Indonesia

Read the articles of Indonesia's flag law, Undang-Undang No. 24 of 2009, and you will find the red and the white described and never explained. Its Article 4 gives a rectangle, a ratio, ten sizes in centimetres and a rule about cloth that does not run. It attaches no meaning to either colour.

That is where nearly every account of the Indonesian flag stops, and it is the reason the familiar courage-and-purity reading usually gets filed as folklore.

It is not folklore, and the reason is that an Indonesian Act does not end at its articles. Published with it, in the same gazette supplement, is its Penjelasan, its elucidation, and the elucidation of Article 4(1) says of the red "Warna ini melambangkan keberanian", this colour symbolises courage, and of the white "Warna ini melambangkan kesucian", this colour symbolises purity.

So the reading is in the statute book. It is simply one layer down from where anybody looks.

Key Takeaways

• The colour meanings live in the elucidation published with Law 24 of 2009, not in the articles, which describe the flag and assign the colours nothing.
• The elucidation says red symbolises courage and white symbolises purity, and gives both colours as RGB values: red 255, 0, 0 and white 255, 255, 255.
• Indonesian drafting law calls an elucidation the lawmaker's own official interpretation. The 2004 rules told drafters to keep rules out of it. The 2011 rules that replaced them make that a prohibition.
• Law 24 of 2009 explains what the coat of arms means in its own articles, counting the Garuda's feathers as 17, 8, 19 and 45. It never does that for the flag.
• The flag raised at the national ceremony each 17 August is a duplicate, and a presidential regulation of 2022 names Fatmawati as the maker of the original.

The Indonesian flag's colours are given a meaning, in the elucidation of Article 4

The place is the elucidation of Article 4(1) of that Act, whose full subject is the flag, the language, the state emblem and the national anthem.

That elucidation does two things to each colour in one paragraph. It fixes the shade as a number, and it says what the colour stands for.

For the red: "Yang dimaksud dengan “warna merah” adalah warna merah jernih yang secara digital mempunyai kadar MHB (Merah Hijau Biru) atau RGB (Red Green Blue): merah 255, hijau 0, dan biru 0." What is meant by the red is a clear red which digitally has the RGB values red 255, green 0, blue 0. Then: "Warna merah telah lama dikenal dalam mitologi, kesusasteraan, dan sejarah Nusantara. Warna ini melambangkan keberanian." The colour has long been known in the mythology, literature and history of the Nusantara, and it symbolises courage.

The white gets the same two moves. Its shade is "warna putih tanpa gradasi", white without gradation, at "merah 255, hijau 255, dan biru 255", and the closing sentence is "Warna ini melambangkan kesucian".

Neither sentence appears in Article 4 itself, or in any other article of the Act. Nor is there anything to find in the constitutional provision behind it. The Indonesian government's own text of the 1945 Constitution could not be opened for this article, but two state instruments fifty-one years apart recite Article 35 and both give it as one clause: the 2009 Act's general elucidation as "Dalam Pasal 35 disebutkan bahwa Bendera Negara Indonesia ialah Sang Merah Putih", and the 1958 regulation's as "Bendera Negara Indonesia ialah Sang Merah Putih". The flag of Indonesia is Sang Merah Putih, and that is the whole of it.

So the reading everyone repeats is official, and it is official in a specific and limited way that is worth keeping intact rather than flattening.

An elucidation is the lawmaker's own recorded reading

Indonesia legislates about how to legislate, and the rule that governs elucidations says exactly what one is for.

Undang-Undang No. 10 of 2004, the drafting Act in force when the flag law was made, states at point 149 of its annex: "Penjelasan berfungsi sebagai tafsiran resmi pembentuk Peraturan Perundang-undangan atas norma tertentu dalam batang tubuh." An elucidation is the official interpretation, by the body that made the legislation, of a particular norm in the operative text.

Point 150 draws the limit. An elucidation cannot be used as the legal basis for making further regulation, and the drafter is told to "hindari membuat rumusan norma di dalam bagian penjelasan", to avoid formulating rules inside the elucidation.

The wording survived the 2004 Act's replacement almost unchanged. Undang-Undang No. 12 of 2011 carries it at point 176 of Lampiran II as "Penjelasan berfungsi sebagai tafsir resmi pembentuk Peraturan Perundang-undangan atas norma tertentu dalam batang tubuh", and at point 177 hardens that direction into a prohibition: an elucidation "tidak boleh mencantumkan rumusan yang berisi norma", may not set out anything containing a rule. Article 64(2) of that Act makes Lampiran II "bagian tidak terpisahkan dari Undang-Undang ini", an inseparable part of the Act.

Read those two rules together and the status of the courage-and-purity sentences is precise. Neither sentence prescribes anything, so neither is a rule, which is what the 2004 rules asked of the drafters and what the 2011 rules now require. What they are is the Indonesian legislature's own recorded interpretation of the colours it had just prescribed, published under the same gazette number as the Act.

That is a stronger claim than popular tradition and a weaker one than a rule of law, and holding the two apart is the whole answer to the question.

The 2009 Act specifies the coat of arms feather by feather

The contrast inside one statute is the thing that makes the flag's silence conspicuous.

Where the 2009 Act reaches the state emblem, it interprets in the articles themselves and it does not stop. Article 47(1) says the Garuda's beak, wings, tail and claws "mewujudkan lambang tenaga pembangunan", embody a symbol of the energy of development. Article 47(2) fixes the feather count: 17 on each wing, 8 in the tail, 19 at the base of the tail and 45 on the neck. Those are the numerals of 17 August 1945, although the article gives the counts and does not say so.

Article 48(1) says a thick black line across the middle of the shield "melukiskan katulistiwa", depicts the equator. Article 48(2) then walks the shield's compartments through the principles of Pancasila one by one, naming the star, the chain, the banyan tree, the bull's head, and the cotton and rice, and saying which principle each stands for.

The emblem also gets a picture. Article 50 of that Act provides that the emblem's form, colours and proportions are set out in an annex that is an inseparable part of the Act, and that annex holds a dimensioned colour drawing of the Garuda with five lettered distances marked on it, plus the emblem's four colours as RGB triples. The red there is 255, 0, 0, the same value the elucidation gives the flag.

The flag has no annex, no drawing and no colour figure in any article. Its numbers exist in one place only, the elucidation of Article 4(1). An Act that counts feathers had every opportunity to say what red means in its operative text, and chose not to.

Why Indonesian law gives the flag ten sizes by use, down to one for a table

Because Article 4 of the 2009 Act treats the flag as a manufactured object, and legislates it the way you would legislate a product.

Article 4(1) fixes the shape as a rectangle whose width is two-thirds of its length, red above and white below in equal halves. Article 4(2) requires that it be "dibuat dari kain yang warnanya tidak luntur", made of cloth whose colour does not run. Article 4(3) then prescribes ten sizes by use, in centimetres.

Ten uses, seven distinct sizes, and every one of them is exactly two by three.

Where the flag is used, per Article 4(3)	Prescribed size
Grounds of the presidential palace	200 cm x 300 cm
A public field	120 cm x 180 cm
Indoors	100 cm x 150 cm
The President's and Vice-President's car	36 cm x 54 cm
A state official's car	30 cm x 45 cm
A public vehicle	20 cm x 30 cm
A ship	100 cm x 150 cm
A train	100 cm x 150 cm
An aircraft	30 cm x 45 cm
A table	10 cm x 15 cm

Article 4(4) is the release valve. For any use outside that list, a flag representing the national flag may depart from the material, from the sizes and even from the shape. Its elucidation handles the three limbs three different ways. For the material it gives examples and no definition, "misalnya kertas, plastik, dan alumunium", for example paper, plastic and aluminium. For the size it gives a definition and no examples, "besar kecilnya bendera", the largeness or smallness of the flag. For the shape it does both, defining a different shape as one "yang tidak mengikuti bentuk persegi panjang dengan ukuran lebar 2/3 (dua-pertiga) dari panjang", one that does not follow the rectangle two-thirds as wide as it is long, before offering "misalnya bentuk segitiga, bujur sangkar, trapesium, jajaran genjang, dan lingkaran", for example a triangle, a square, a trapezium, a parallelogram or a circle.

That definition is the proportion of Article 4(1) doing work a third time. A flag is the wrong shape, in Indonesian law, precisely when it stops being two-thirds as wide as it is long.

One more provision belongs beside the tape measure. Article 7(3) makes flying the flag on 17 August compulsory for every citizen holding the right to use a house, a building or office, a school, and public and private transport. Article 7(4) then narrows to one of those cases, flying it at home, and says "pemerintah daerah memberikan Bendera Negara kepada warga negara Indonesia yang tidak mampu", local government gives a flag to citizens who cannot afford one.

The 1958 regulation named the shade of the red and never said what the colours mean

Before the 2009 Act the flag was governed by a Government Regulation of 1958, and reading the older instrument shows which part of the modern answer is new.

Peraturan Pemerintah No. 40 of 1958 on the National Flag of the Republic of Indonesia, promulgated on 10 July 1958, opens with the same geometry. Its Article 1 describes a flag "berbentuk segi-empat panjang, yang lebarnya dua-pertiga daripada panjangnya", an elongated rectangle whose width is two-thirds of its length.

Its elucidation says where that proportion came from. The general part records that since 1945 the Constitution had named the flag Sang Merah Putih, that the Komite Nasional Indonesia had announced on 3 October 1945 that "bentuk bendera ukuran 3 kali 2", the flag's form is 3 by 2, and that no other regulation had been made since. The note on Article 1 then ties the two together: the proportion is set at 2 by 3 in accordance with that announcement.

The 1958 elucidation of Article 1 does discuss the red, and it is worth reading closely, because it does exactly half of what the 2009 elucidation does. It names the shade and refuses several others: the red meant is "merah jernih, jadi bukan merah nyala, merah tua, merah muda atau merah jambu", a clear red, so not a flame red, a dark red, a light red or a pink.

What it never does is say what the colour stands for, and that omission is not a general reluctance to interpret. The regulation's opening recital records that the national flag Sang Merah Putih "adalah lambang kedaulatan dan tanda kehormatan Republik Indonesia", is the symbol of sovereignty and the mark of honour of the Republic of Indonesia, and its Article 5(1) requires that the flag be used in keeping with that standing. The 1958 instrument was perfectly willing to say what the flag as a whole stands for. It never said it of either colour.

In the two instruments that have governed the Indonesian flag, the sentences about courage and purity appear only in the second, in 2009. The 1958 elucidation specifies a colour in words and declines to say what it stands for. The 2009 elucidation specifies the same colour as a number and then says.

The heirloom flag is not the one raised on 17 August

The original is a conserved object, and the state says so in its own regulation on the ceremony.

Peraturan Presiden No. 51 of 2022, which governs the Paskibraka programme, defines the heirloom flag in its Article 1 as "bendera negara yang dijahit oleh Ibu Fatmawati dan dikibarkan pada Proklamasi Kemerdekaan Bangsa Indonesia tanggal 17 Agustus 1945", the national flag sewn by Ibu Fatmawati and raised at the proclamation of independence on 17 August 1945, kept and cared for at the National Monument in Jakarta.

That definition is doing legal work rather than commemoration. It is what fixes which object the rest of the regulation is talking about.

What the flag-raising squad actually handles is named in the same regulation's definitions. Article 1 point 4 defines Paskibraka as the students charged with "melaksanakan tugas mengibarkan/menurunkan duplikat Bendera Pusaka", carrying out the duty of raising and lowering the duplicate of the heirloom flag, at the independence and Pancasila anniversary ceremonies.

Article 8 of the same regulation then provides that a duplicate is made to the size prescribed by legislation, that the Pancasila ideology agency makes it with the approval of the state secretariat ministry, and that the agency distributes duplicates to central government, to regional governments, to Indonesian missions abroad and to other institutions.

The 1958 regulation had taken the other approach. Its Article 4 defined the heirloom flag as the one used at the proclamation ceremony, and provided that it "hanya dikibarkan pada tanggal 17 Agustus", is flown only on 17 August. The rule that once sent the original up the pole once a year has given way to one that keeps it at the National Monument and has copies manufactured.

Why the Indonesian flag looks like Monaco's and Poland's

Because two horizontal bands of red and white is a description that fits more than one flag, and in Monaco's case the description in law is very nearly the same sentence.

Article 7 of the Monegasque constitution of 1962 provides that "Le pavillon national se compose de deux bandes horizontales égales de couleur rouge et blanc, la rouge à la partie supérieure, la blanche à la partie inférieure", the national flag consists of two equal horizontal bands of red and white, the red at the top and the white at the bottom. Like Article 4 of the Indonesian Act, it describes and does not interpret. Whether Monaco glosses its colours anywhere else is not something this article checked. The Monegasque entry has the rest of that flag's detail.

The separation is proportion, and only one of the two instruments states it. Indonesian law fixes two by three in the operative article. The Monegasque constitution states no proportion, and refers use of the flag to a sovereign ordinance of 4 April 1881.

The Polish flag is the easier one, because the order is reversed. Article 4(1) of the Polish Act of 31 January 1980 puts the bands the other way up, "z których górny jest koloru białego, a dolny koloru czerwonego", of which the upper is white and the lower is red, and Article 6(1) of the same Act makes the state flag a rectangular cloth in those colours.

If you want to find out whether you can actually separate the three at speed, a daily flag round gives you one flag and three guesses.

What you can be jailed for doing to an Indonesian flag

Article 24 of the 2009 Act sets out five prohibitions, and the two penal articles behind them split those five into a serious offence and four lesser ones.

The serious one is the first. Damaging, tearing, trampling or burning the flag, or any other act done "dengan maksud menodai, menghina, atau merendahkan kehormatan Bendera Negara", with intent to defile, insult or degrade its honour, carries under Article 66 up to five years in prison or a fine of up to Rp500,000,000.

The other four sit in Article 67 at up to one year or Rp100,000,000: using the flag for advertising or commercial promotion, flying one that is damaged, torn, faded, creased or dull, printing or embroidering or writing letters, numbers, images or other marks on it or pinning anything to it, and using it as a ceiling, a roof, a wrapping or a cover in a way that lowers its honour.

For that first offence the intent requirement sits in the prohibition rather than in the penalty. Article 67 puts a deliberateness requirement into three of its own four paragraphs instead, leaving the printing and embroidering one without it. The Act's general elucidation frames the whole penal chapter as applying to a person who breaches the Act "secara sengaja", deliberately.

The reach is wider than the cloth. The elucidation of Article 24 states that the flag "dalam ketentuan ini termasuk representasi Bendera Negara sebagaimana dimaksud dalam Pasal 4 ayat (4)", in this provision includes a representation of the national flag as referred to in Article 4(4). The paper, plastic, aluminium, triangular and circular versions that Article 4(4)'s own elucidation offers as examples are pulled back under the prohibitions by this one.

Burning is the provision where the two eras read oddly against each other. Article 22 of the 1958 regulation dealt with worn-out flags by ordering that such a flag "harus dihancurkan dengan mengingat kedudukannya, sebaiknya dibakar", must be destroyed with its standing in mind, preferably by burning. The 2009 Act has no disposal provision at all, and makes burning an offence when the intent is to degrade. Article 72 of the 2009 Act keeps earlier regulations in force "sepanjang tidak bertentangan dan/atau belum diganti dengan peraturan baru berdasarkan Undang-Undang ini", so far as they do not conflict with it and/or have not been replaced by a new regulation made under it. No replacement for the 1958 disposal rule was found, so one limb of that test is satisfied. Whether it also conflicts with the 2009 Act's Article 24 is a question for Indonesian lawyers rather than one this article can settle.

Frequently asked questions

What do the colours of the Indonesian flag mean?

Red symbolises courage and white symbolises purity, according to the official elucidation published with Law 24 of 2009. The Indonesian is "Warna ini melambangkan keberanian" for the red and "Warna ini melambangkan kesucian" for the white. The articles of the Act itself assign the colours nothing, so the meanings are the lawmaker's recorded interpretation rather than an operative rule.

Does Indonesian law specify the exact shade of red on the flag?

Yes, but not in an article. The elucidation of Article 4(1) of Law 24 of 2009 gives the red as RGB 255, 0, 0 and the white as RGB 255, 255, 255, describing the red as "merah jernih", a clear red. The Act's annex sets out a drawing and colour figures for the state emblem and none for the flag.

What is the ratio of the Indonesian flag?

Two to three. Article 4(1) of Law 24 of 2009 requires a rectangle whose width is two-thirds of its length, and all ten sizes prescribed in Article 4(3) obey it, from 200 cm by 300 cm on the grounds of the presidential palace down to 10 cm by 15 cm for a table. The same proportion is in the Government Regulation of 1958 that governed the flag before it.

Who made the original Indonesian flag?

Fatmawati, whom Indonesian law names with the honorific Ibu. Presidential Regulation 51 of 2022 defines the heirloom flag as the national flag "dijahit oleh Ibu Fatmawati", sewn by Ibu Fatmawati, and raised at the proclamation of independence on 17 August 1945. The same regulation provides for duplicates to be manufactured and distributed, which is what is raised at ceremonies today.

Is it illegal to burn the Indonesian flag?

Burning the flag with intent to defile, insult or degrade its honour is prohibited by Article 24 of Law 24 of 2009 and carries up to five years in prison or a fine of up to Rp500,000,000 under Article 66. Intent is part of the prohibition. The Government Regulation of 1958 that preceded the Act had told citizens to dispose of a worn-out flag by burning it, and the 2009 Act repeals nothing expressly: its Article 72 keeps earlier rules in force so far as they do not conflict with it and/or have not been replaced by a new regulation made under it.

Sources

• Sekretariat Negara Republik Indonesia, Undang-Undang Republik Indonesia Nomor 24 Tahun 2009 tentang Bendera, Bahasa, dan Lambang Negara, serta Lagu Kebangsaan - Articles 4, 5, 7, 24, 46 to 50, 58, 66, 67 and 72, the general elucidation, and the elucidations of Articles 4 and 24. The annex, which is a drawing, was read as a rendered image. Lembaran Negara 2009 No. 109, Tambahan Lembaran Negara No. 5035. Retrieved 26 August 2026.
• Sekretariat Negara Republik Indonesia, Undang-Undang Republik Indonesia Nomor 12 Tahun 2011 tentang Pembentukan Peraturan Perundang-undangan - Article 64(2) and Lampiran II points 174 to 178, on what an elucidation is and may not contain. The scanned text layer is unreliable, so the two pages relied on were rendered as images and transcribed. Retrieved 26 August 2026.
• Badan Pemeriksa Keuangan, Undang-Undang Republik Indonesia Nomor 10 Tahun 2004 tentang Pembentukan Peraturan Perundang-undangan - annex points 148 to 155, the equivalent rules in force when the flag law was drafted. peraturan.bpk.go.id refuses every request made for this article with HTTP 403, so this was read from the Internet Archive capture of 24 September 2024. Retrieved 26 August 2026.
• Badan Pemeriksa Keuangan, Peraturan Pemerintah Nomor 40 Tahun 1958 tentang Bendera Kebangsaan Republik Indonesia - the opening recital, Articles 1, 4, 5 and 22, and the elucidation of Article 1. Lembaran Negara 1958 No. 68, Tambahan Lembaran Negara No. 1633. Read from the Internet Archive capture of 19 December 2025, for the same reason. The publisher's file is a re-keyed transcription rather than a scan of the gazette. Retrieved 26 August 2026.
• Sekretariat Negara Republik Indonesia, Peraturan Presiden Republik Indonesia Nomor 51 Tahun 2022 tentang Program Pasukan Pengibar Bendera Pusaka - Article 1 points 2 and 4 and Article 8, on the heirloom flag, who raises its duplicate, and how duplicates are made and distributed. Retrieved 26 August 2026.
• Gouvernement Princier de Monaco, Constitution du 17 décembre 1962 de la Principauté, article 7 - the Monegasque flag, its order of colours and the reference to the sovereign ordinance of 4 April 1881. Retrieved 26 August 2026.
• Kancelaria Sejmu, Ustawa z dnia 31 stycznia 1980 r. o godle, barwach i hymnie Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej oraz o pieczęciach państwowych, consolidated text, Dz. U. z 2025 r. poz. 299 - article 4(1), the order of the Polish bands. isap.sejm.gov.pl answers a security challenge, so this is the Internet Archive capture of 15 November 2025. Retrieved 26 August 2026.