Monsters and Capitalists

Complementing their armed campaign for independence, Indonesian nationalists deployed propaganda. They aimed to get the public to join the struggle against the Dutch. Studies on propaganda during the Indonesian War of Independence are relatively new. Recent analyses have elaborated the actors, themes, techniques and forms of propaganda, especially of a verbal kind.² Studies on a more limited scale have explored print caricatures³ and the role of graphic artists in imagining, designing and creating wartime propaganda posters.⁴ Why was anti-Dutch sentiment necessary in the struggle to defend Indonesian independence? In war, one crucial aspect of offence is the construction of a bad image of the enemy. Without it, conflicts would not occur. The creation of such a bad image is entirely based on the identity perception of ‘us’ versus ‘them’, ‘good’ versus ‘evil’, which is continuously reproduced and distributed by means of various communication channels. Propaganda is a systematic effort to convince large groups of audiences to join one’s particular cause.⁵