Historical root of political conflicts

Historical root of political conflicts

By Onghokham

JAKARTA (JP): Before one gets into some of the political
problems of today, one must first look at the administrative and
political frame of the Dutch East Indies colonial government.

The colonial system was known as one of indirect rule, meaning
that next to the Dutch civil service consisting of the resident
(governor) and his Dutch staff there was the local priyayi
(Javanese traditional elite) administration headed by the Bupati
or regent and his Javanese staff.

Relations between the two branches of government grew and
differed at times. At first it was commercial, one of alliance,
then one of persuasion through giving large sums of incentives to
the local Javanese elite and at the end of subordination.

Dutch colonialism was a natural growth in Java, as was the
case with the British in India and the Spanish in the
Philippines.

In 1900 the Dutch colonial system was decidedly dominant and
supreme. However, its growth met resistance from the elite as
well as from the populace. In this special case which we will
deal with it was a conflict among the elite.

The lessons of indirect colonial rule might teach us lessons
about the dual function of the Indonesian Armed Forces, problems
on relations between multinational enterprises and local
governments and others. Above all, with today's rife rumors about
plots and conspiracies it might be useful to look at the quiet
old colonial days of peace and order (rust en orde).

In 1900, curtains and some small items were stolen from the
home of Dutch resident in East Java town of Madiun. But it was
the curtains which most irritated Resident Dekker, the highest
representative of the Dutch crown in the region.

Dekker was irritated because he could not have breakfast in
his nightgown because the whole populace of Madiun could peer at
him in his most undignified appearance. This was certainly
subversive not only toward the Dutch Crown's highest
representative but against the whole colonial government.

Dekker immediately summoned local regent Raden Mas Ningrat, a
high noble connected with the last remaining royal courts of the
Mataram dynasty of Central Java and more or less held him
responsible for the subversive theft. This article uses
pseudonyms for both the resident and the regent.

From the day Dekker took up his post as resident of Madiun in
1897, his relationship with Javanese counterpart Ningrat had been
bad and grew worse with the years.

There were conflicts about the regent's role in the coronation
festivities of the then young queen Wilhelmina (1898), on the
regent's role as local head of religion (Islam), etc., conflicts
which climaxed with the theft of the resident's curtains.

Dekker had strong suspicions that Ningrat was behind the
theft. These suspicions were fed by the local prosecutor, a
Javanese official on the resident's staff. A few days afterward,
the stolen curtains and other items, as well as the thieves, were
found by the regent's police but Dekker still thought it was all
set up to embarrass him, and hence it was subversive to the
colonial system.

A locally employed priyayi told Dekker that everything had
been arranged by Ningrat, that he sponsored the theft and kept
protecting the real culprits.

The theft of the resident's curtains led to local intrigues
among the local priyayi and police officials, and an increasing
enmity between the resident and the regent. Nowadays it would be
impossible to unravel all of the plotting and accusations.

Did the regent really sponsor the theft? Was he protecting the
real thieves? What was his aim?

Instead, this article will focus on the fantasies of Dekker's
accusations and fears of a widespread Javanese plot to start a
new Java War (1825 to 1830), with the plot being internationally
connected with dark forces against the West.

The conflict between Dekker and Ningrat lasted a long time and
was spectacular. However, before we get to the main part -- the
accusation of the plot's network -- we must get sort out a few
details of the case.

The conflict led to the dismantling of the regent's police
network which caused a power vacuum and allowed thievery in the
region to increase so that people began talking of the unrest of
the times.

The conflict also led to intrigues, caused rivalries to flare
up among the local priyayi, the weri (spies), jago (thugs) and
others.

The situation became chaotic. Finally the resident proposed to
the government in Batavia that the regent be temporarily exiled
in order to have the investigation completed without his
interference. Batavia followed this advice and exiled the regent
and his family to Padang, West Sumatra. The resident completed a
detailed police report of 100 pages on the theft and the recent
unrest in the region, blaming everything on the machinations of
the regent.

The governor general and his Council of the Indies were very
impressed with it and were ready to punish the regent. However,
there was one dissenting voice in the Council of the Indies who
cautioned against accepting the report of only the resident.
Moreover, the regent had begun to defend himself by sending
petitions to the governor general, the minister of colonies in
The Hague, the queen and parliament in the Netherlands.

This made Batavia cautious. Batavia sent the famous expert and
official advisor on native affairs and Islam, Prof. C. Snouck
Hurgronje, to Madiun to investigate the affair and look into the
accusations of another conspiracy to start a new Java War, as the
resident had reported.

The surprising thing was that Hurgronje did not simply dismiss
the fears of a Java War in the making but confessed that his stay
in Central Java and the region was too short to discover the mood
of the priyayi, the nobles and court circles. He advised the
government to dismiss the regent and to buy him off with a
generous pension and promises that in the future his children
would be considered for the post of regent when there was a
vacancy.

It was necessary, according to Hurgronje, to remove the regent
from his post, regardless of his being guilty or not, for the
conflict between the resident and himself was too sensational.

The removal of the regent was necessary to uphold the colonial
authority. Batavia followed this advice and warned the pensioned
regent not to settle in Madiun.

Regent Ningrat settled himself in neighboring Yogyakarta near
the court of his close relative, prince Paku Alam. In Yogyakarta
the former regent still received many of his former Madiun
henchmen and followers.

Resident Dekker remained restless and began a second series of
accusations against the dismissed regent and harassed his
remaining relatives in Madiun. Again Batavia sent Hurgronje to
Central Java to look into the problems. This time the advisor
told Batavia that Dekker was near a nervous breakdown and needed
either a rest or a new posting. Meanwhile, the former regent
through Dutch lawyers challenged Dekker for libel in a civil suit
which was later dropped by government pressure. Again Batavia
followed the advice of Hurgronje and gave the resident an Order
of Orange Nassau before sending him into retirement.

If the affair ended not too badly for the main protagonists,
the regent's low-ranking followers, the villagers, did not fare
so well. The village guru's, weri, jago and others in the service
of the regent as a sort of informal police network were detained
and exiled to outside Java. They numbered about 22 people. These
villagers were known as kebal (invulnerable).

If the government did not take measures against them, advised
Hurgronje, then the people would see them as really invulnerable
and as persons who could get away with anything, and hence could
constitute a strong political opposition force against the local
government. Hence, regardless of whether they were guilty or not,
they need to be suppressed.

The affair of the conflict between the former resident and the
former regent did not end there. For the next 10 years Dekker
kept sending the government in Batavia and in The Hague
voluminous reports on the plots of Ningrat.

Former resident Dekker saw every event of native assertiveness
a sign of a growing antigovernment party. Thus he was alarmed
with Susuhunan Paku Buwono X's visit to Semarang where the
population gave him a great welcome. Some military training
organized by the nobility in Sumenep (West Madura) he reported as
Madurese nobles arming the bangsat (bad people) of that island
for purposes of starting a revolt.

The former resident considered an explosion in the ammunition
storehouse of the military barracks in East Java town of Ngawi a
result of the former regent's visit to the site. There were many
more similar reports where he tried to put all the events
together as proof of there being an antigovernment party.

Soon Dekker felt these events, in connection with religious
events (non-Christian) such as the reiteration of a big mosque or
a Hindu-Javanese temple or a specially enthusiastic celebration
of a religious holiday, etc., were equally growing signs of an
antigovernment party in Java.

After Japan's victory over Russia in 1905, Dekker saw his
conflict with Ningrat in an international context of conspirators
against the Netherlands Indies if not against the whole Western
world of Christendom.

In 1907 Dekker published a pamphlet in which he detailed
Ningrat's role in an antigovernment party which had widespread
support throughout Java and international connections consisting
of the Black Dragon Society in Japan, Chinese triads, the Ottoman
Empire, the Grand Mufti of Mecca, the Dalai Lama of Tibet and
others. In short he called all the dark forces of Pan-Islam, Pan-
Hindu and Pan Buddhism.

Today the accusations of Dekker seem outrageous and it appears
that the former resident was ready for a psychiatric ward.

However, one must take into account the background of these
accusations. The Java War (Diponegoro) was a trauma for the
Netherlands Indies government and fear of a recurrence was real
throughout the 19th century. Relatives and descendants of
Diponegoro and his main commanders were always supervised and
watched, often falling under suspicion if there was unrest.

The Great Mutiny in British India in the mid-19th century was
another specter haunting officialdom in the Indies.

In 1900 emperor Wilhelm of Germany gave his notorious
offensive speech on the "Yellow-Danger" in blessing the German
expeditionary troops to Peking liberating the besieged diplomatic
quarters by the Chinese boxers.

It seems the clash of civilizations was already haunting the
world. Seen in this context, Dekker's fantasies might not have
been thought of as that mad.

The writer is a historian based in Jakarta.