ABSTRACT
News of the proclamation spread slowly, and it was not until the end of September that it had penetrated all of Indonesia. It was at that point that many people began to wonder what merdeka actually meant. The Japanese would of course be gone, and it was clear that the Dutch would not be allowed to come back either, and that the old elites who had collaborated with the Dutch and the Japanese would have to be dealt with. But other than that, everything was up in the air. Would people no longer have to pay taxes? Who was in charge now? And wasn’t there supposed to be a fight for freedom first?
