History
THE HISTORY OF THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF
THE REPUBLIC OF INDONESIA
Landsarchief
1892
Archival institution in Indonesia, as we know today, has been existed by de facto since 28th January 1892 when the Dutch East Indies government established the Landsarchief. On the same date, position of landsarchives were assigned to preserve the archives from the VOC era to the Dutch East Indies era for administrative and science purpose, as well as to support the government implementation. The first landsarchivaris was Mr. Jacob Anne van der Chijs who served the government until 1905 who was then substituted by Dr. F. de Haan at 1905 - 1992. His works has been widely used nowadays as a reference for the Indonesian historians. De Haan was then substituted by E.C. Godee Molsbergen in the period of 1922-1937. The last landsarchivaris during the Dutch East Indies government period was Dr. Frans Rijndert Johan Verhoeven who served from 1937 to 1942. During the nationalist movement period in Indonesia, especially between 1926-1929, the Dutch East Indies government tried hard to suppress the demands of the Indonesians to be independent. For the purpose of the suppression, the Landsarchief was assigned a special task, namely: to participate actively in scientific works for the writing of the history of the Dutch East Indies, and to seek and secure the relics of the Dutch in the Dutch East indies. In the period of 1940-1942 the Dutch East Indies government published Arschief Ordonantie which aimed at guaranteeing the safety of the archives of the Dutch East Indies government which contained: All government archives which were owned by colonial government would be protected by the government, All new archives being created by the government in less than 40 years would be also protected by the government, All archives that had been kept for more than 40 years were being preserved in accordance with the rules established by the Algemeen Landarchief in Batavia (Jakarta).
Kobunsjokan
1942
- 1945
The period of Japanese occupation was a silent period for the archive in Indonesia due to the absent of archives creation by the government at that time. This resulted in the absent of the archives regarding Japanese occupation at the present National Archives of the Republic of Indonesia. Its name has now changed to become Kobunsjokan during Japanese occupation and was placed under coordination of Bunkyokyoku. In this period, like any other Dutch officials, some Landsarchief employees were imprisoned in the Japanese camps. Despite its lack function in the Japanese governance, the position of Landsarchief was very important for the Dutch people especially for those who wanted to get information regarding their genealogical information. They needed the information from the archives in order to proof whether they had Indonesians descendants or not. For the Indonesians descendants, they would be released from imprisonment.
State
Archives- "Arsip Negeri"
1945
- 1947
The archives institution in Indonesia was juristically started after the proclamation of independence on August 17, 1945. However, from the point of view of collections, we cannot deny that the National Archive of the Republic of Indonesia has been heavily influenced by the Landsarchief and their archives collections. After the independence of the Republic of Indonesia, the collections of archives of the Landsarchief were all taken over by the Indonesian government. It was then placed under coordination of the Ministry of Education, Teaching and Culture and its name was changed into State Archives. It served the government until mid 1947; but then it was dismissed when the government of NICA came to Indonesia.
Landsarchief
1947 - 1949
Ever since the Netherlands launched its first military aggression and succeeded in re-occupying Indonesian territory in 1947, the State Archives was once again taken over by the Dutch government. The name of the State Records was changed again into Landsarchief and Prof.W. Ph. Coolhaas was appointed to be The Director of the Landsarchief. He served the Dutch government until the establishment of Republik Indonesia Serikat (RIS) and the Dutch acknowledgement over the Republic of Indonesia at the end of 1949. As soon as the Dutch acknowledged the Republic of Indonesia, the archive institution was once again taken over by the Republic of Indonesia.
State
Archives "Arsip Negara"
1950-1959
Prior to the Round Table Conference Agreement on December 27, 1949, the Government of the Netherlands transferred the sovereignty to the Government of the Republic of Indonesia, including returning all government institutions. In the period of 1945-1947, the Landsarchief was once again under coordination of the Ministry of Education, Teaching and Culture (PP and K). During the transition process, the government of the Republic of Indonesia tried to keep its status as the State Archives. This was done in order to save the archives which were created during the period before RIS State Archives. However, the State Archive did not last long. On April 26, 1950, Ministerial Decree of PP and K number 9052 / B assigned State Archives to be changed its name into RIS State Archives. The director was Prof. R. Soekanto who served the archives for six years, exactly until 1957. His successor was Drs. R. Mohammad Ali, a historian who wrote a book of the Introduction of Indonesian History. The succession marked the establishment of director’s position in the State Archives. In this period, the position of a director general of State Archives was formally used in the organizational structure of the State Archives. The name of State Archives was officially used until 1959.
National
Archives "Arsip Nasional"
1959-1967
National Archives under Coordination of Kementerian Pendidikan Pengajaran dan Kebudayaan (Ministry of Education, Teaching and Culture)
Under the leadership of Drs. R. Mohammad Ali, there had been several changes in order to broaden the role and status of the State Archives. The first change was to place the State Archives under the Institute of History which was coordinated by the Ministry of PP and K. The change was established through Ministerial Decree number 130433/5, dated December 24, 1957. Another change was done after the enactment of Decree of the Minister of PP and K number 69626 / a / s that established the name of the State Archive into National Archives. This change is retroactive since January 1, 1959.
National Archives under Kementerian Pertama
RI (1961-1962)
The
institutional changed did not stop in 1959. Presidential Decree of the Republic
of Indonesia Number 215 on 16 May 1961 established a new change for the
National Archives. The National Archives was transferred under coordination of
Kementerian Pertama (First Ministry of the Republic of Indonesia), which included
matters as follows: archives authority, tasks and obligations, administrations
and personnel, and finance. The tasks and functions of the National
Archives were also more complex, especially prior to the enactment of the
Regulation of President Number 19 on 26 December 1961 on the National Principal
on Archives. The Regulation established the arrangement of both archives and
records administrations.
National Archives under Menteri Pertama Bidang Khusus
(1963-1964)
Presidential Decree No. 1888 of 1962 established a new role of the
National Archives. It was now placed under Menteri Pertama Bidang Khusus (First
Minister for Special Matters). The change of coordination was done in order to
make the archive to be more focus on the task of historical research.
National Archives under Kementerian Kompartimen Hubungan dengan
Rakyat (1963-1966)
In 1964 the name of Menteri Pertama Bidang Khusus was officially changed
into Kementerian Kompartimen Hubungan dengan Rakyat (Menko Hubra). The
change was done in accordance with the tasks and functions of the minister,
namely, to coordinate with the state ministries. The change of its name would
mean that the National Archives was automatically put under the new ministry
where it was given the task of conduct archives administrations. Although the
Archive was under coordination of the new ministry, the tasks and functions of
the National Archive did not change. This had been referred to in Presidential
Regulation No. 19 of 1961.
National Archives under the Deputy Prime Minister for Political
Institutions (1966-1967)
Decree of Deputy of Prime Minister No.08 / WPM / BLLP / KPT / 1966,
established a regulation that the National Archive was placed under
the Waperdam RI of Political Institutions. The National Archives,
based on the decree, had its focus on scientific and historical activities.
The
National Archives of the Republic of Indonesia (1967 - now)
The year of 1967 was very important for the National Archives because
the Presidential Decree 228/1967 of December 2, 1967 assigned it to be a Non
Departmental Government Institution. Starting this year, the National Archive
was directly responsible to President, whereas the budget matters were put
under the budget of the Ministry of State Secretariat.
The establishment of National Archives as a Non-Department Government
Institution was confirmed by the Letter from the Chairmen Council of MPRS no.
A.9 / 1/24 / MPRS /1967. The letter asserted that the National Archives was as
a government technical apparatus and this was not in contradiction with the
1945 Constitution. The status was the improvement of the works under the
Presidium of the Cabinet. Due to the new status, in 1968 National Archives made
the following submissions :
Proposal for changing
National Archives into National Archives of the Republic of Indonesia.
Proposal of amendment
of Presidential Decree No.19 / 1961 to be Law on the Basic Provisions of
Archives.
These two proposals did not yet finish until the end of the period of Drs.
R. Mohammad Ali (1970). Dra. Sumartini, the successor of Drs. R. Mohammad Ali
and the first woman who served as Director General of the National Archives,
continued to work on the proposals. Her efforts were then supported by the
Minister of State Secretariat, Sudharmono, SH. The support achieved great
success. The government enacted Law No. 7 of 1971 on the Basic Provisions of
Archives. Three years later, Presidential Decree No.26 of 1974 established the
role of the National Archives into National Archives of the Republic of
Indonesia which was domiciled in the capital city of Indonesia. It was directly
responsible to the President. The decision, legitimately, assigned the National
Archives RI to be a Non-Departmental Government Institution.
The policy for improving the tasks and functions of the National
Archives of the Republic of Indonesia was initiated by DR. Noerhadi Magetsari,
who replaced Dra Soemartini as the Director General of the National Archives
from 1991 to 1998. It was in his period that there was a change of the new
organizational structure with the enactment of Presidential Decree No. 92/1993
on the Position, Task, Function, Organizational Structure and Administration of
the National Archive of Indonesia. The National Archive of the Republic of
Indonesia, according to the Decree, was abbreviated as ANRI. Other significant
changes were, first, the development of an organizational structure with the
Deputy Director General for Capacity Development and Deputy Director General
for Archives Administration. Second improvement was the establishment of the
Technical Implementation Unit and the Representative offices of the National
Archives in provinces. Along with the development of the organizational
structure, Noerhadi also developed the number of human resources who worked in
ANRI. He opened new recruitment of archivists for executing the archival tasks
in ANRI. Thus, the number of archivists in ANRI increased dramatically. The
peak occurred between 1995-1996, when the number of archivists in ANRI reached
137 people. Dr. Noerhadi Magetsari served in ANRI until 1998. As his successor
was DR. Moekhlis Paeni (former Deputy Director General for Archives
Administration of ANRI and former Director of Regional Archives of Ujung
Pandang, South Sulawesi).
In his period, he continued to improve the reliable national archival
system. He launched the vision of ANRI, namely to use archives as a unifying
node of the nation. Due to the development of politics and government in the
reformation era, and for the purpose of improving the effectiveness and
efficiency of ANRI, Presidential Decree number 17 of 2001 was enacted for the
establishment of the position, duties and functions, organizational structure
and workmanship of Non-Department Government Institutions. Thus, the
organization structure of ANRI also changed as referred to in the Presidential
Decree.
Drs. Oman Syahroni, M.Si replaced DR. Mukhlis Paeni on 3 June 2003, as
referred to in Presidential Decree No. 74 / M / 2003. In his era, ANRI
developed Archive Management System Based on Information and Communication
Technology (SiPATI). This was an application of electronic records management
that was based on the development trend of global information SiPATI at that
time was applied in some central government agencies.
On July 6, 2004, Drs. Djoko Utomo, MA officially succeeded Drs. Oman
Syahroni as Director General of National Archives of the Republic of Indonesia
as referred to in Presidential Decree No.87 / M / 2004, dated June 21, 2004.
Djoko Utomo was the first Director General who served as an archivist before
succeeding Drs. Oman Syahroni. In his period, Djoko Utomo tried to execute the
vision and mission of ANRI by issuing numerous programs. He delivered all of
the archival programs in line with to the development of globalization and the
needs in the internal ANRI. He built a Public service building as the main core
for ANRI’s public service. He made several renovations for the building in such
a way as to create comfortable facilities for visitors and researchers to
access archives. He intensified national and international cooperation in order
to improve archives administrations including cooperation for sending ANRI’s
employees to study abroad.
H.M. Asichin, SH, M.Hum, was the successor of Djoko Utomo. He continued
to work in close cooperation not only with institutions in Indonesia but also
with archives institutions outside Indonesia. He also initiated the
establishment of Tsunami Aceh Archives Service in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam
Province. Moreover, he also initiated the establishment of the Government
Regulation for the enforcement of law number 43 of 2009. His effort gained
success when the government enacted the Government Regulation number 28 of 2012
which clarified the function and role of ANRI. The regulation established the
obligation for developing the capacity of archivists in government, military,
state-owned enterprises, local-owned enterprises and universities.
For developing the quality of human resources, ANRI also conducted
trainings and educations. It is important to improve the knowledge of the
employees so that they can give the best service to people in accordance with
the tasks and functions of ANRI. The activity of arrangement and description
and preservation of archives has been done continuously and enhanced by ANRI.
Besides these activities, ANRI also conducts the implementation of Regional
Imagery program (Citra Nusantara) and the National Archives Network Information
System program. ANRI also disseminates their achievements, roles and functions
through media. It is expected that the public will be aware of the tasks and
functions of ANRI which will eventually lead to the awareness of the community
to preserve and safeguard their own archives.
Director Generals of ANRI:
- DR. R. Soekanto (1951 - 1957)
- Drs. R. Mohammad Ali (1957 - 1970)
- Dra. Soemartini (1971 - 1992)
- DR. Noerhadi Magetsari (1992 - 1998)
- DR. Mukhlis Paeni (1998 - 2003)
- Drs. Oman Sachroni, M.Si. (2003 - 2004)
- Drs. Djoko Utomo, MA (2004 - 2009)
- M. Asichin, S.H., M.Hum (2010 - 2013)
- Dr. Mustari Irawan, MPA (2013 - 2019)
- Drs. Imam Gunarto, M.Hum (2021 – now)