{
    "success": true,
    "data": {
        "id": 1762274,
        "msgid": "time-to-stop-reproducing-colonial-mentality-within-ourselves-1780329040",
        "date": "2026-05-25 07:19:31",
        "title": "Time to Stop Reproducing Colonial Mentality Within Ourselves",
        "author": "Ferril Dennys",
        "source": "KOMPAS",
        "tags": "",
        "topic": "Social Policy",
        "summary": "The article examines how colonialism persists as a mindset rather than physical occupation, with Dutch society romanticising the Dutch East Indies while ignoring the suffering of colonised people. It highlights that colonial infrastructure and order served the interests of the colonisers, not the local population, with the Cultivation System described as slavery. The work of Michel Maas and historian Peter Carey underscores the need for both nations to confront this historical legacy.",
        "content": "<p>The issue of colonialism has not truly ended; it has not fully become\npart of the past. Colonialism has merely changed form: from physical\noccupation to a mindset, mentality, and even nostalgia. This was\nhighlighted at last week\u2019s 20th Praksis Forum in Jakarta when Dutch\nauthor Michel Maas dissected his book \u201cDe Gelogen Kolonie: Naar\nIndonesi\u00eb om Indi\u00eb te vergeten\u201d. The book explicitly challenges Dutch\nromanticism towards the Dutch East Indies. We must honestly acknowledge\nthat, to this day, parts of Dutch society still view Indonesia through a\ncolonial lens. What they recall is not the suffering of the colonised\npeople, but the orderliness of colonial cities, old buildings, canals,\ntropical plantations, and exotic life in a faraway land. The Dutch East\nIndies are remembered as a \u201cbeautiful period\u201d of peace and tranquillity.\nBut peace for whom? Order for whom? Comfort for whom? In colonial\nnostalgia, forced labour fades from memory. Famine caused by the\nCultivation System is dismissed as a mere historical footnote. Military\nviolence is forgotten. What remains are black-and-white photographs that\nappear picturesque in museums or tourist postcards. Therefore, Maas\u2019s\nbook is important not only for the Netherlands but also for Indonesia.\nIt reminds us that colonialism was never built for the advancement of\nthe colonised. Colonial infrastructure was not a gift. Colonial order\nwas not an act of generosity. Everything was designed to serve the\neconomic and political interests of the colonisers. Historian Peter\nCarey at the forum even described the Cultivation System as a form of\nslavery.<\/p>",
        "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/time-to-stop-reproducing-colonial-mentality-within-ourselves-1780329040",
        "image": ""
    },
    "sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
    "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}