Pembentukan Dinas Penyelaman Angkatan Laut Republik Indonesia Pasca Konferensi Meja Bundar, 1949-1952

This article examines the establishment of the Indonesian Navy diving service took place as one of the consequences of the Round Table Conference, through the lens of postcolonial technoscience. As a moment of political transition, the conference created a space for negotiation between the Netherlands and the United States of Indonesia in determining the development of a newly recognized republic. One form of this negotiation was granting permission for the Royal Netherlands Navy to carry out an assistance program for the navy of the United States of Indonesia, which included support in forming a diving service. This assistance program became a context in which postcolonial dialogues emerged concerning the use of technology, in this case, military diving technology. By drawing on primary sources produced by the Dutch assistance team stationed in Indonesia from 1950 to 1954, this article demonstrates that the introduction of military diving technology by the Royal Netherlands Navy was marked by negotiation and contestation regarding efforts to define how technology should be used in a postcolonial context and in asserting sovereignty over uninhabited realms such as the underwater world.