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Indonesian provincial flags

Some reports have been received of provincial flags from Indonesia. Some flags may have been proposed, but it seems no official provincial flag are commonly in use. In particular, it seem clear there are no Indonesian flags (not even provincial) designed with the national red and white charged with provincial coat of arms. Indonesian flag law strictly prohibits that.
Sammy Kanadi, 29 April 2000

I can confirm from a visit to the Interior Department the existence of Indonesian provincial flags. The flags (26 provinces, Maluku Utara and 2 would-be provinces that still have no arms and flags) all have the same basic design, a unicolor field defaced with the provincial coats of arms. The background colors are somewhat strange, ranging from very very light blue (must be B----- in the FOTW color Guide, maybe) to purple. They are official, because the officer in the Interior Department told me that the flags were made based on spec sheets sent directly from every Governor's offices.

One thing to be noted, the flags are used only ceremonially. They are displayed only in each of the governor's offices. I still have no information of the meaning of the background colors or the law that legislates the flags. Also, I have no information why the flags have never been intended for public use.
Sammy Kanadi, 10 July 2000

As the region autonomy law was implemented on Jan 1, 2001, there's a good chance for Indonesian provincial flags to be de facto civil flags. The Central Government has yet to pass a law about regional symbols so that the usage of regional symbols will be allowed for non-state officials/ordinary citizens. Sammy Kanadi, 18 January 2001

Second level units in Indonesia are regencies (kabupaten) and third level units are districts (kecamatan). There are additional municipalities (kodamadya) as second level units and administrative towns (kota administratif) as second and a half level units (less then municipality more than district). However, I have visited probably all websites of Regencies and Municipalities, or most of them, and I have never seen a flag of a regency or of a municipality. The only exception is Bandung municipality, which flag I sent last year. That makes me think that there is a process of adopting local flags, and probably we'll find them in the future.
Valentin Poposki, 7 April 2006

Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam
North Sumatra (Sumatera Utara)
West Sumatra (Sumatera Barat)
Riau
Riau Islands (Kepulauan Riau)
Jambi
Bengkulu
South Sumatra (a (Sumatera Selatan)
Bangka-Belitung
Lampung Jakarta Special Capital Region (Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta)
Banten
West Java (Jawa Barat)
Central Java (Jawa Ten)
Yogyakarta Special Region (Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta)
East Java (Jawa)
Bali
West
West Nusa Tenggara (Nusa Tenggara Barat)
East Nusa Tenggara (Nusa Tenggara Timur)
Kalimantan
West Kalimantan
Central Kalimantan (Kalimantan Tengah)
South Kalimantan (Kalimantan Selatan)
East Kalimantan (Kalimantan Timur)
North Sulawesi
Gorontalo
Central Sulawesi (Sulawesi Tengah)
South East Sulawesi (Sulawesi Tenggara)
South Sulawesi (Sulawesi Selatan)
West Sulawesi (Sulawesi Barat)
Maluku
North Maluku (Maluku Utara)
Papua (formerly: Irian Jaya)
West Irian Jaya (Irian Jaya Barat)

Banten, Java (Bantam)

image by Jaume Ollé, 17 January 2000

Description of the flag

This is a well know flag. Banten is a city in the north of Java, and was a Dutch factory in the XVII century. It was capital of a native sultanate, and later was annexed by the Dutch. Its importance decreased in favour of Batavia. The flag is probably that of the Sultan. Yellow is frequently a symbol of royalty in this area (e.g., Brunei and some Malay states). This image, with minor variations, is known from several old plates. The version shown here is from a Japanese plate from 1876.
Jaume Ollé, 17 January 2000

The name was used as Bantam by the Dutch at the time the city flourished, but its native name was Banten. According to the Encyclopćdia Britannica the estuary silted up and the city became a ruin.
Mike Oettle, 15 March 2007

Kalimantan

by Jarig Bakker, 12 February 2001

I just saw an old ZDF (German TV) documentary dating from 1971, where the then new head of state of Indonesia, Suharto, visited Borneo (= Kalimantan). Clearly in sight a light blue-black-white horizontally striped flag.

Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam

by Sammy Kanadi

This province, according to the new law of Aceh, should have a new symbols, including a regional/provincial flag, soon, but so far there's still no news about it. See also the page on the Aceh independentist movement.
Sammy Kanadi, 10 September 2001

Papua

On 23 October 2001, the Indonesian Parliament approved the bill about autonomy for the Province of Papua (former Irian Jaya), including also right to use its own "independence flag" (BBC's formulation). Evidently, the blue-white striped flag with the red hoist field including the white star is meant.
Jan Zrzavy, 23 October 2001

Papua (was Irian Jaya) was recently offered a wider autonomous status - last week if I'm not wrong. But the council of "native" people/tribes rejected that offer, since its basic demand - that is 100% independency - wasn't issued. Two items mentioned in that offer are Irian Jaya will be called Papua and the widely used flag of Papua (blue and white lines, red triangle, and white star) is recognized and can be use as cultural symbol rather than a political movement symbol.
Yustinus Sembada, 24 October 2001

The flag will not be the one with a red triangle but with a red transverse stripe, I guess.
Jan Zrzavy, 24 October 2001

Special Region of Yogyakarta

by Sammy Kanadi

The name 'special region' of this province refers to the Sultanate of Yogyakarta, the boundaries of which are exactly the same today as the Province of Yogyakarta. So the governor of this province is also the Sultan of
Yogyakarta, and this sultanate still has various sultanate flags.
Sammy Kanadi, 10 September 2001