Soetardjo Petition
The Soetardjo Petition of 1936 was a motion of the Volksraad (a nascent legislative body) of the Dutch East Indies, instigated by the legislator Soetardjo Kartohadikusumo, which was submitted as a petition to Queen Wilhelmina and the Estates General of the Netherlands. The document asked for a conference to be organized with representatives from the Indies and the Netherlands to discuss the desire of Indonesians, within a period of ten years, to be autonomous under Article 1 of the Dutch Constitution as part of a Dutch commonwealth under the Dutch Crown. The petition had six signatories: In mid-1936 , the petition was approved by the Volksraad by 26 votes to 20, with 15 abstentions. Six Indonesians voted against it (and eight abstained), but because eight Europeans supported it, the petition was approved. On November 16, 1938, the petition was rejected because it was considered that the Indonesians were not yet ready for independence, even within the Dutch commonwealth. This rejection encouraged the nationalist movement in Indonesia to be more radical. It led to the formation of the GAPI in 1939.