were receiving large loans from America to finance the
post-war restoration of the country. America therefore threatened the
Dutch that unless they halted their efforts to bring Indonesia back
under their control, the Marshall aid would be stopped
[1].
This left the Dutch with no choice but to accept Indonesian
independence. And following long negotiations, in 1949 the Dutch finally
recognized Indonesia’s independence.
Indonesia’s post-Independence economic history – the Sukarno era
Economically, Indonesia was in a poor state following independence.
For one, during colonialism the Dutch had systematically under-invested
in the Indonesian economy. Because the aim of the Dutch was never to
develop Indonesia but to exploit it, so any Dutch investment in
Indonesia was to make this exploitation more efficient and effective. By
the start of World War II in 1940, Indonesia had still seen only very
little industrialization. World War II took an additional toll on
Indonesia’s economy, and as a consequence by 1945 average Indonesian
income is estimated to have been not much more than 100 USD
annualy [2].
The Americans then placed an additional burden on Indonesia when, as
part of the terms of the Round Table agreement between Indonesia and
Dutch which the Americans brokered, they forced it to pay the Dutch for
independence – 4.3 billion guilders to be exact, and using the gold
price as a base this is worth around 150 billion in today’s dollars
[3].In
addition, the terms of the Round Table agreement stipulated that the
Dutch would maintain control over all “modern” sections of Indonesia’s
economy, such as industry, mining, plantations, finance and banking, and
large scale international trade
[4].
This caused the establishment of a “dual economy” in Indonesia, in
which the Dutch and Chinese Indonesians controlled the most important
and profitable sectors of the economy, with little to no participation
of other Indonesians. The new Indonesian government controlled only
small scale farming and handcraft, which, due to the usage of outdated
modes of production, was barely profitable
[5]. Little to no change compared to the times of colonialism, therefore.
In the immediate aftermath of independence one of the main goals of
the economic policy of the new Indonesian state was to address this
issue and “Indonesianize” the nation’s economy. But because there was no
clear understanding of how this was to be achieved, most attempts at it
failed. Most of the time because proposed and executed plans turned out
to be bad ideas. But very often also because of government incompetence
and corruption – how a familiar story.
So by the late 1950’s, little to nothing of this Indonesianization
was achieved. Indonesia had only became more indebted internationally,
as foreigners doing business in Indonesia avoided paying taxes and the
native Indonesians were too poor to pay tax. This caused the Indonesian
economy to remain in shambles throughout the 1950’s, with inflation
running as high as 30% annually. In the 1960’s things got even worse, as
hyperinflation appeared destroying whatever was left of the national
economy
[6].
This failure to achieve any improvement in the economic situation of
Indonesia in the first decade following colonialism had two important
consequences. Firstly, it turned political attention away from a
liberal, capitalist oriented economic development program to plans more
inspired by communism / socialism. For instance, following the examples
set by the Soviet Union and China, in 1955 Indonesia too presented a
“five year plan”. Secondly, it motivated the Indonesian government to
confiscate and nationalize foreign interests in Indonesia. Starting in
1957 Dutch interests in Indonesia were seized and nationalized. Starting
in 1963 British firms were nationalized. And starting in 1964 American
firms as well. Ultimately, in 1965 foreign investment in Indonesia was
completely disallowed with the repeal of the Foreign Investment Law of
1958. The ultimate consequences of these steps remain with us today.
Indonesia’s post-Independence economic history – the Suharto era
This was too much to bear for the Americans. During the height of the
Cold War Indonesia’s flirt with communism could not be accepted, and
neither could the seizure of American firms. So they began organizing
“change” in Indonesia.
Neville Maxwell, a Senior Research Officer of the Institute of
Commonwealth Studies, Oxford University, had the following to say on
what happened: “A few years ago I was researching in Pakistan into the
diplomatic background of the 1965 Indo-Pakistan conflict, and in foreign
ministry papers to which I had been given access came across a letter
to the then foreign minister, Mr. Bhutto, from one of his ambassadors in
Europe (I believe Mr. J.A. Rahim, in Paris) reporting a conversation
with a Dutch intelligence officer with NATO. According to my note of
that letter, the officer had remarked to the Pakistani diplomat that
Indonesia was ‘ready to fall into the Western lap like a rotten apple’.
Western intelligence agencies, he said, would organize a ‘premature
communist coup … [which would be] foredoomed to fail, providing a
legitimate and welcome opportunity to the army to crush the communists
and make Sukarno a prisoner of the army’s goodwill’. The ambassador’s
report was dated December 1964.”
[7]
Tim Weiner in his Pulitzer price winning book “Legacy of Ashes: The
history of the CIA” explains how this plan was organized: “(The CIA) had
precisely one well-situated agent: Adam Malik, a fortyeight-year- old
disillusioned ex-Marxist who had served as Sukarno’s ambassador to
Moscow and his minister of trade. After a permanent falling-out with his
president in 1964, Malik had met up with the CIA’s Clyde McAvoy at a
Jakarta safe house. (…) ‘I recruited and ran Adam Malik’, McAvoy said in
an interview in 2005. ‘He was the highest-ranking Indonesian we ever
recruited’. (…) Then, in a few terrifying weeks in October 1965, the
Indonesian state split in two. The CIA worked to consolidate a shadow
government, a troika composed of Adam Malik, the ruling sultan of
central Java, and an army major general named Suharto. Malik used his
relationship with the CIA to set up a series of secret meetings with the
new American ambassador in Indonesia , Marshall Green. The ambassador
said he met Adam Malik ‘in a clandestine setting’ and obtained ‘a very
clear idea of what Suharto thought and what Malik thought and what they
were proposing to do’ to rid Indonesia of communism through the new
political movement they led, the Kap-Gestapu. ‘I ordered that all 14 of
the walkie-talkies we had in the Embassy for emergency communications be
handed over to Suharto’, Ambassador Green said. ‘This provided
additional internal security for him and his own top officers’ – and a
way for the CIA to monitor what they were doing.”
General Suharto then sent his soldiers to arrest the leaders of the
Indonesian Army, and had them killed. He blamed the killing on the
communists in Indonesia, and used this as an excuse to eventually push
aside president Suharto and take power for himself. He then proceeded
with killing Indonesian communist leaders using a list of names provided
by the American embassy
[8],
as well as hundreds of thousands of other suspected communists
throughout Indonesia. Ambassador Green later told then American Vice
President Hubert H. Humphrey that “300,000 to 400,000 people were slain”
in “a blood bath”
[9].
And speaking in Australia in 1973 he said: “What we did we had to do,
and you’d better be glad we did because if we hadn’t Asia would be a
different place today”.
[10]
One of the first acts of general Suharto following his grab of power
was to send a team of economists to a conference held in Geneva,
Switzerland, named “Indonesian Investment Conference: To aid in the
rebuilding of a nation”. The conference was organized by Time Life
Corporation of America and, in addition to the Indonesian economists,
was attended by representatives of mostly American multinational
corporations. Professor Jeffrey Winters of Northwestern University in
Chicago studied the conference papers and described the proceedings at
the conference in the following manner: “
They divided up into five
different sections: mining in one room, services in another, light
industry in another, banking and finance in another. And what Chase
Manhattan did was sit with a delegation and hammer out policies that
were going to be acceptable to them and other investors. You had these
big corporate people going round the table, saying ‘this is what we
need: this, this and this’; and they basically designed the legal
infrastructure for investment in Indonesia. I’ve never heard of a
situation like this where global capital sits down with the
representatives of a supposedly sovereign state and hammers out the
conditions of their own entry into that country.”
[11]
In 1967 the demands of international business were translated into law
by Suharto through the passing of the “Law regarding Foreign
Investment”.
Indonesia’s post-Independence economic history – the “Reformasi” era
Suharto ruled Indonesia with an iron fist until in 1998 America decided it was time for “democratic change”.
Ever since the situation has only worsened for Indonesia. In 2007 the
democratically elected government of Indonesia adjusted Suharto’s “Law
regarding Foreign Investment” from 1967 by lowering income tax on
earnings from Foreign Investment in Indonesia, exempting Foreign
Investment in Indonesia from VAT, and extending the maximum term on land
leases (very important in mining and oil & gas operations) from 70
to 95 years.
In 2010, eventually, the democratically elected government of
Indonesia introduced a completely new legislation for Foreign Investment
in Indonesia replacing the 1967 law, regarding which the American
government had the following to say: “
An updated Overseas Private Investment Corporation investment agreement that better serves the needs of U.S. businesses was signed [with Indonesia]
in April 2010. This agreement replaced a 1967 agreement”
[12].
Since1967, in other words, America has consistently been writing the
Indonesian laws regarding Foreign Investment in Indonesia, ensuring it
meets her interests perfectly.
The outcome – America’s benefit, Indonesia’s loss
Although it is well known that Indonesia is “resource rich”, the
massiveness of the Indonesian mineral wealth is often underestimated.
The country produces close to 1 million barrels of oil per day; around
72,000 million cubic meters of natural gas per year; around 360 million
short tons of coal per year; around 65,000 kilos of gold per year;
around 610,000 metric tons of copper per year; and around 200,000 metric
tons of nickel per year.
|
Mineral
|
Unit of Measure
|
Quantity
|
Price
|
Value
|
|
Oil
|
barrels per day
|
946,090
|
$80
|
$27,625,828,000
|
|
Gas
|
cubic meter
|
72,406,000,000
|
$0.50
|
$36,203,000,000
|
|
Coal
|
short ton
|
332,372,000
|
$60
|
$19,942,320,000
|
|
Gold
|
kilogram
|
65,000
|
$39,000
|
$2,535,000,000
|
|
Copper
|
metric ton
|
610,000
|
$7,700
|
$4,697,000,000
|
|
Nickel
|
metric ton
|
202,800
|
$20,900
|
$4,238,520,000
|
|
Total
|
|
|
|
$95,241,668,000
|
Using 2010 average prices, on international markets this is worth no
less than $95 billion. The oil production is worth around $27 billion
per year; the natural gas production is worth around $36 billion per
year; the coal production is worth around $20 billion per year; the gold
production is worth around $2.6 billion per year; the copper production
is worth around $5 billion per year; and the nickel production is worth
around $4 billion per year.
A review of the Indonesian State Budget for 2010 makes clear that
only a small part of this massive amount of wealth ends up at the
disposal of the Indonesian government. In the 2010 budget taxes on oil
& gas industry, levies on oil & gas, levies on mining and the
income from state owned enterprises totals just Rp171 trillion, namely,
or $19 billion. This is less than 20% of the mineral wealth produced.
|
2010 Indonesian State Budget
|
| Taxes on oil & gas industry |
Rp39,883
|
$4,532,125,000
|
| Levies on oil |
Rp75,646
|
$8,596,113,636
|
| Levies on gas |
Rp25,614
|
$2,910,625,000
|
| Levies on mining |
Rp7,116
|
$808,590,909
|
| Income from state owned companies |
Rp23,005
|
$2,614,204,545
|
| Total |
Rp171,263
|
$19,461,659,091
|
The remaining $76 billion is pocketed by foreign companies, most of
whom American. This is roughly 8% of 2010 Indonesian GDP. Repatriation
of profits resulting from Foreign Investment in Indonesia is also tax
free, it must be noted.
|
Industry
|
Main players |
|
Oil
|
Texaco (US), Chevron (US), Total (France), CNOOC (China)
|
|
Gas
|
ExxonMobil (US), HUFFCO Group (US), Total (France)
|
|
Coal
|
Bakrie Group (Indonesia)
|
|
Gold
|
Freeport (US), Newmont (US), Aurora Gold (Australia)
|
|
Copper
|
Freeport (US), Newmont (US)
|
|
Nickel
|
Inco (Canada), Sumitomo Metal Mining (Japan)
|
Contemporary economic research into colonialism indicates that during
the height of British rule over India, the British “drained” around 1%
of Indian GDP and repatriated it back home. The Dutch drained between 8 –
10% of Indonesian GDP
[13].
These figures make clear that from an economic perspective at least,
independence has failed to achieve any meaningful improvement to the
situation of Indonesia. Economically, Indonesia is as if colonized
still.
Idries De Vries is an international
management consultant, and an international speaker and author of
several publications on geopolitical, economic and Islamic affairs. He
is also a guest contributor for New Civilisation.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect New Civilisation’s editorial policy.
[7] “Killing Hope: US Military and CIA interventions since World War II”, William Blum.
[8] “Legacy of Ashes: The history of the CIA”, Tim Weiner.
[11] “The New Rulers of the World”, John Pilger.
