Greater Indonesia () was an irredentist political concept that sought to bring the so-called Malay race together, by uniting the territories of the Dutch East Indies (and Portuguese Timor) with British Malaya and British Borneo. It was espoused by students and graduates of Sultan Idris Training College for Malay Teachers in the late 1920s, and individuals from Sumatra and Java, including Mohammad Natsir and Sukarno, on 28 September 1950. Indonesia Raya was adopted as the name of what later became the Indonesian national anthem in 1924.
While the definition of Greater Indonesia is consistent, the definition of Greater Malay () and the related concept of the Malay world and realm ( and ) varies, from being virtually synonymous with Greater Indonesia to a Peninsular-focused dominance.
Ancient and colonial maritime South East Asia The ancient concept of Nusantara advocates an historical awareness that the territory of British Malaya, British Borneo and the Dutch East Indies (approximately Maritime Southeast Asia) were once united, Especially when in 1824 AD the London Treaty place, the British and Dutch power exchange, when the Dutch colonial government replaced the British to rule in the Bengkulu-British Residency Area including the area Kepaksian Paksi Pak Sekala Brak in Batu Brak on the of Krui, Sumatra, under native empires such as Srivijaya, Majapahit, and the Sultanates of Malacca Sultanate, Johor Sultanate and various other kingdom in Borneo island. The existence of Srivijaya in the history of archipelagic Southeast Asia intersected with the land-based Javanese kingdom of Majapahit (c.1293–1520). The crossing of paths of the Srivijaya and Majapahit kingdoms, two historical centres of power in maritime Southeast Asia, appears to have resulted in the sort of power struggle that has defined international relations through the centuries. A recurring theme that has imposed itself on the historiography of the Indo-Malay Archipelago has been conflict born of the apprehension of peoples in the region concerning Javanese domination. Many other instances can be found to illustrate how the Majapahit court in Java sought to exercise influence over the Malay principalities. Extrapolating from this, these historical misgivings haunted the pan-nationalist movements that agitated for Indonesia Raya and Melayu Raya.
Three features need to be stressed about the nineteenth- and twentieth century colonial contribution to the development of the ‘Malay race’. First, in the formulation of Raffles and some others – a formulation that was especially influential – the demographic scope envisaged for ‘Malay’ was relatively narrow. The second feature to highlight in the colonial formulation is that alongside the relatively narrow Raffles definition of ‘Malay’, and an expressed interest in determining racial origins, other more relaxed formulations continued to operate, though sometimes informally. Having promoted the Malay language, the Dutch might have promoted ‘Malay’ as the inclusive term for the people of the ‘Indies’ – but they did not do so as Natives () was often used, and sometimes Indian (). The third feature to note in the colonial influence on the construction of ‘the Malays’ is of particular importance when we come to the problems arising in the propagation of Malayness in the ‘Malay’ community itself: it is that the idea of ‘race’ carried an egalitarian ethic.
The Pan-Malay union was based on understandings on similarities in race, shared language, religion and culture among ethnic groups in Maritime Southeast Asia. At the end of the 1920s, the idea to form a new independent nation grew among the people of Dutch East Indies, especially among educated pribumi (native Indonesian). While in the Malay peninsula, the idea of Greater Malay was proposed. In the Dutch East Indies, the activist youth of Indonesian nationalists were more interested in forming an independent Indonesia. In 1928 the Youth Pledge was declared in Batavia (today Jakarta) by Indonesian nationalist youth activists proclaiming three ideals; one motherland, one nation, and support one unifying language. The Malay nationalist Kesatuan Melayu Muda group, founded in 1938 by Ibrahim Yaacob, was one of the more notable entities that embraced the concept as part of its goals.Page 208-209 Kurikulum Bersepadu Sekolah Menengah Sejarah Tingkatan 2. Zainal Abidin bin Abdul Wahid; Khoo, Kay Kim; Muhd Yusof bin Ibrahim; Singh, D.S. Ranjit (1994). Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka.
World War II During World War II advocates of Greater Indonesia collaborated with the Empire of Japan against the British and the Dutch. The co-operation was based on the understanding that Japan would unite the Dutch East Indies, Malaya and Borneo and grant them independence. It was understood that under a unified Japanese occupation of these areas, the formation of Greater Indonesia was possible.
In January 1942, Kesatuan Melayu Muda (KMM) requested the Japanese to grant Malaya the independence the Japanese had promised earlier. This was the first request for Malayan independence by a Malaya-wide political body. The request however was turned down. The Japanese authorities instead disbanded Kesatuan Melayu Muda and established the Malayan Volunteer Army in its stead.
In July 1945, Union of Indonesian Peninsular People (, abbreviated as KRIS), that later the name would be changed to "Kekuatan Rakyat Indonesia Istimewa" (Special Indonesian People Force) was formed in British Malaya under the leadership of Ibrahim Yaacob and Burhanuddin al-Helmy with the aim to achieve independence from Great Britain and union with Republic of Indonesia. This plan has been consulted with Sukarno and Hatta.
On 12 August 1945, Ibrahim Yaacob met with Sukarno, Hatta and Dr. Rajiman Wediodiningrat in Taiping (Malaysia), Perak. Sukarno transited in Taiping airport on his flight back from Saigon back to Jakarta. Previously Sukarno was summoned by Field Marshal Hisaichi Terauchi in Dalat to discuss about the Indonesian independence and to receive direct statement from Terauchi that the Empire of Japan permitted the independence of Indonesia. During this meeting Yaacob expressed his intention to unite Malay Peninsula into independent Indonesia. It was in this short conference that Sukarno, flanked by Hatta, shook hands with Ibrahim Yaacob and said, 'Let us form one single Motherland for all the sons of Indonesia'.
Sukarno and Muhammad Yamin were Indonesian political figures who agreed with the idea of this great union. However, they were reluctant to call this idea "Melayu Raya" and offered another name, namely "Indonesia Raya". Essentially both Malay Raya and Greater Indonesia are the exact same political ideas. Reluctance to name the Great Malay because it is different from in Malaya, in Indonesia the term Malay refers more to the Malay tribe which is considered only as one of the various tribes in the archipelago, which has an equal position with Minangkabau, Aceh, Java, Sunda, Madura, Bali, Dayak, Bugis, Makassar, Minahasa, Ambon, and so on. Association based on race or "Malay" ethnic group is feared to be vulnerable and counter-productive with the unity of Indonesia which includes various ethnic groups, religions, cultures and races because many ethnic groups in Eastern Indonesia such as Papuans, Ambonese and East Nusa Tenggara, are not included Austronesian Malay family, but the Melanesian family.
However, on 15 August 1945 Emperor Hirohito declared the surrender of the Empire of Japan through radio broadcast. Promptly, Sukarno and Hatta declared Indonesian independence on 17 August 1945. After Indonesia proclaimed its independence, the Kesatuan Melayu Muda (KMM) was disappointed that Malaya was not included as part of Indonesia and they demanded its promise to Sukarno and other Indonesian leaders according to the discussion in Taiping, Perak.
However, because the situation was not safe, Sukarno and Hatta decided to postpone the Malaya unification talks. Ibrahim Yacoob was asked by Sukarno not to return to Malaya for a while, given the situation in Malaya was chaotic and the British army had already landed there to reoccupy the colony.
Accused as a collaborator, on 19 August Ibrahim Yaacob flew in Japanese military aeroplane to Jakarta. Yaacob sought refuge in Jakarta with his wife Mariatun Haji Siraj, his in-law Onan Haji Siraj and Hassan Manan. Ibrahim Yaacob that fought for the unity of Malay Peninsula into Indonesia then resides in Jakarta until his death in 1979.
With the surrender of Japan in August 1945, former Kesatuan Melayu Muda cadres formed the nucleus of the emerging political movements like the Malay Nationalist Party, Angkatan Pemuda Insaf, and Angkatan Wanita Sedar. With the fall of Japanese power in August 1945, and its key advocates are accused as traitors and Japanese collaborators in Malaya, the ideas of the union between the peninsula with Indonesia were faded and almost forgotten in Malay peninsula.
On the other hand, after the Proclamation of Indonesian Independence, through diplomacy during the Indonesian National Revolution between 1945 and 1949, the Republic of Indonesia finally gained independence from the Netherlands during Dutch–Indonesian Round Table Conference in 1949. While across the straits, after Japanese occupation, the Malay Peninsula returned to British control.
Post-World War II and the Confrontation After the end of World War II, the idea of Greater Indonesia was little heard until more than five years later. In Indonesia, where the possibility of a political unit extending across both the Dutch and British Archipelago was considered briefly, and then rejected, the ‘Malay’ idea was simply not a powerful one. Even when considering the combined state it was thought of as ‘Indonesia Raya’, not ‘Melayu Raya’, and in the declaration of Indonesian independence on 17 August 1945 the phrase used was “We, the bangsa Indonesia”. The rulers (royal courts and kerajaan) were accused of collaborating with the Dutch – who were fighting to regain control of their empire from Sukarno and the Republic – and were also condemned as being “antiquated” and “smelling” of feudalism. The kerajaan leadership was compromised in Sumatera and Kalimantan by its past association with the Dutch, and then its involvement in the Dutch attempts in the late 1940s to set up a federal scheme. On 17 August 1950 President Sukarno officially dissolved The United States of Indonesia and replaced by a unitary Republic of Indonesia. On 28 September 1950 Ambon was invaded and incorporated into the Republic of Indonesia. Between 1950 and 1962 Sukarno made preparations for an invasion of West New Guinea under the euphemism of a liberation after the Netherlands had made preparations for self-determination for the area of West New Guinea. After the New York Agreement, Dutch New Guinea was handed over to the United Nations in 1962. Sukarno strongly opposed the British decolonisation initiative involving the formation of the Federation of Malaysia that would comprise the Malay Peninsula and North Borneo. That hostile political stance led to the Indonesia–Malaysia Confrontation in the early 1960s that was manifested in an undeclared war with small scale trans-border battles and military infiltration in Borneo. Sukarno accused the new nation of Malaysia of being a British puppet state aimed at establishing neo-imperialism and neo-colonialism in Southeast Asia, and also at containing Indonesian ambition to be the regional hegemonic power. It was also suggested that Sukarno's campaign against the formation of Malaysia was motivated by a desire to separate Malaya, North Borneo, Sarawak, and Singapore as a separate country, hence not submitting to the British proposal for decolonization calling it as neocolonialism done by the British state as a way of spreading British hegemony in the region.