Past deeds of the Dutch

I refer to Mr. Y. Santo's letter titled To Mr. Oltmans in The Jakarta Post on March 28, 2000, and to Mr. Oltmans' letter Soeharto's crime in the Post edition of March 27, 2000. I would like to say that what Mr. Santo wrote about the bad deeds of the Dutch in Indonesia during 350 years of colonization is possibly true. Nevertheless, you cannot put all of those bad things on Mr. Oltmans' shoulders. Mr. Oltmans is only a freelance reporter. Mr. Oltmans is Dutch.

Mr. Oltmans' letter on Soeharto's alleged crimes may not be very palatable for Indonesians. The accusations toward Soeharto may be rather harsh and the words chosen may be a little brunt. On the other hand, I agree with Mr. Oltmans that finding out what really happened from 1965 to 1968 in Indonesia is more important than finding out whether Soeharto and his family did indeed enrich themselves during the New Order. Many people were killed and many more were imprisoned without the benefit of a trial since the beginning of Soeharto's rule. This was and is not right and cannot be just forgotten and forgiven.

I met Mr. Oltmans about a year ago in Bandung. He is a very outspoken person and sometimes very blunt with his statements. Yet I know that he knows a lot about Indonesia, about Sukarno, about the Gestapu (communist abortive coup) and the aftermath of the Gestapu. He was a personal friend of president Sukarno (see his book My friend Sukarno) and saw our first president while Sukarno was incarcerated by the New Order in Wisma Yaso in Jakarta. He knows firsthand about the suffering and humiliation of Sukarno at the hands of the "Smiling General". I know also that Mr. Oltmans wrote to his own government about the wrongs the Dutch did in Indonesia. He even wrote to Queen Beatrix before and after her visit to Indonesia some time ago.

He is a self-appointed critic of his own government. This letter of mine is definitely not in defense of Mr. Oltmans. He can defend himself. But it may help you put things in the right perspective. If I may, I would like to recommend that you read Mr. Djiwandono's opinion in the Post on March 29, 2000, and an article by Aryeh Neier in the Post on March 28, 2000. Failure to deal with past crimes can bring about revenge. By the way, not all the things the Dutch did in Indonesia were bad. The Dutch built us the best narrow-gauge railroad in the world at that time.

The Dutch also had a hand in educating intellectuals like Sukarno, Hatta, Syahrir, Iskaq, Soetomo, Juanda, Sukiman, Roem and many others.

DJOKO SOEJOTO

Bandung, West Java