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Hasjim Djalal, the consummate diplomat who tripled Indonesia’s territorial size
Leading the Indonesian delegation at UNCLOS, Hasjim fought vehemently to ensure Indonesia gain control over the maritime territory connecting all its islands.
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Hasjim Djalal is pictured in this undated file photo. (Tempo/File)
W
hen Indonesia declared independence shortly after World War II ended in 1945, its territory covered about 2 million square kilometers, which is the total land size of the thousands of islands of the former Dutch East Indies. It was not until the Djuanda Declaration in 1957 that Indonesia started claiming sovereignty over the waters between these islands.
But if its independence as a sovereign country was not recognized by the United Nations until 1949 following four years of bloody war with the Dutch, Indonesia’s maritime claim over what previously were regarded as international waters gained global recognition only in 1982 following the adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
Overnight, Indonesia’s territory tripled in size to nearly 6 million square kilometers, 70 percent of which comprised water. This too came after years of struggle, not with the use of arms, but through words and persuasion, the chief weapons of diplomacy.
Much of the credit for writing the archipelagic state concept into UNCLOS must go to Hasjim Djalal, Indonesia’s quintessential diplomat, who passed away on Sunday, at the age of 90. Deservedly, he was buried in Jakarta’s Kalibata Heroes Cemetery on Monday, with Foreign Minister Sugiono leading the funeral ceremony.
Leading the Indonesian delegation at UNCLOS, Hasjim fought vehemently to ensure Indonesia gain control over the maritime territory connecting all its islands. As the world’s largest archipelagic nation, Indonesia had the most interest in fighting for such international recognition.
We can never underestimate the benefits from gaining archipelagic state status, or as Indonesians call it the Nusantara Concept. Besides securing greater unity between peoples living in the different islands and strengthening Indonesia’s border security, there are the huge economic benefits which the seas and the resources under them offer. We have barely scratched the surface of this potential.
Much literature on the subject credits Hasjim and the late Mochtar Kusumaatmadja, a law professor and foreign minister in 1978-1988, for Indonesia’s UNCLOS achievement. Of the two, Hasjim was the one with the necessary knowledge and expertise, with his doctoral degree on international maritime law, which he obtained from the University of Virginia.
