Flag of Indonesia

How to read it

Article 35 of Indonesia’s constitution names the national flag as the Red and White. Law No. 24 of 2009 on the national flag, language, emblem and anthem fixes its form in article 4: a rectangle whose height is two thirds of its length, red at the top and white at the bottom, the two parts of equal size, made of cloth whose colour does not run. The same article lists standard sizes, from 200 × 300 cm (about 6 ft 7 in × 9 ft 10 in) for the grounds of the presidential palace down to 10 × 15 cm (4 × 6 in) for a table. The Norwegian encyclopedia Store norske leksikon dates the flag to the independence movement of the 1920s and its official adoption to independence on 17 August 1945. According to detikEdu, the flag committee set up at a session on 12 September 1944 chose red for courage and white for purity.

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What flag is red and white?

Two national flags are nothing but a red stripe over a white one: Indonesia’s and Monaco’s. Monaco’s constitution describes its flag as two equal horizontal stripes, red in the upper part and white in the lower, which is Indonesia’s design too; Store norske leksikon notes that the two differ only in their proportions. CNN Indonesia, citing Britannica, gives Monaco’s as 4:5 against Indonesia’s 2:3, so Monaco’s flag is nearly square. CNN Indonesia also writes that Monaco refused to recognise the Indonesian flag after 1945 and asked Indonesia to change it, and that Indonesia refused, saying its colours came from the Majapahit kingdom. The Norwegian encyclopedia is more careful about Majapahit: the colours are said to be those of that Hindu kingdom.

Poland’s flag is the same two colours the other way up, white above red, and longer for its height: its flag law sets 5:8. Singapore’s flag is also red over white, with a white crescent and five white stars in the red by the pole.

The heirloom flag of 1945

The flag raised at the proclamation of independence on 17 August 1945, at Jalan Pegangsaan Timur 56 in Jakarta, has its own name in the flag law: the Bendera Pusaka Sang Saka Merah Putih, the heirloom flag. Fatmawati, Sukarno’s wife, sewed it herself on a hand-cranked sewing machine, CNN Indonesia writes. During the Dutch military aggression of 1948, Husein Mutahar saved it by separating the red and the white halves, and later sewed them back together through the original stitch holes before returning it to Sukarno. It flew at state ceremonies until 1968 and has been replaced by a duplicate since 1969 because it had grown fragile. In 2015 it was registered as a national cultural property. The flag law says it is kept at the National Monument (Monas) in Jakarta; CNN Indonesia wrote in 2025 that it is kept in a special glass case at the Merdeka Palace.

Flown on every house on 17 August

The flag law requires everyone who has the use of a house, building, office, school or vehicle to fly the flag on each anniversary of independence, 17 August, across Indonesia and at its missions abroad. It forbids flying a flag that is damaged, torn, faded, crumpled or dull.