This Employee Couldn't Celebrate Eid Because the Boss Used THR Money for Gambling

The practice of embezzling Lebaran money is not a new phenomenon. Long before the term Tunjangan Hari Raya (THR) became widely known as it is today, a similar scandal occurred in 1938 in Batavia (now Jakarta). At that time, a police boss instead plundered the Lebaran funds belonging to his own members.

This case involved a police commissioner with the initials HAN who was stationed in the Pasar Baru area of Batavia. His actions caused the police officers under him to fail to celebrate the holiday with joy because their Lebaran funds were depleted by gambling.

According to a report in the colonial newspaper Deli Courant (5 October 1938), the police members at the time had a special fund for celebrating Lebaran. The fund came from savings collected over a full year through monthly salary deductions.

This system emerged because the colonial government at the time no longer provided special allowances ahead of Lebaran. The concept was similar to the current THR, namely money prepared for the needs of major religious celebrations.

The entire fund was then kept by Commissioner HAN as their superior. The money was placed in his desk drawer until it accumulated to a substantial amount, reaching around 1,000 gulden.

However, this trust was abused.

The newspaper De Indische Courant (28 September 1938) reported that HAN secretly began taking money from the Lebaran fund. Initially, he took 90 gulden to pay for house rent and his children’s school fees.

The next day, he took another 50 gulden. This time, the money was used for roulette gambling.

It is suspected that HAN hoped to gain a large profit from the gambling table to replace the money he had taken. This was because he felt his income was insufficient to meet increasingly burdensome living needs.

“His salary was only 450 gulden per month,” wrote De Indische Courant.

The economic pressure at the time was indeed quite heavy. In the late 1930s, the Dutch East Indies was still feeling the impact of the global economic crisis, which left many people’s finances in dire straits.

The taking of money from the Lebaran fund occurred repeatedly and over a considerable period without anyone knowing. Finally, the case was exposed after HAN’s superior conducted a surprise inspection of the police members’ Lebaran fund.

During the examination, the money that should have amounted to 1,000 gulden had been completely depleted with nothing left.

HAN was immediately arrested and faced legal proceedings.

In the Deli Courant report (5 October 1938), further investigation revealed that the commissioner had enormous debts.

“From further interrogation, it was revealed that the defendant’s total debt amounted to around 2,500 gulden, including debts to several Arabs and Chinese individuals,” the newspaper wrote.

This case sparked great outrage among the Batavia police force. The victim members felt betrayed by the superior they had trusted to keep their Lebaran money. As a result, many of them failed to celebrate the holiday properly because the funds they had saved for a full year vanished just like that.

In the trial, HAN admitted to all his actions. He confessed to repeatedly taking the money for gambling in the hope of quick profits. However, the gambling only trapped him deeper in debt.

The judge finally sentenced HAN to four months in prison. In addition, he was dishonourably discharged from the police force after nine years of service.

“People like you are not fit to be in the police! You are no longer independent,” the judge firmly stated during the trial.

From the trial facts, it was also revealed that this was not HAN’s first violation. Previously, he had been punished for breaking traffic rules.

Upon hearing the verdict, HAN did not appeal and immediately served his prison sentence. Meanwhile, the police members who were victims had to accept the bitter reality that their Lebaran money had been completely exhausted.