Colonial Java: How trouble came to paradise Bruce Emond The Jakarta Post Jakarta

------------------------------------------------- The Thugs, the Curtain Thief and the Sugar Lord: Power, Politics and Culture in Colonial Java Onghokham, Metafor Publishing, 2003 xiv + 338 pp Rp 135,000 -------------------------------------------------

It takes skill to be able to dig beyond the dry facts of history and bring to life a distant time and place for latter generations.

A great historian is not necessarily a great writer, often tripping himself up by studiously conveying historical detail without furnishing it with the deft penmanship or attention to the human side of history to keep the interest of readers.

In tackling the intricate nature of colonialism in Java from the 19th century to Indonesia's independence, Onghokham's collection of essays provides a richly textured exploration of the period. Insightful without being pedantic, learned but not overbearing, the book is full of humorous anecdotes while never shirking the factual responsibility of the historian.

The author is gifted a colorful cast of characters in examining the uneasy relationship between the local Javanese pryayi (local regional administrators) and their Dutch colonial overlords, the latter -- frequently left bothered and bewildered by the activities of the local populace -- dependent on the former to take care of business.

In refuting the glorified colonial image of a backward native population contentedly tending their fields while the "betters" kept a watch over them, Onghokham reveals cultural miscues, missteps and increasing discord in 19th century Java. By the time the Dutch administration realized there was trouble in paradise, with Queen Wilhelmina declaring the Netherlands' "debt of honor" to the Javanese in 1905, it was already too late.

The title of the first, arguably most interesting essay, The Inscrutable and the Paranoid, perfectly conveys the divide between the two groups. Onghokham clearly relishes this tale that pitted the Dutch against what they considered the uppity Javanese regent of Madiun, Brotodiningrat.

Not one to play nice with the Europeans, Brotodiningrat, supremely self-confident, wanted things his way. He chafed when one of the Dutch residents dismissed the regents as nothing more than spies, believing that he and his peers were actually in control.

Brotodiningrat set about stirring things up when a new resident not to his liking arrived in Madiun in the 1890s. Their relationship descended into oneupmanship, power plays and open hostility (when admonished that his letters were not respectful enough, he retorted, "[It's] because I'm no old woman"), reaching its nadir with the theft of a curtain from the resident's home in 1899.

It was no ordinary curtain, mind you: "It had covered the window by which the resident sat, often in pajamas for his coffee, and the theft of the curtain, which infringed on the privacy and affronted the dignity of the highest official in the area, seemed clearly to be a demonstration against European rule," Onghokham writes.

Although the theft was initially blamed on a petty thief, the incensed resident suspected Brotodiningrat, and his campaign against him led to the regent being dispatched to West Sumatra.

Even then, Brotodiningrat refused to toe the line, sending appeals to Queen Wilhelmina and using the developing arena of the media to plead his cause. He was eventually allowed to return to Yogyakarta on Java, but he was to be a thorn in the side of the colonists for the rest of his life.

The Brotodiningrat affair, and the earlier revolt against payment of taxes in Patik, Ponorogo, also part of Madiun regency, showed the tenuous hold on power of the Dutch, with the forces of change moving inexorably -- although not to be realized for another half century -- of independence.

There are also essays on the use of jago (thugs) for the regents' own devices, the rise of the particularly Indonesian type of Chinese involvement in capitalism (through the story of the sugar lord of the title) and economic development.

Onghokham argues persuasively against the usual statement of 350 years of Dutch colonialism, noting the resistance in Aceh and Bali and that the East Indies were only one in 1910, and that colonialism only began in Java in 1830.

A great gourmet and gourmand, Onghokham also includes an essay on tempeh's contribution to building the nation as a readily available source of protein when animal sources had been exhausted, and well as one rijstafel, the buffet of dishes which the Dutch gorged on as part of their colonial tour of duty (Onghokham notes how the Javanese looked down at the Dutch choice of fried bananas as a buffet mainstay, considering it a lowly fruit because it was available all year round).

Individually, each essay is thought-provoking and interesting, although the reader will come across the problem of repetition in information, probably due to the essays being written at different times (the definition of the cultivation system is repeated at least three times in different essays, for example). In at least two essays, there are also the clumsy transitions "In this paper ..."

The most enduring impression, however, is the contemporary parallels -- the use of thugs by powerholders to get their way, the populace's belief in charismatic leadership, officials carefully sizing up their options for their own personal benefits. History repeats itself indeed.