Memoirs of a life spanning momentous changes

By Onghokham

JAKARTA (JP): The memoirs of Prince Aria Achmad (P.A.A.) Djajadiningrat were recently published for the first time in Indonesian translation, 61 years after the original was issued in Dutch.

The new book was printed by the association of his descendants, which includes such well-known Jakarta personalities as Pia Alisjahbana from the Femina publishing group and Admiral R. Bagus Nasis Djajadiningrat.

Achmad Djajadiningrat was born in 1877 and died in 1943. During his lifetime, a post-colonial world emerged which spawned Indonesian nationalist and emancipation movements, and gave rise to a growing class of Western-educated Indonesian professionals who were not in government service in the East Indies.

The Dutch colonial system is usually referred to as one of "indirect rule". A Dutch civilian administration headed by the governor general at the center and in the provinces by residents, assisted in the districts by several assistant residents, ruled at the district level through the local bupati, or regent.

The position of regent was hereditary, meaning that only sons of a bupati could assume the position, but not necessarily in the same district.

The civil service (Bestuurs Beambten, or B.B.) was Dutch while the pangreh, or pamong praja, was Indonesian. Members of the latter were the priyayi upper Javanese class.

Banten on the West Java coast was known as a somewhat restless region in colonial days. There were occasional revolts after the abolition of its sultanate in the early 19th century.

The biggest one was in 1888 in Cilegon, when several Dutch and priyayi officials were killed. The colonial government had to send an army unit to restore peace and order.

Achmad's father was the regent of Serang, part of Banten, and was known as progressive. He tried to give his children a Dutch education. Earlier in the century, the Dutch would have frowned upon this, believing a Western education for the priyayi was useless and that the Dutch language should only be known to the Dutch.

It was fortunate the Serang regent had close ties with the powerful advisor for native and Islamic affairs, Snouck Hurgronje, who formulated colonial policies toward Islam and helped pacify Aceh where the Dutch had fought for over 30 years.

Snouck Hurgronje, later to become professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Leiden, encouraged the Djajadiningrats to give their children a Dutch education.

Through his efforts, Achmad was boarded with a Dutch family and sent to the European elementary school, and later to the Dutch high school. Achmad was known and registered in the schools as Willem van Banten to disguise that he was Javanese.

At the end of high school, Achmad changed his name to Achmad Djajadiningrat, adopting his father's name as a family name, for he believed that sooner or later there would be civil registration and family names for Indonesians.

His father was upset by this unusual decision of his son and reprimanded him for adopting his name without his permission.

The regent died shortly after, but Achmad was too young and inexperienced to replace his father. Achmad, who was supported by the resident of Banten and the governor general himself, had to begin his career within the pamong praja from the lowest ranks.

At the end of two years, he was made subdistrict chief in the district of Serang. During an official conference of the local priyayi, Achmad received his formal appointment as Serang regent. The patih official of Serang, who just a few seconds before was his superior, slid from his chair and crept before Achmad in the act of obeisance made by all functionaries to the new regent.

In 1918, when the Volksraad (People's Council or semi- parliament) was opened by Governor General Idenburg, Achmad Djajadiningrat was appointed a member.

When he was made regent, he also gained the title of Raden Tumenggung, then Aria, later Raden Adipati Aria and finally Pangeran (prince) Aria, with the right to use a golden umbrella like those of the princes of Central Java. Only raden was a hereditary title.

Achmad was also given the Order of Orange-Nassau and of the Netherlands Lion. Even when he was still a young regent, the whole Djajadiningrat clan had already accorded him the position of head of its members.

Achmad Djajadiningrat saw the need for Western educations for young members of the family, and especially his own brothers. His younger brother, Husein Djajadiningrat, graduated cum laude from Leiden with his thesis Sejarah Banten, a Banten chronicle, as the first Indonesian to obtain a doctorate from a Western university.

Husein Djajadiningrat's famous work was an Acehnese dictionary. His career was not with the pamong praja, but with the Dutch services, as advisor for native and Islamic affairs, then as director of the Department for Education and Faiths, currently the education and culture ministry.

He was the first and last Indonesian in that position in colonial times. Husein was also appointed first Indonesian professor at the then newly opened School of Letters in Batavia in 1940. The only priyayi aspect of Husein's career was that he was also made a Pangeran Aria by the colonial government.

Batavia

Achmad's own career took a strange turn in 1924. Not everybody was happy with Achmad's role in the Volksraad and his fame. He came into conflict with his superior, the resident of Banten, in the early 1920s.

Was it this dispute or new Dutch policy needs that made Achmad Djajadiningrat leave his beloved Serang, where his ancestors left such entrenched legacies?

He was made the first regent of Batavia in 1924. Batavia was physically and administratively modeled after cities in Holland, with the exception of its democratic aspects.

In 1924, it was given a "native" pangreh praja, like all other Dutch colonial cities and areas, alongside its Dutch B.B. administration.

As regent, Achmad helped to suppress the rebellion of 1926- 1927 centered in Batavia. It was also the end of his traditional pangreh praja career.

In 1929, the colonial government appointed Achmad to the Raad van Indie (Indies Council), which was second only to the governor general in importance. This was the first time the position was filled by an Indonesian.

In the 1930s, Achmad was sent as a member of the Dutch delegation to the League of Nations for labor problems, and later as a member of the Netherlands Kingdom delegation. This was his first trip to Europe and he received an audience with Queen Wilhelmina.

During Achmad Djajadingrat's life, a new Indonesian society was emerging, one of professionals and of "isms", either emancipation or nationalistic in nature.

From his writings, it is unclear what he thought of emerging Indonesia. That itself is interesting; while his was not an outright rejection of nationalism, he found people's movements to be a decided bore.

More welcome to Achmad were the new professional classes, such as medical doctors, lawyers and others. He was also pleased to see new educational institutions within the Indies, such as the opening of the Technical Faculty (ITB) in Bandung.

As an Indonesian, one would prefer this interpretation. Achmad himself throughout his memoirs never reveals that he foresaw the end of colonialism. He himself was loyal to the colonial government, which at that time was considered legitimate to the majority of the population.

Achmad would have liked to see more education for Indonesians and his compatriots in responsible modern positions, rather than the anachronistic pangreh praja, and perhaps more autonomy for the colony.

But close cooperation between Indonesians and the Dutch, known politically as "association", remained his ideal, as was true of many of his class and education. He stressed Kipling's "But there is neither East nor West", rather than the first sentence of the same verse, "East is East and West is West".

During his stay in Europe, the Second Anti-Imperialist Congress was held in Frankfurt. Achmad attended it after consulting with the colonial office in the Hague. His interest in anti-imperialism might have emerged through his work in the League of Nations, his contact with Indonesian students in Holland whom he told, without success, to study harder and stay away from politics, or through his studying of the middle classes in Europe and the Indies.

Achmad Djajadiningrat suffered a stroke in 1932 and lived in virtual retirement for the remaining 11 years of his life.

Although Achmad and Husein Djajadiningrats were not nationalist leaders, their careers and lives were so successful that they gave nationalism a boost.

They showed that Indonesians could be equal to Europeans, and that achievements in academia and bureaucratic careers did not know race or religion.