The PNI grew rapidly, causing concern for the authorities, who arrested Sukarno and

seven party leaders in December 1929. They were put on trial for being a threat to
public order and in September 1930 received sentences of one to four years -
Sukarno received the longest sentence. The PNI dissolved itself in 1931, and in the
same year, Sjahrir returned from the Netherlands and established a party called the
New PNI which rather than focussing on mass action and being dependent on one
leader, aimed to create a group of leaders who could ensure continuity if any were
arrested. In 1931, Sukarno was released and joined the small Indonesia Party
(Partindo), while in August 1932, Hatta returned from the Netherlands and assumed
the leadership of the rival New PNI, which had a more Marxist and revolutionary
platform than Partindo. Sukarno was arrested again in August 1933 and exiled him
first to Flores, then to Bencoolen, while Hatta and Sjahrir were arrested and
exiled to the Boven Digul detention camp in western New Guinea.[11][12][13]

The detention of these nationalist figures effectively ended the non-cooperation

movement, and in December 1935 the moderate Indonesian National Union and Budi
Utomo merged to form the Great Indonesia Party (Parindra), which aimed to work with
the Dutch to achieve Indonesian independence. When in 1936, Volksraad member
Soetardjo submitted a petition asking for a conference to be held that would lead
to Indonesian self-government as part of a Dutch-Indonesian union over a decade,
Parindra was lukewarm, resenting the possibility of Soetardjo succeeding where the
other nationalist organizations had failed.[14] The petition was passed by a
majority of the Volksraad, but rejected by the Dutch in November 1938. In May 1937,
Parindra, the Indonesian People's Movement (Gerindo), was established by younger
Marxists including Amir Sjarifuddin, another future prime minister, to campaign for
the formation of an Indonesian parliament in cooperation with the Dutch, which was
the same aim of the Indonesian Political Federation (GAPI), formed two years later
from a merger of almost all the nationalist organizations. However, the outbreak of
the Second World War resulted in the occupation of the Netherlands, and the Dutch
government in exile was in no position to respond to GAPI's request for a Dutch-
Indonesian union and an elected legislature, although Dutch Queen Wilhelmina made a
speech in London in May 1941 promising unspecified changes to the relationship with
the East Indies after the war.[15][16]

On 23 January 1942, three years before the 1945 proclamation, an independence

activist Nani Wartabone declared "Indonesian independence" after he and his people
won in a revolt in Gorontalo against the Dutch who were afraid of Japanese invasion
of Celebes. He was later imprisoned by the Japanese after they had invaded the
area.[17]