Coffee plantations: Dark side of RI history

Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Indonesia has been a major coffee producer since the 17th century when the Dutch began opening massive coffee plantations on Java island.

The Dutch first brought Arabica coffee to Indonesia, particularly to Java, in 1690 from the port of Mocha in Yemen. The local authorities actually prohibited anyone from transporting the seeds of the Arabica outside the peninsula.

The Dutch, however, managed to smuggle some out and cultivate them in its colonies, including Indonesia and Ceylon.

Coffee cultivation in Java proved successful and the commodity was soon being exported around the globe. Since then, coffee from Java has been popular among coffee lovers, so much so that Java became synonymous with coffee.

Such was the popularity of Java's coffee, that traders of coffee produced elsewhere often labeled their products as "Java" to increase sales.

Later, coffee plantations expanded to other parts of Indonesia, particularly Sumatra and Sulawesi, which became Indonesia's main coffee producing areas.

Sulawesi is well known for its high-quality Arabica coffee named Torabika, grown in Toraja regency, while Sumatra is known for its Mandheling coffee produced in central Sumatra. This coffee is famed for its herbal aroma, full body, low acidity, rich and smooth flavor.

Agus Pakpahan, chairman of the Executive Body for Indonesian Plantation Associations (Gapperindo), said the Dutch made huge amounts of money from Indonesian-grown coffee while the country was still its colony.

In his book Petani Menggugat (Rebelling Farmers), published in 2004, Pakpahan wrote that coffee from Indonesia accounted for about 56.8 percent of the Netherlands' national income from 1860 to 1865.

This early coffee cultivation, however, was recorded by historians as one of the darkest parts of Dutch colonial rule in Indonesia, as thousands of people were forced to work at coffee plantations as virtual slave labor.

This forced labor inspired Dutch writer Eduard Douwes Dekker, aka Multatuli, to write his famous novel Max Havelaar, which criticized the forced labor policy of the colonial administration.

After gaining independence in 1945, Indonesia maintained its position as a major coffee producer.

Since the Dutch colonial era, coffee drinking has been a habit for most Indonesian people. Simple coffee shops, locally known as warung kopi, can be found around the country, particularly in rural areas.

Coffee drinking has increasingly become part of the lifestyle of urban people. Plush coffee shops can be found in star-rated hotels, shopping malls and commercial centers.