Voluntary participation, state involvement: Indonesian propaganda in the struggle for maintaining independence, 1945-1949

After the Japanese occupation (1942-1945), the Indonesian archipelago experienced an unprecedented struggle: the Dutch-Indonesian conflict of 1945-1949, also known as the Indonesian Revolution, or the Indonesian War of Independence. This study examines how the leadership of the Republic of Indonesia conceived and organized their political propaganda during the Indonesian revolution, and how the impact and significance of this propaganda can be evaluated. It discusses how this propaganda effort affected, positively and negatively, the objective of achieving and preserving the independence of a nation-state in the making. I focus on the ideas and practices of Indonesian propaganda: the forms of media and communication, state and non-state institutions and key actors involved, and the outreach and reception of propaganda by diverse national, and, as far as is relevant to the Indonesian Revolution, international audiences. The Republic’s own propaganda was also significantly bolstered by foreigners, including, among those of other nationalities, Arabs, Australians, and a few Dutch who sympathized with the Indonesian cause. This study challenges the idea suggested by most studies on propaganda that the success of a political propaganda campaign depends on the existence of a centralized authority, total control over the most advanced communication media, state-led outright censorship and professional propagandists. This study proposes that propaganda could be also based on cooperation between the newly-born state and its own citizens, and on the willingness of the people to voluntarily help the state’s propaganda efforts.