Historical fact on East Indies

In the face of the abundant evidence of his misdeeds there is no doubt that by all standards Kapitein Raymond "De Turk" Westerling must be considered a war criminal. And I do not know why he was never charged with misconduct and court-martialed, neither do I know why the Indonesian government has never demanded his extradition. Let there be no doubt that Westerling was sharply condemned by Dutch public opinion and that his criminal actions were definitely strongly disapproved of.

Ms Nanny Djali's letter of Nov. 2, 1994 also brings me to another subject. These days we hear a lot about "350 years of colonial rule." The statement is only partially correct. Let me explain.

The first Dutchmen landed on Java in 1596 and the Dutch East Indies Company (VOC) started its activities in 1602 and ended its existence in bankruptcy in 1799. This VOC was a private trading company, not a national government, and as such was only interested in its core activity: business. Therefore the VOC opened trading posts in certain places selected for their strategic situation and availability of tradable goods. Thus its Administration was established in Batavia, Ambon and Ternate (spices!) in the early 17th century. Additional trading posts were set up in Padang (1667) and Menado (1679). However, outside the aforementioned places enormous areas were not covered by the VOC at all. Business was its interest, not territory. Example: Ceram (a much bigger island than adjacent Ambon) was incorporated into the Netherlands East Indies only in 1905.

It is only after the Kingdom of the Netherlands took over the defunct VOC and after the British Interregnum in the early 19th century that gradual incorporation of other towns and regions took place. For example, if we look at Sumatra we see that Palembang was incorporated in 1825, Bengkulu in 1824, Jambi in 1833, Bonjol in 1837, Lampung in 1855. It took 30 years of war to subdue the Acehnese, so Aceh was placed under Dutch jurisdiction only in 1904; on Borneo Pontianak in 1831, Banjarmasin in 1860. Much of the colonization of the Netherlands East Indies took place in the early 20th century (yes, in this century): Bali 1908, Lombok (a little earlier, 1894), Sumba, Sumbawa and West- Timor 1907, Flores 1905. On Celebes: Tanah Toraja 1907, on Borneo: Dayak country 1907, Nieuw Guinea (now Irian Jaya) in the 1920's!

In the 17th century the island of Java had no more than four million inhabitants (mostly living in coastal areas) and was covered with a dense tropical forest infested with tigers, black panthers, snakes etc. Even at the time of Java War (1830) there were only approximately 10 million people on Java (Holland had three million). Large parts of the Indonesian Archipelago were hardly populated at all, which is why the VOC (being a trading company) had no particular interest in those parts. This "emptiness" for a great deal explains the Dutch view of the East Indies as "terra nova," not unlike the Americas, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand (other products of European colonialism). As late as 1890 the total population numbered only 30 million, now 190 million!

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