On colonialism I

We now, at least, have an admission of colonial malpractice from Mr. de Kort (The Jakarta Post, Nov. 5, 1994).

However, it is less than reassuring that, for murdering 40,000 Indonesians, Kapitein Westerling received a severe rap over the knuckles from the Dutch public and was duly granted his freedom. The reason why Westerling was not tried for crimes against humanity (or as Mr. de Kort has put it, "never charged with misconduct and court martialled") is perhaps because, for all the soul-searching Mr. de Kort claims went on in the Dutch media, much of the truth about Dutch colonialism in Indonesia is still left suppressed. This is also the considered view of the eminent political scientist and philosopher, Professor Noam Chomsky of the Massachussets Institute of Technology and author of such books as Deterring Democracy and Necessary Illusion: Thought Control in Democratic Societies.

The dates Mr. de Kort has given for the official incorporation of various parts of Indonesia into the Dutch East Indies in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, bear little relationship to the dates when Dutch forts, settlements, factories and trade monopolies (the ingredients of colonialism) were first established, up to centuries before, even in far flung places like Banda Islands (e.g. the Dutch had built forts on the island of Neira by 1610).

A little less of the dry, old, bare bones of history and a little more flesh, Mr. de Kort, would be appreciated.

FRANK RICHARDSON

Jakarta