Jawaban:

The Proclamation of Indonesian IndependenceThe proclamation of Indonesian independence was read at 10.00 a.m. on Friday, 17 August1945. The declaration marked the start of the diplomatic and armed resistance of the IndonesianNational Revolution, fighting against the forces of the Netherlands and pro-Dutch civilians, until thelatter officially acknowledged Indonesia's independence in 1949. In 2005, the Netherlands declaredthat they had decided to accept de facto 17 August 1945 as Indonesia's independence date. In a2013 interview the Indonesian historian Sukotjo, among others, asked the Dutch government toformally acknowledge the date of independence as 17 August 1945. The United Nations, whomediated in the conflict, formally acknowledge the date of independence as 27 December 1949.The document was signed by Sukarno (who signed his name "Soekarno" using the olderDutch orthography) and Mohammad Hatta, who were appointed president and vicepresidentrespectively the following day.The draft was prepared only a few hours earlier, on the night of 16 August, by Sukarno,Hatta, and Soebardjo, at Rear-Admiral Maeda (Minoru) Tadashi's house, Miyako-Doori 1, Jakarta(now the "Museum of the Declaration of Independence", JL. Imam Bonjol I, Jakarta). The originalIndonesian Declaration of Independence was typed by Sayuti Melik. Maeda himself was sleeping inhis room upstairs. He was agreeable to the idea of Indonesia's independence, and had lent his housefor the drafting of the declaration. Marshal Terauchi, the highest-ranking Japanese leader in SouthEast Asia and son of Prime Minister Terauchi Masatake, was however against Indonesia'sindependence, scheduled for 24 August.While the formal preparation of the declaration, and the official independence itself for thatmatter, had been carefully planned a few months earlier, the actual declaration date was broughtforward almost inadvertently as a consequence of the Japanese unconditional surrender to theAllies on 15 August following the Nagasaki atomic bombing. The historic event was triggered by aplot, led by a few more radical youth activists such as Adam Malik and Chairul Saleh, that's putpressure on Sukarno and Hatta to proclaim independence immediately. The declaration was to besigned by the 27 members of the Preparatory Committee for Indonesian Independence (PPKI)symbolically representing the new nation's diversity. The particular act was apparently inspired bya similar spirit of the United States Declaration of Independence. However, the idea was heavilyturned down by the radical activists mentioned earlier, arguing that the committee was too closelyassociated with then soon to be defunct Japanese occupation rule, thus creating a potentialcredibility issue. Instead, the radical activists demanded that the signatures of six of them were tobe put on the document. All parties involved in the historical moment finally agreed on acompromise solution which only included Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta as the cosigners in thename of the nation of Indonesia.Sukarno had initially wanted the declaration to be read at Ikada Plain, the large open field inthe centre of Jakarta, but due to unfounded widespread apprehension over the possibility ofJapanese sabotage, the venue was changed to Sukarno's house at Pegangsaan Timur 56. There wasno concrete evidence for the growing suspicions, as the Japanese had already surrendered to theAllies, the declaration of independence passed without a hitch.The proclamation at 56, Jalan Pegangsaan Timur, Jakarta, was heard throughout the countrybecause the text was secretly broadcast by Indonesian radio personnel using the transmitters of theJAKARTA Hoso Kyoku radio station. An English translation of the proclamation was broadcastoverseas.

Questions

1. Write the social function of the text above!

2. What happened on 17 August 1945?

3. What did the declaration mark?

4. Who led the plot of the historic event?