Trying to live with history of Dutch colonial rule<\/p>\n
Jim Schuurmans, The Netherlands<\/p>\n
The VOC Dutch trade firm, is \"a sore memory 400 years after\"
\n-- The Jakarta Post reported in March, nearly 200 years after the
\nVOC was declared bankrupt according to Dutch law.<\/p>\n
Four hundred years ago the Netherlands was fighting for its
\nown independence against Spain, a war that lasted 80 years and
\nthat could only free half of the country, the other half nowadays
\nbeing Belgium.<\/p>\n
The reason for this war was freedom of religion. An agreement
\nwith the Pope had divided the world in two halves: One half would
\nbe Spanish if any new country was discovered, and the other half
\nof the world would become Portuguese.<\/p>\n
According to this agreement, Indonesia and Malaysia would be
\nPortuguese and the Philippines would be Spanish. The Minahasa, in
\nnorthern Sulawesi, was on the border and the population was so
\nhorrified by the atrocities of those Portuguese and Spanish, that
\nthey made an agreement with the VOC as an ally, not as a subdued
\narea.<\/p>\n
The independence war the Netherlands fought for its freedom of
\nreligion had a major consequence for Indonesia and Malaysia;
\nbecause Islam could spread without any restrictions by the VOC or
\nthe Dutch government thereafter.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile there are plenty of examples where the Dutch acted
\nviolently to establish or defend their trade contracts. Large
\nnumbers of victims were a result of this aggression in Maluku and
\nstill every Dutch student learns of murders, such as on the Banda
\nIslands.<\/p>\n
Still, how was it possible that a company of such a small
\ncountry could conquer Indonesia? A return trip to and from both
\ncountries took one or two years, while technology in Indonesia
\nand in the Netherlands were not too far away from each other. The
\nbuilding of homes, repair of sailing ships and manufacturing of
\nguns, were all available technology in Indonesia.<\/p>\n
But the VOC did not conquer Indonesians; they attacked right
\naway any Portuguese or Spanish settlement of importance -- often
\nwith the support of Indonesian kings who wanted to get rid of
\nthem. Shortly thereafter, the Portuguese fortifications in
\nparticular were taken over together with trade. We should not
\nblame those Indonesian kings that allowed such settlements to be
\nbuilt. In that period Java had hardly 2.5 million inhabitants and
\nwas as sparsely populated as Irian Jaya is now.<\/p>\n
In Batavia, the Dutch were allowed to settle in an unhealthy
\nswamp with the approval of the Sultan of Banten. The area was
\nsupervised by a Regent disliked by the Sultan. And then when the
\nDutch built their Batavia in the 17th century, they were attacked
\nby Sultan Agung. This should be seen as an attack by a Javanese
\nking on an area belonging to a Sundanese King. How did the Dutch
\nwin?<\/p>\n
Historical records say the total number of inhabitants was
\nonly around 4,000 people, of which less than 600 were Dutch and
\nthe rest were Indonesians and Chinese. The army from Java was
\nenormous but logistics were neglected. There were guns, but no
\nfood. A Javanese army just took the little food they could find.<\/p>\n
But there was always another reason for fighting between the
\nVOC and Indonesians. The major causes were the politics of
\nexpansion between the hundreds of local states. Always, the VOC
\nwas asked to participate in exchange for trade licenses. Such a
\nwar was only started when it promised to be profitable. Because a
\nwar is expensive, a Dutch governor that caused a financial loss,
\nbecause of war, was always dismissed without pardon, sometimes
\neven without notice.<\/p>\n
At the end of the 18th century, Europe was in chaos, with the
\nFrench Revolution, followed by the Napoleonic wars, going on all
\nover the continent. The British occupied all Dutch settlements in
\nIndia, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and of course Indonesia. The Republic
\nof the Seven United Netherlands itself was occupied by Napoleon.
\nThe VOC was declared bankrupt in 1815. The Dutch government took
\nover the depths and trading contracts, and colonialism begun.<\/p>\n
In the same year the British left all the trade settlements,
\nbut not after smuggling clove and nutmeg seeds to their colonies,
\nZanzibar and Trinidad. After thousands of years, a monopoly was
\nfinished, and step by step Maluku became poor.<\/p>\n
Since then the Dutch acted differently in Indonesia. After the
\nchaos in Europe, Great Britain was the new colonial super power.
\nTheir takeover of Dutch settlements in Sri Lanka, India and
\nMalaysia was quickly expanded to a Southeast Asian empire. The
\nNetherlands also expanded and created the Netherlands East
\nIndies. They did not want to give the British a second chance.
\nEspecially in Java and Sumatra, times were hard. Nobody would
\ndeny the suffering of the Indonesians and the exploitation,
\nparticularly of the farmers in Java and Sumatra.<\/p>\n
By the end of the 19th century, the Dutch government started
\nto realize this cruelty and ordered the colonial government to
\nchange their policy, and give the Indonesians more benefits from
\nthe money that was locally earned.<\/p>\n
But Aceh, the powerful nation in North Sumatra that contested
\nthe Portuguese in Malacca, already had gained a guarantee of
\nindependence in the 17th century from the Dutch and the British
\nin an \"undercover\" treaty. In the 19th century the U.S. developed
\na pepper trade with Aceh. This pepper was bought in Aceh and was
\nsold in Europe.<\/p>\n
In the second half of the 19th century, history reveals that
\nat one point an American merchant ship was captured by Acehnese
\npirates. The American navy sent a navy ship to Aceh, and various
\ncoastal villages were destroyed by American firepower. At the end
\nof that century the Americans bought the whole country of the
\nPhilippines from Spain. Now the Dutch and the British realized
\nthey had a rival in this part of the world.<\/p>\n
The old independence agreement was deleted and the Aceh war
\nwas started by the Dutch and approved by the British Empire. At
\nthe end of the 19th century the Dutch occupied the Batak Lands.
\nSuch agreements between the Dutch and the British were also made
\nfor Bengkulu. The British handed over Bengkulu to the Dutch under
\nthe condition that they could remain in Singapore and that the
\nDutch would never hand over Bengkulu to a third party.<\/p>\n
When Indonesia became internationally recognized in 1949 some
\nBritish papers suggested that Great Britain could exercise a
\nclaim on Bengkulu.<\/p>\n
So in the 18th and 19th century, colonialism was not easy to
\nescape in certain parts of the world. If one power lost, another
\nwould come instead. For Indonesia it changed the map and created
\nthe fourth largest country in the world.<\/p>\n
Maybe Indonesia can lose its \"sore memory\" of the VOC by
\nidentifying their potential and by remembering that the VOC
\nofficials only started a war when a trade contract was violated.<\/p>\n
However, we can only live with history. The history of the VOC
\nis entangled with Indonesian heritage. It is better to exploit it
\nthan to deny it. Take the Japanese who built a \"VOC village\"
\ncomplete with a ship, or Australia, who built a \"VOC ship\"
\nsailing to Europe via Indonesia. It would be a tourist attraction
\nto transform Sunda Kelapa and its environment into a true VOC
\nheadquarters with duplicates of the original buildings.<\/p>\n
Indonesians could also organize three phinisi (sailing ships)
\nto travel to Amsterdam, just the other way around, to convince
\nthe world that Indonesia could have done the same in the 17th
\ncentury.<\/p>\n
The writer is a consultant who deals with Indonesian history
\nas a personal interest. The National Committee to Defend
\nIndonesia's Dignity (KNPMBI) comprising 10 non government
\norganizations recently demanded that the Netherlands apologize
\nfor its rule and its \"gross violation of human rights\" towards
\nIndonesians, particularly those after the proclamation of
\nindependence on Aug. 17, 1945.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/trying-to-live-with-history-of-dutch-colonial-rule-1447893297",
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