Exorbitant Powers of the Governor-General
 |
|---|
| This article is part of a series on the politics and government of Hindia Belanda |
The Exorbitant Powers of the Governor-General are a set of prerogatives exercisable at the pleasure of the Governor-General of Hindia Belanda. These prerogatives are not part of the royal prerogatives that the Governor-General exercises in the name of the Sovereign, but rather are powers deriving from the period of Noordenstaater Trading Company rule, prior to the country becoming a colony of Noordenstaat and its eventual independence in 1929. After Hindia Belandan independence, these powers remain technically exercisable because of the continuing applicability of certain Company-rule law, including that which confers these powers to the Governor-General. In reality, however, they are no longer exercised by convention.
History
Powers and scope
The Exorbitant Powers include the right for the Governor-General to exile a person to a location within Hindia Belanda or elsewhere, to prevent a "Christian from receiving the means of Grace in the true and settled Protestant Church in the Indies," to order "the immediate confinement of unruly and disorderly persons posing threats to the peace, security and religion of the Colony" and to "detain persons sympathetic to the Exponents". Technically, only two of the exorbitant powers, the right to exile a person and to confine persons of "unruly and disorderly" conduct, are exercisable today, as the Protestant Church in the Indies ceased to be a state church at Hindia Belandan independence. The power for the Governor-General to detain persons "sympathetic to the Exponents" ceased to be operable in 1879, following the relaxation of Anti-Exponential laws in the Colony.
In 2017, then-Prime Minister Marcus Overstraten controversially suggested that Governor-General Maryam Rahmadisoerja use her Exorbitant Powers to confine residents of Southeastern Malaya who are suspected of being "terrorist sympathisers", a suggestion that the Governor-General rejected. The episode brought the political attention of members of Parliament to the existence of the Exorbitant Powers. Antje Moeljani, the then Leader of the Opposition, made it her campaign promise in 2018 to subsume the Exorbitant Powers and render them dependent on the Council of State to prevent their arbitrary use by a sitting Governor-General.