THE historical text is a set of hasty words. Not long. And all recorded on half a sheet of folio paper. Every August 17 we recall it, because on almost every Independence Day, newspapers and magazines reprint a photo of that short document, or people reproduce it enlarged on parade banners: We, the Indonesian people, hereby declare the independence of Indonesia

The lettering is clearly Bung Karnos handwriting, with which we are familiar from other