Landarchief As The Implementation Of The National Archives Of The Republic Of Indonesia Officials Established In History Today, 28 January 1892

The portrait of the Landarchief Building which is now called the National Archives Building of the Republic of Indonesia on Jl. Gadjah Mada, Central Jakarta. (Wikimedia Commons)

JAKARTA History today, January 28, 1892, the Dutch East Indies colonial government founded the Landarchief -the future National Archives of the Republic of Indonesia - to accommodate all Dutch archives in the archipelago. JA van der Chijs was later appointed as the landsarchivaris (state archiver).

The effort was to make the Dutch work easier. As material for decision making to policy. Previously, the Netherlands was known to care about sustainability from historical archives. They often record all kinds of activities comprehensively.

The function of the archive as a center of human memory cannot be contested. The role of the archive is quite vital for a nation and state. The Governor General of the Dutch East Indies, Herman Willem Daendels, realized this. For him, the archive has a significant role in a government.

Mainly, in a decision-making and policy-making. Daendels also chose to protect archives belonging to the Dutch East Indies government. He took this step by taking action with the archives carefully when the power center of power from Oud Batavia (old Batavia) moved to the Weltevreden area (now: the area around Lapangan Banteng).

Education of the archives was then continued when Thomas Stamford Raffles became the number one person in the Dutch East Indies. The archives he sees as high use value. Instead of just formulating a policy, Raffles used the archive to create a masterpiece. The History of Java, his name.

The book confirms that no one else in the world knows Java outside other than himself. Since then the maintenance of the archives has been promoted. Existing archives are well stored and so that they can be accessed when needed.

During the reign of the British hose (1811-1816) and beyond, Pastor P. Wedding (pustakawan) officially acted as archival manager. But in reality from 1814 to 1826 the task was carried out by a filing stationary named DA Tempel. With a decision dated February 19, 1819 no. 19, the supervision of old archives is the direct responsibility of the general secretary.

This decision remains in effect until the appointment of JA van der Chijs became a landsarchivaris. In 1819 a decision was also issued to move the old Dutch archives from the Gubernemen Building in Molenvliet (Jalan Gajah Mada) to an inventory warehouse warehouse in the city area, "explained GL Balk and his friends in the book The Archives of the Dutch East India Company VOC and the Local Institutions in Batavia (2007).

Concern about the archives was increasingly taken seriously when the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies Cornelis Pijnucker Hordijk (1888-1893) was in power. He didn't want to half-guard the archives. This is because the document will not be replaced.

He founded an institution specifically for treating archives belonging to the Dutch East Indies government on January 28, 1892. Landarchief, his name. The Netherlands also appointed JA van der Chijs as a landsarchivaris. His office moved before finally occupying Vila Molenvliet (now: ANRI Building).

The institution which later became the forerunner of the Nasional Archives of the Republic of Indonesia (ANRI) was well received. Therefore, the existing archives from the initial phase of Dutch colonialism can be maintained to this day.

National articles are over 100 years old. First, the Dutch East Indies Government was founded on January 28, 1892 under the name Landarchief. Until 1942 this institution was led by four Dutch; the famous one was Dr. F de Haan (1905-1922) whose work is often used as a reference.

In the Japanese occupation, this agency changed its name to Kobunsjokan. Although at that time there was no additional archive, this office became important to Dutch people (indo) who wanted to know the origins of their descendants. They can be free from Japanese prisoners, if they can show evidence of Indonesian descendants, even though it is not the result of marriage," said historian Asvi Warman Adam in the book Uncovering the manipulation of history (2009).