This thesis attempts to write about the history of the Federal Consultative Assembly, also known in Dutch as the 'Bijeenkomst Federaal Overleg' (BFO), an assembly of Indonesians striving for a...Show moreThis thesis attempts to write about the history of the Federal Consultative Assembly, also known in Dutch as the 'Bijeenkomst Federaal Overleg' (BFO), an assembly of Indonesians striving for a federal Indonesia. Their agency became important to Dutch and Republican powerbrokers during the Dutch-Indonesian war of 1945-1949. Historians, like George McT. Kahin, argue that these federal Indonesians were either Dutch puppets or political 'opportunists' and part of a Dutch divide and rule strategy to regain their former colony. The author of the thesis refutes such arguments. By analysing the BFO's agency during the conflict, it becomes apparent that they were not merely puppets or opportunists, but that their decisions to either coöperate with the Dutch or the Republic were largely based on the way the war developed. This meaning the violence used during the conflict, the exercission of control of powerbrokers over Indonesian territory and the expectations this created about who would remain in power in Indonesia in the future. It will be emphasized that their cooperation with either the Dutch or the Republic was mostly involuntary and depended on which powerbroker could keep them save from violent harm and could safeguard a future for them in the future indepedent Indonesian state.Show less
