Colonialism: A pimple?<\/p>\n
The preoccupation with Dutch colonialism in the responses to
\nmy analysis (East Timor: Dutch war replayed I & II, The Jakarta
\nPost, March 22 and March 23) suggests a curious predisposition to
\navoid the issue of East Timor. This is apparent as they created a
\ndebate on Dutch colonialism -- its achievements, cruelties and
\ninjustice -- while my subject matter was quite different and
\nspecific, i.e. about war crimes in East Timor and a comparison of
\nthis to the Dutch war of 1945-1950 rather than the preceding
\nperiods. Apparently, the fact that Indonesia had until very
\nrecently been a colonial master of East Timor cannot be accepted
\nyet.<\/p>\n
Most of the responses (March 25, March 28, March 29, March 30,
\nApril 1 and April 5) are relatively irrelevant, some -- Chichi
\nMarti and Y. Santo -- even resorted to accusations (\"neo Nazi\",
\n\"colonizing movie\"), which tell us even less about the subject
\nmatter than about the writers themselves. Others -- Bart van
\nAssen, Y. Santo and Chichi Marti -- were more interested in
\nwhether Indonesians were more or less capable of atrocities than
\nthe Dutch. This seems dubious since both -- i.e. their armies --
\nhad proven to be capable of some barbaric acts. It would be
\nmeaningful to search for historic conditions that made these acts
\npossible.<\/p>\n
The fact that my critics hardly responded to what happened in
\nEast Timor and, instead, rightly or wrongly, blamed Dutch
\ncolonialism, is a symptom. It is a measure of New Order
\npropaganda on the \"integration\" of East Timor. Whenever it comes
\nto \"East Timor\" (read: our own colonialism), one tends to ignore
\nit, takes a mistaken patriotic stand, or blames others. In 1992
\nSoeharto said East Timor was just a small distortion, \"a pimple
\non our (Indonesia's) face\" -- a \"pimple\", that is, that his
\nregime itself created, while ignoring his responsibility, i.e.
\nthe humanitarian disasters, which many of his generals were
\nacutely aware of. One of his officials in the late 1970s had even
\nreported to Amnesty International that about 200,000 East
\nTimorese had been killed as a result of Indonesia's occupation. A
\nFrench sociologist (G. Defert, Timor Est, Le Genocide Oublie,
\n1992) put the figure at 350,000 deaths.<\/p>\n
President Abdurrahman Wahid has justly proposed a mea culpa
\nfor the killings from 1965 to 1966, but also for the East Timor
\ntragedy when he visited Dili recently. Perhaps, instead of making
\nirrelevant remarks and accusations, my critics should turn to
\nEast Timor and answer the following for themselves: Does our
\nformer colony deserve a mea culpa or a \"pimple\"?<\/p>\n
ABOEPRIJADI SANTOSO<\/p>\n
Amsterdam<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/colonialism-a-pimple-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }