The Total War Strategy: Challenges in Facing Traitor of the Nation: A Historical Approach During the Indonesian War of Independence

The Indonesian state implements a total defense system, meaning that it involves all the people and all national resources, national facilities and infrastructure, as well as the entire territory of the country as one defense unit. This system demands awareness of the rights and obligations of every citizen to defend the state as a manifestation of its totality. Efforts to raise awareness of defending the state for every citizen are a formidable challenge, recorded in Indonesian history as inseparable from attempts to betray the nation's struggle. Based on this phenomenon, the writer is moved to reveal several historical events during the war for independence in 1945-1949 which recorded the existence of certain people and groups who became traitors to the nation. The discussion in this article uses a qualitative research method using a historical approach, in which the preparation procedure goes through four stages, namely: heuristics, criticism, interpretation, and historiography. The data analysis used is historical analysis, with an emphasis on sharpness in interpreting historical facts. From the analysis conducted, it can be proven that during the war for independence in 1945-1949, the implementation of the total war strategy, which should have received the support of all the people, actually faced quite a tough challenge. This challenge was caused by the existence of certain people and groups who defected to side with the Netherlands, either by joining forces formed by the Netherlands or as spies for the Netherlands. Of course, this is very contrary to the values of state defense that must be possessed by every citizen.

An Empire Fit for God’s Kingdom

Chapter 10 examines Franklin’s experience in London during Pennsylvania’s charter crisis of the 1750s, which positioned him to be the chief negotiator in London for American interests during the run up to the War for Independence. His politics were by no means simple since he admired the British constitution, the monarchy, and the British Empire. But the treatment he received in London turned him into a patriot and brought him home to assist the Continental Congress. Still, Franklin’s partiality to the British and his own desires to extend American influence westward made him congenial to Protestants who began to cooperate more consistently during the war and then after established ecumenical and missionary organizations to bring civilization to the American frontier.

Democratization and Peacebuilding

Major peacebuilding missions seek not only to end wars but also to build institutions for democratic governance. But while peacebuilding is often successful in ending wars, it rarely leads to democratic postwar regimes. Only two host countries of major peacebuilding missions since 1989 became liberal democracies, and only seven met the more lenient standard of electoral democracies. Elites in postwar countries rarely demand democracy because the adoption costs are too high. Democratization is often perceived as a security risk, and as a threat to the prevailing patronage system on which political elites in many postwar countries rely. Adoption costs are low only when democratization is linked to a war for independence or when democracy is seen as a way out of a stalemate. Peacebuilders rarely use their leverage over local elites in order to push for democratic reforms because they prioritize stability over democratic reforms, Also, they depend on local elites for carrying out their programs and very rarely apply conditionality. As a result, democratization within peacebuilding mission rarely leads to more democratic regimes.

The Total War Strategy: Challenges in Facing Traitor of the Nation: A Historical Approach During the Indonesian War of Independence

The Indonesian state implements a total defense system, meaning that it involves all the people and all national resources, national facilities and infrastructure, as well as the entire territory of the country as one defense unit. This system demands awareness of the rights and obligations of every citizen to defend the state as a manifestation of its totality. Efforts to raise awareness of defending the state for every citizen are a formidable challenge, recorded in Indonesian history as inseparable from attempts to betray the nation's struggle. Based on this phenomenon, the writer is moved to reveal several historical events during the war for independence in 1945-1949 which recorded the existence of certain people and groups who became traitors to the nation. The discussion in this article uses a qualitative research method using a historical approach, in which the preparation procedure goes through four stages, namely: heuristics, criticism, interpretation, and historiography. The data analysis used is historical analysis, with an emphasis on sharpness in interpreting historical facts. From the analysis conducted, it can be proven that during the war for independence in 1945-1949, the implementation of the total war strategy, which should have received the support of all the people, actually faced quite a tough challenge. This challenge was caused by the existence of certain people and groups who defected to side with the Netherlands, either by joining forces formed by the Netherlands or as spies for the Netherlands. Of course, this is very contrary to the values of state defense that must be possessed by every citizen.

The Personal Ambitions of a National Hero

The purpose of this essay was to put the Scottish king and war hero, Robert the Bruce on trial based on the model of the Ted-Ed miniseries ‘History on Trial’. The overarching argument is explored through a dialogue between the prosecutor and defendant of Robert and centres on how Robert Bruce should be remembered; either a Scottish nobleman fueled by personal ambition or a good, strong-willed king who did what was best for his kingdom and people. Both sides present evidence surrounding Bruce’s dedication to his personal ambition to becoming king which included murder and is contrasted by the clemency he should to his rivals/enemies upon becoming king. This leads to a critical approach on the nature of Robert’s loyalty during the early period of Scottish War for Independence and his later uncompromising drive to see Scotland become independent. The nature of how Robert achieved independence is also brought under scrutiny with the suffering he brought to the English and Irish populations. Concluding remarks on Robert’s verdict express the difficult nature of how to accurately remember national heroes and in ensuring a balance between the good and bad sides of them.

“How Lucky Were the Blond Kabyles”

Chapter 5 tackles the issues of race and racism as they relate to the October 17 massacre itself, the way it was documented in police archives, and the anarchive. When read for its representations of race and racism, the anarchive produces a transhistorical discourse that is as instructive in its moments of ambivalence as it is in its most pointed critiques. The chapter begins with a discussion of the difficulties of talking about race in a French context, and then goes on to excavate discourses of race and racism as they have been produced, implicitly or explicitly, in over 50 years’ worth of cultural productions, ranging from documentary and feature film to historical and graphic novels. In each section, cultural productions are read against their specific micro-historical context, conditions of publication or production, and other epiphenomena. At stake in reading race in the anarchive is a process of “race-ing” October 17, that is, of understanding the repression as not simply an inevitable skirmish in a war for independence, but as the fallout of a colonial ideology invested, tacitly but profoundly, in a racialized worldview.

Introduction

The introduction provides critical information on the history and stakes of the October 17 massacre, situating it within the context of the Algerian War for Independence and the French imperial project more generally. It is invested in tracing the evolution of the massacre’s representation in political, popular, and scholarly discourse, and in exploring the ways in which the massacre has been rendered both visible and invisible. Comparisons with Vichy (briefly) and with another episode of state violence (the 1962 police murder of protesters at the Charonne subway station) help to contextualize October 17’s ambivalent status in the French national narrative. Arguing that October 17 should be read as a signal event whose putative invisibility has been both metaphorical and a result of historical conjuncture, the introduction also lays out the book’s critical commitments, surveys the landscape of existing scholarship, and establishes the concept of the anarchive.