Indonesia turns back on VOC, but not its memory

Leo Wahyudi S, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Once upon a time, this metropolitan we call Jakarta, was known as Batavia, one of the jewels of the Dutch East India Company's (VOC) operations during the 17th and 18th Centuries.

Thus, perhaps it was of little surprise that most residents here passed the day Wednesday -- willfully or not -- oblivious to the fact that it marked the 400th anniversary of the founding of the aggressive trading company.

Understandably, Indonesians had no reason to commemorate establishment of the VOC (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie), since it is reminder of one of the most painful periods of Dutch colonial rule in the archipelago.

If not for reports that VOC commemorations were being planned in the Netherlands, few here would have even cared to remember a trading company which enslaved the indigenous population for the sake of a handsome profit.

The reported observance of the birth of VOC in the Netherlands has been greeted by people here with both incredulity, and concern.

One Dutch official contended that the events taking place there are only reflections, not celebrations, and mostly sponsored by the private-sector.

For the Dutch, the VOC may have been a historical high-point which brought their nation new wealth and international influence.

For many people here, however, it was unconscionable that an institution which employed mass slavery and inflicted severe cruelty for the sake of greed would deserve any kind of recognition at all.

The fear is that the history books could merely gloss over the bloodstained achievements of the VOC's commercial glory.

The Directorate of History at the Cultural and Tourism Development Agency on Wednesday held a special seminar to set the record straight.

Historians Anhar Gonggong and R.Z. Leirissa, during their lecture, underscored the role of colonization as part of the VOCs monopolistic commercial strategy.

"To achieve and sustain it's monopoly, the VOC destroyed the indigenous population's economic potential, and devastated their source of livelihood," Anhar said.

Forced labor was an acceptable practice, he pointed out.

"Hongi tochten (destroying excess agriculture supplies) and cultuurstelsel (forced plantation) in Maluku and Java worsened the anguish felt by people," Anhar added.

The VOC, with its Octrooi rights -- granting trade monopoly, the right to wage war and build fortresses -- was in effect a state in itself having the undisputed authority to use force to achieve its ends.

"The weapons that the VOC brought to Indonesia to protect itself were actually used to oppress those among the local population who opposed it," Leirissa said.

Very few elderly people on Wednesday even bothered to take it upon themselves to march out into the streets and protest in front of the Dutch Embassy in South Jakarta.

Nonetheless, a resolute group of about 15 people, calling themselves the "National Committee for the Defense of Indonesian Dignity," stood in front of the embassy handing out leaflets and unfurled banners.

Their presence was a reminder to people of the days marked not only by VOC colonialism, but by Dutch oppression as a whole.

A group of five representatives were invited into the embassy, and quietly talked with Dutch officials who explained the nature of the VOC commemorations in the Netherlands.

In spite of all the debate, Indonesian history books will continue to write off the VOC era as one the country's darkest periods.

As historian Anhar Gongong pointed out, while the tragedy of the VOC and continued Dutch occupation here through the mid-20th Century is a fact not to be celebrated, nor should it be forgotten as an integral part of Indonesia's historical profile.

"The oppression and pain felt by our nation under the VOC were the seeds which fertilized our sense of nationhood," he remarked.

The Dutch occupation, in essence, made us Indonesia.

Four hundred years ago, the Dutch East India Company was established by ambitious shipping merchants tired of losing out on the booming Asian spice trade.

But the proud memory of mercantile success and Dutch maritime supremacy being celebrated in the Netherlands masks a far darker history of exploitation.

The Company was set up on March 20, 1602 by a consortium of small, independent trading companies with a government charter to a virtual monopoly on Dutch trade and navigation.

It wasn't just business. With the right to sail and trade came the power to occupy territories, seize land and wage war on indigenous people -- the darkest moment being the massacre of almost everyone on the Indonesian islands of Banda in 1622.

The Indonesian ambassador to the Netherlands is boycotting VOC celebrations, which include a remembrance service to be attended by the Dutch Queen Beatrix.

Although the VOC's demise began in the late 18th century -- brought to its knees by risky financial investments, wars with the ascendant British Empire, and a drop in spice demand -- the Netherlands did not recognize Indonesia's independence until 1949.

Indonesia, on the other hand, declared its independence in 1945 after fighting a fierce four-year guerrilla war against the Dutch colonial troops.

"The VOC both brutally wiped out the Bandanese and dismantled the local economy ... Colonists ran nutmeg plantations worked by Asian slaves," VOC specialist Els Jacobs said in Amsterdam.

In the 16th and 17th centuries, cloves, nutmeg, pepper and tea were coveted luxuries in Europe.

"Spices were like petroleum nowadays," said Dutch Maritime Museum Coordinator Elisabeth Spits.

The VOC, historians say, was the world's first multinational company. It was the first Dutch company to issue shares traded at the Amsterdam Stock Exchange which, in the end, evolved into the world's first stock market.