\"We the (Chinese) People\": Revisiting the 1945 Constitutional Debate on Citizenship in Indonesia

In this IIAS lunch lecture, Dr. Elizabeth Chandra will talk about the debate on citizenship at the constitutional convention on the eve of Indonesia’s independence in 1945, in which the definition of citizen eventually adopted identified “indigenous Indonesians” as the principal component of the nation, making a distinction for the first time between indigenous citizens and citizens of foreign descent.  This distinction would come to haunt the Chinese minority and their integration in postcolonial Indonesia, and has been blamed for much of the political inequality that they have had to endure.  But a close examination of deliberations on citizenship at the 1945 constitutional convention reveals some surprises, including skepticism on the part of the Chinese delegates with regard to Indonesian citizenship.

Elizabeth Chandra is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS), Leiden. She graduated from the University of California – Berkeley, where she wrote a thesis on Malay literature produced by the Chinese of colonial Indonesia.

Every third Wednesday of the month one of the IIAS researchers will present his/her work-in-progress in an informal setting to their colleagues and other interested attendees, followed by a lunch provided by IIAS. These lunch lectures are organized to give the research community the opportunity to freely discuss ongoing research and to exchange thoughts.

Lunch is provided. Please register at a.e.l.van.der.horst@iias.nl