Dutch colonial time<\/p>\n
Coming home from a trip abroad I read all the newspapers
\ndelivered during my absence.<\/p>\n
Then I read Mr de Jong's letter about Indonesia in The Jakarta
\nPost on Sept. 27, 1994.<\/p>\n
Everybody knows that small country Holland became rich because
\nof the spices from Indonesia, and that Columbus wanted to find
\nthese spice-islands (the rest is history).<\/p>\n
Sir, were any of your family among the 40,000 (forty thousand)
\npeople murdered by Mr Westerling during his killing tours through
\nSouth Sulawesi? No! Because those victims were all Indonesians.
\nDon't tell me you have never heard of him. You said yourself that
\nyou know 99 percent more about Indonesia than the pure
\nIndonesians.<\/p>\n
I was a little girl, 10 years old, in a crowd of students, who
\nwatched a massacre on the bus-station platform, an open area
\nbetween the mosque, market area, cinema and school in Pare-Pare.<\/p>\n
It happened during the 9 a.m. rest period. We saw 150 to 200
\nmen and women taken from the crowded market and pushed together
\nin the middle of that open area. Guarded by armed Dutchmen, they
\nsquatted on the ground, squeezed together, facing Westerling.
\nWesterling sat in the front seat of an open Jeep (no doors,
\nmilitary green canvas roof), with one foot on the edge of the
\nJeep, holding a pistol on his knee. Then he started shooting at
\nthe poor people on the ground.<\/p>\n
One woman got up, pointing her right first in the air and
\nshouted: Merdeka! Then she sank down with a bullet in her eye.
\nWesterling's men then "finished the job" with machine guns. In
\nthe meantime the school bell rang and we had to go return to our
\nclass-rooms, listening to the fire of machine guns.<\/p>\n
One of the pupils, a boy named Jumadi, was crying because he'd
\nseen his father, Pak Oyok, among the murdered. We all knew Pak
\nOyok, a timid man who used to help us repair our bikes. Since
\nthen our parents have taken Pak Oyok's nine children under their
\nwing.<\/p>\n
Westerling was never put on trial nor extradited; he died as a
\nfree citizen in the Netherlands.<\/p>\n
I was living in Vienna when I read, in the newspaper, about
\nhis death. May God forgive him! I still suffer from horrific
\n"flashbacks".<\/p>\n
During 350 years of colonial rule, there were countless
\nnumbers of "Westerlings", some worse than others.<\/p>\n
At school my six-year-old sister got a serious gash on the top
\nof her head, caused by a big stone thrown by a Dutch girl, Vera.
\nAs her older sister, but still a little girl myself, I had to
\ntake her to the hospital. The two of us walked the 600 meters to
\nthe hospital on the hill. With every heart beat the blood gushed
\nout of the open wound. By the time we arrived at the hospital, I
\nwas dragging my little sister, covered in blood. No teacher (they
\nwere all Dutch) accompanied us to the hospital. My sister could
\nhave died on the way.<\/p>\n
I myself, was badly treated by a Dutch boy, Paul (the son of
\nthe Head of Police), for no reason at all. I just happened to be
\npassing by when he was in the mood for tormenting an inlander. I
\nended up with wounds on my arms and legs, and pain in my breast
\nand head. The boy laughed with satisfaction.<\/p>\n
The Dutch liked to torment the Inlanders because, out of fear,
\nwe never fought back. If people can do whatever they like,
\nwithout being punished, they tend to get out of control and can
\nbecome cruel. I still remember the poor Indonesians in the barb-
\nwired courtyard of the Dutch police station, in the burning sun,
\nstanding on one leg, arms outstretched, till they dropped dead.<\/p>\n
I don't consider you arrogant or stupid, Mr de Jong. I just
\nfeel pity and deep sympathy for you, because you don't know, just
\nthe same as other Dutch people; Have never experienced it
\nyourself and cannot, and will not, believe that those horrific
\ncolonial practices ever really happened (like the Hongi-Tochten,
\netc.).<\/p>\n
NANNY DJALI A.<\/p>\n
Jakarta<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/dutch-colonial-time-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }