Tracing the long history of the postal service<\/p>\n
By Ida Indawati Khouw<\/p>\n
The beauty of the central post office on Jl. Pos in Central
\nJakarta is now fading away as it becomes masked by the stalls of
\nsidewalk vendors mushrooming around the building. This is the
\n69th article on Batavia.<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The postal service in Jakarta has a long history
\nbut people can no longer see historical sites where the
\ndevelopment of this vital public service began as all of them no
\nlonger exist.<\/p>\n
The history of Indonesia's postal service is itself quite a
\nremarkable part of national history, as it relates to the
\nconstruction of the Anyer-Panarukan road connecting the western
\nand eastern parts of the island of Java.<\/p>\n
The central post office building still exists at Jl. Pos in
\nCentral Jakarta, accentuated by beautiful and colorful glass
\nwindows and wall recesses.<\/p>\n
The present office, however, is relatively new, developed on
\nthe site where the former post office building once existed until
\nits demolition in 1913.<\/p>\n
The first post office was built in the Pasar Ikan area, in the
\nold port of Batavia, North Jakarta, during the authority of
\nGovernor General Gustaaf Willem Baron van Imhoff, who officially
\nopened the office on Aug. 26, 1746.<\/p>\n
At that time the main purpose for establishing the office was
\nto guarantee the security of community letters, particularly for
\nthose involved in trade, and letters from the offices of VOC
\n(Vereenigde Oost Indische Compagnie, the Dutch trading company
\nwhich was in power at the time) outside Batavia, as well as mail
\nsent to and from the Netherlands.<\/p>\n
The postal service system in the early days of Batavia was
\nunique at that time, with letters only directed to the VOC
\nofficials, under orders that they should not contain any news
\nrelated to the VOC's trading activities in Indonesia, to protect
\nthe secrecy of the company's operations.<\/p>\n
The prohibition was so strict in order to guarantee that
\nsources of valuable spices, of which trading was monopolized by
\nVOC, would not become known to its competitors.<\/p>\n
\"Transgression of this regulation resulted in severe
\npunishment, even exile,\" according to the book History of Posts
\nand Telecommunications in Indonesia.<\/p>\n
To fulfill the goal, all letters, which were first read by the
\nhead of the purchasing department before its contents were
\nsummarized in a book called \"patria\", were placed in a general
\nbox in Batavia.<\/p>\n
The letters' arrival from the Netherlands were recorded in a
\nbook kept by the official confiscator. Then, those expecting
\nletters from the Netherlands should first check the record book.<\/p>\n
In 1633 a new system was imposed. Letters from the Netherlands
\nwere displayed at the City Hall (at the site where the Jakarta
\nHistorical Museum is now located in West Jakarta) after having
\nbeen recorded by the official confiscator, forcing people to go
\nto the City Hall to see whether they had any mail.<\/p>\n
Postal services at that time were not regular and relied on
\nthe VOC's naval vessels. The journeys were complicated by the
\nprevalence of pirates at that time.<\/p>\n
\"The company government once offered a reward of 500
\nrijksdaalder to whoever could capture the murderer of the
\nemployees at the Cirebon post office (in West Java) on 15th March
\n1798,\" the history book said.<\/p>\n
Due to this problem, original letters were usually followed by
\na duplicate.<\/p>\n
In those days, it took nine months for letters to arrive from
\nthe Netherlands to Indonesia and four months from Jakarta to
\nAmbon.<\/p>\n
Achievement<\/p>\n
Postal services showed significant progress during the French
\ncolonial era, between 1808 and 1811, where the country was under
\nthe government of Governor General Herman Willem Daendels,
\nnotorious for his iron-fist rule.<\/p>\n
At that time, a 1,000-kilometer long postal highway connecting
\nAnyer in West Java and Panarukan in East Java, stretching along
\nthe northern coast of Java, was constructed.<\/p>\n
Construction of the gravel road, performed under a forced
\nlabor system which sacrificed thousands of indigenous Indonesian
\nlives, was started in 1809 and completed a year later.<\/p>\n
Its completion brought significant improvements in the postal
\nservice as it shortened trips between East and West Java to six
\ndays, a vast improvement from the previous 40 day journey.<\/p>\n
The advanced payment system in the postal service was first
\nintroduced during the English occupation between 1811 and 1814,
\nreplicating the British postal system, while the first postage
\nstamps were introduced here in 1864.<\/p>\n
In Batavia, where postal service facilities were continuously
\nimproved, in 1835 the central post office was located at
\nWaterlooplein (at Daendel's \"palace\" in Lapangan Banteng in
\nCentral Jakarta, which is now turned into the Ministry of Finance
\noffice). By 1853, it was relocated to nearby Post Weg (now Jl.
\nPos).<\/p>\n
\"The precise year when the central post office first operated
\nfrom this site is not clear but it would have been between 1835
\nand 1853,\" Scott Merrillees writes in his book Batavia in the
\nNineteenth Century Photographs.<\/p>\n
The central post office, which still operates today, was built
\nonly after 1913, following the demolition of the older building.<\/p>\n
In the 1930s, postal service traffic had become very busy with
\nabout 28 million letters moving through Batavia's seven post
\noffices annually, according to the book Batavia als Handels,
\nIndustrie en Woonstad (Batavia as a Commercial, Industrial and
\nResidential Center).<\/p>\n
\"For delivery of letters (telegrams included) and the emptying
\nof the post boxes, the postal service at Batavia has about 150
\npostmen, 175 bicycles, 8 delivery cars and 14 trucks ... ,\" the
\nbook recorded.<\/p>\n
Now, the central post office on Jl. Pos is used as the office
\nof the philatelic division of PT Pos Indonesia.<\/p>\n
The interior of the art deco style building is primarily an
\noblong hall which enabled hundreds of employees to work together.<\/p>\n
In the past, the 7,518-square-meter estate had a good
\nventilation system because of its high roof, however this has now
\nchanged due to the hall being partitioned.<\/p>",
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