Royal Council Rebellion

Royal Council Rebellion
Date 12–18 December 2012 Location Al Rasyid Darussalam, Indokistan Result Royal Council victory  • Al Rasyid Darussalam separated from Indokistan  • Collapse of the Third Republic
Belligerents
Indokistan	Royal Council of Al Rasyid Darussalam
Commanders and leaders
Mustafa Hakim Abdul Rasyid I	Sjarif Malik

The Royal Council Rebellion (Indonesian: Pemberontakan Dewan Kerajaan) was a conflict between the Indokistani government and Al Rasyid Darussalam leader Abdul Rasyid I -- concurrently Indokistan's president -- against dissidents of his own Royal Council seeking to separate Al Rasyid Darussalam from Indokistan.

Following Abdul Rasyid's rejection of the Royal Council's petition to restore Al Rasyid Darussalam's independence, the council threatened a military takeover. After a show referendum overwhelmingly supported independence, Abdul Rasyid had no choice but to join the Royal Council on declaring the secession of Al Rasyid Darussalam.

The event caused the collapse of Indokistani Third Republic as one of its constituencies, along with its president, left the country. Despite the shock caused by the abrupt separation, it instead provided a momentum for Indokistani politicians to initiate changes in the country, which culminated in the establishment of Provisional Government of Indokistan.

Background

After several bilateral discussion, Kingdom of Al Rasyid Darussalam decided to merge with Indokistan as a constituent state, which at that time still under emergency government in September 2012. After Barakstan also declared their intention to rejoin Indokistan, Federal Republic of Indokistan was formed in 16 September 2012.

Abdul Rasyid I as leader of Al Rasyid Darussalam was appointed as president of the new federation, while also retaining his seat as provincial leader as Abdul Rasyid I. Inside his province, he ruled with Royal Council (Dewan Agung Kerajaan) as his advisor. This Royal Council later grew stronger and yield greater influence over Al Rasyid Darussalam province inside Indokistan.

After restoration of unitary state in October 2012, Abdul Rasyid I began to felt uncomfortable to run his government with Tian Abdurrahman, his Barakstani counterpart. He felt that Tian was too arrogant and he felt no longer able to work with him. With Mustafa Hakim as the third figure to moderate their relations, the problem easing.

Rebellion

The calls was first made on 12 December and initially peaceful. The Royal Council submitted a petition requesting Al Rasyid Darussalam withdrawal from Indokistan, citing failure of governance caused by its personnel incompetence. Abdul Rasyid, while also trying to satisfy his Royal Council, plead to them to wait as Indokistan rebuilds their country after emergency government. Unsatisfied with his respond, the Royal Council threatens a military takeover against him. After that incident, Abdul Rasyid immediately called his Mustafa to inform the threat.

Realised that they had failed to convince Abdul Rasyid to support them, Royal Council later turned on Al Rasyid Darussalam citizens to gather support. Public opinion on Indokistan before 12 December actually favorable, but after agitation by the Royal Council after failure to convince Abdul Rasyid, public opinion turned negatively, support for secession began to increasing.

Royal Council later staged a referendum in 18 December to questions whether citizens supports independence or not. Indokistani central government condemned this unilateral referendum, because of its lack of legality and of suspected fraudulent votes. Results of the referendum was overwhelmingly supportive on secession from Indokistan. After the vote, regional troops began to defect and supports the Royal Council to lead the secession of Al Rasyid Darussalam, hampering more attempts to maintain Al Rasyid Darussalam to remain in Indokistan.

Realizing that he had lost popular support to maintain Al Rasyid Darussalam as part of Indokistan and threats of military takeover against him, Abdul Rasyid unexpectedly bowing himself against his Royal Council and agreed to resign as president and declared separation of Al Rasyid Darussalam from Indokistan. A letter confirming the secession was received by Mustafa Hakim on night of 18 December.

Aftermath

Indokistani authority initially afraid that the secession may lead to another region secession, particularly Barakstan, but Tian Abdurrahman commitment to remain in Indokistan was proven, which ease the panic - yet Barakstan left Indokistan a year later in 2014. Chancellor Mustafa once quoted that he "mentally ready to face the worse" after Al Rasyid Darussalam secession, he immediately took place as acting president, replacing Abdul Rasyid I.

The rebellion became the main cause of the collapse of Indokistani Third Republic, as one of its constituent, consists of one per third of total citizens and national territory, was lost. With only two constituent left, the moment was seem as a right time to establish changes inside Indokistan, that was hampered by the rebellion. Provisional Government of Indokistan, that later paved the way yo the establishment of Federal State of Indokistan, was established in January 2013 with Mustafa as its leader.

It was also reported that after the successful action, the Royal Council decided to establish a constitutional amendment, which severely limiting Abdul Rasyid I position to merely a figurehead head of state, from previously an absolute leader. This was seem as the Council attempt to counter Abdul Rasyid's influence on national politics and to limit his actions.

Views on the Event

Initially, Indokistan viewed the conflict as only a minor problem, with appointment of new acting president and transitions followed was smooth. Indokistani previous experience with provincial secession may caused it to be viewed as a normal thing, which caused the central government to not reacted heavily on the conflict, beside that the distance between Al Rasyid Darussalam and closest state was more than 5000 kilometres, unrealistic to send physical troops. This also contributing on the success of Royal Council to separate Al Rasyid Darussalam from Indokistan.

It was later viewed as an embarassing act against Indokistan in 2015, with word "rebellion" first used to describe the event. The incident also showed weakness of Indokistani governance system with physically separated territories, which causes sending support to conflicting region could be very expensive and exhaustive. A Suwarnakarta Institute member, in 2016, viewed that the conflict was also a "coup d'etat", since Abdul Rasyid I was coerced to abandon his presidency by the Royal Council.