The trick is to achieve independence without provoking excessively autarkic economic policies. Avoiding the destruction of WW2, the Revolution, and Konfrontasi would also be very helpful. One possible scenario could be if Nazi Germany is able to achieve some sort of victory in Europe, perhaps only temporary, while Japan does not invade the European colonial empires or falters quickly; failure to get French Indochina without having to fight for it would certainly prevent any thrust from reaching as far as Indonesia. This leaves the European colonial empires in SEA technically intact, but with the metropoles under Nazi domination. This in turn creates a power vacuum that would likely be filled by the United States, with a modest British involvement. Given the anti-colonialist agenda of the US during the 1940's it is highly likely that Indonesia and other European colonies would transition towards independence under a US-backed government, such as what was planned for the Philippines prior to WW2, allowing them all to achieve their independence without destructive wars while still retaining access to Western economies and expertise. True democracy may be some time coming, but IMO similar to South Korea or Taiwan it is likely to be achieved before the year 2000. By 2018 all of South East Asia should have developed reasonably strong economies with standards of living comparable to Taiwan or South Korea, unless some later destructive event occurs.