The Constitution of Indonesia — Written in 18 Days as a Temporary Document That Never Left
Indonesia — Constitution Profile
| ð First Adopted | August 18, 1945 |
| ð️ Government | Presidential Republic with Parliamentary Characteristics |
| ð Capital | Jakarta |
| ð Original Length | 37 Articles — now 73 |
| ✍️ Drafting Time | Just 18 days |
| ðŠķ State Philosophy | Pancasila — Five Principles |
The Constitution Drafted While the Country Did Not Officially Exist Yet
Indonesia's founding constitutional document was written under conditions almost no other nation has ever faced — drafted while its own independence had not even been formally recognized by the world.
On 1 June 1945, the final day of the first BPUPK session, Indonesian nationalist Sukarno made a speech, later known as the "Birth of Pancasila Address," in which he proposed five principles to form the philosophical basis of an independent Indonesia.
Those five principles came together with extraordinary speed once the moment finally arrived. On August 17, 1945, Indonesia declared its independence. The Preparatory Committee for Indonesian Independence (PPKI) was formed, and tasked with drafting the constitution. The PPKI worked swiftly and on August 18, 1945, just one day after the declaration of independence, the constitution was adopted.
One day. From declaring independence to having a complete national constitution in force.
A Constitution Born From Two Atomic Bombs and a Soviet Invasion
The timeline behind Indonesia's independence reveals just how compressed and chaotic the entire process truly was.
On 6 August, an atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. On 7 August, the Southern Expeditionary Army Group headquarters announced that an Indonesian leader could enact a body called the Preparatory Committee for Indonesian Independence. The dropping of a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, and the Soviet invasion of Manchuria on 9 August prompted the Japanese to surrender unconditionally on 15 August 1945. Sukarno and Hatta declared independence on 17 August 1945, and the PPKI met the following day.
Indonesia's constitutional birth was sandwiched directly between two atomic bombings and a Soviet invasion thousands of miles away — global events at the absolute climax of World War II that created the exact narrow window in which independence, and a constitution, suddenly became possible.
The Founding President Who Admitted His Own Constitution Was Never Meant to Last
Here is something almost no constitution's own author has ever said so directly.
As admitted by Sukarno — Indonesia's first president who was also involved in the drafting process — the 1945 Constitution is a "revolutionary grondwet," which means that it is a temporary constitution intended to operate only during the revolutionary period and may be replaced with a new one once the exigent circumstances are no longer applicable.
The man who helped write Indonesia's constitution publicly called it temporary, provisional, a stopgap for wartime chaos.
Eight decades later, with amendments along the way, it is still the supreme law of the land.
The President Who Dissolved an Entire Assembly by Decree to Bring It Back
Indonesia's constitution was actually replaced twice in its early years — only to be unilaterally restored by presidential decree.
It was abrogated by the Federal Constitution of 1949 and the Provisional Constitution of 1950, but restored by President Sukarno's 1959 Decree.
The restoration was not a peaceful parliamentary process. In 1955 elections were held for a Constitutional Assembly to draw up a definitive constitution. However, this became bogged down in disputes between nationalists and Islamists, primarily over the role of Islam in Indonesia. Sukarno became increasingly disillusioned by this stagnation and, with the support of the military, began to push for a return to the 1945 Constitution. This was put to the vote twice, but the motion failed to gain the required two-thirds majority. Finally, on 5 July 1959 President Sukarno issued a decree dissolving the assembly and returning to the 1945 Constitution.
When democratic deliberation failed to produce the result he wanted, Sukarno simply dissolved the entire constitutional assembly and restored his preferred document by personal decree.
The Dictator Who Refused to Change a Single Word for Three Decades
If Sukarno treated the constitution as something he could discard and restore at will, his successor took the opposite, equally extreme approach.
Suharto, who officially became president in 1968, refused to countenance any changes to the Constitution despite the fact that even Sukarno had viewed it as a provisional document.
For over thirty years, Indonesia's "temporary revolutionary document" remained completely frozen — not because it was working perfectly, but because freezing it served Suharto's authoritarian New Order regime, which used the constitution's vague, broadly-worded structure to justify sweeping personal authority.
The Amendments That Doubled the Entire Document
When Suharto's regime finally collapsed in 1998 amid mass protests and economic crisis, Indonesia's constitution underwent the most dramatic transformation in its history.
Since 1999, amendments to the Constitution have increased its size from 37 articles to 73 articles. The document was consolidated as amended by the First Amendment (1999), the Second Amendment (2000), the Third Amendment (2001) and the Fourth Amendment (2002).
Four amendments in just four years nearly doubled the length of a document that had sat almost completely untouched for the previous three decades — a sudden burst of constitutional reform compressed into the same kind of urgent timeframe that had produced the original document itself.
Constitution at a Glance
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| First Adopted | August 18, 1945 |
| Drafting Period | 18 days (June–August 1945) |
| Suspended | 1949–1959 |
| Restored by Decree | July 5, 1959 |
| Frozen Without Amendment | 1968–1998 (Suharto era) |
| Major Amendments | 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002 |
| Original Articles | 37 |
| Current Articles | 73 |
| State Philosophy | Pancasila (5 principles) |
| National Motto | Bhinneka Tunggal Ika — Unity in Diversity |
ðĨ Read the Constitution of Indonesia
Read the complete, official English text of the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia:
ð Read Constitution of Indonesia — Official Parliament Website
Drafted in 18 days between two atomic bombings. Called "temporary" by its own author. Frozen for thirty years by a dictator, then nearly doubled in four. Which part of Indonesia's constitutional story surprised you the most? Tell us in the comments below.
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