Today, we celebrate the National Awakening Day and remember those who helped us win our ultimate freedom from Dutch colonial rule.

During Indonesia's independence war (1945-49), international diplomacy was as important as military action. The United Nations Security Council played a prominent role here. Ukraine, in the person of its permanent ambassador to the UN, Dmitry Manuilsky (1883-1959; in office 1945-1952), made a significant contribution.

It was Manuilsky who first brought the "Indonesian Question" to the attention of the Council on Jan. 21, 1946, denouncing Dutch attempts to reestablish their colonial empire as a threat to world peace. This opened the door to discussions on Indonesia’s future.

In response, President Sukarno declared Feb. 4, 1946 a day of public thanks for Ukraine and a special parade was held in the then Republican capital, Yogyakarta, to celebrate Kyiv’s support. Following the second Dutch “Police Action” (Dec. 19, 1948)—what would now be termed a “Special Military Operation” pace Vladimir Putin—Ukraine, then a non-permanent member of the Security Council (1948-49), again played a leading role.

In quick succession, it introduced two Security Council resolutions on Dec. 24 and 28, 1948, the first demanding that the Dutch immediately halt their military aggression, and the second requiring them to free the Republican leaders whom they had arrested. These initiatives opened the way for other UN member states, most prominently the United States, to sponsor the key Jan. 28, 1949 Security Council Resolution which established the United Nations Commission for Indonesia (UNCI).

This, combined with heavy financial sanctions, including the threatened withdrawal of Marshall Plan Aid, forced the Netherlands to negotiate. Recognition of Indonesian independence (Nov. 2, 1949) and the transfer of power (Dec. 27, 1949) speedily followed.   

In memory of those historic events, when Ukraine itself is now engaged in an epic existential struggle against its former hegemon, Russia, a struggle with many parallels to Indonesia’s own independence war against its erstwhile colonial power (one thinks of the Dutch attempt to strangle the Indonesian Republic by the establishment of pro-Dutch puppet states along the lines of Russia’s statelets in Donbas), I have taken a series of reflections on Ukraine’s historical experience by the contemporary Ukrainian poet, Andrij Bondar, and transposed them into an Indonesian context.

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