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Wed, 20 Mar 2002

JP/VOC a sore memory 400 years after

VOC a sore memory 400 years after

Leo Wahyudi S, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Wednesday marks the 400th anniversary of the Dutch East India Company or VOC (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie).

In the Netherlands extensive commemorations, to be attended by the Dutch Queen and other dignitaries, will be held to celebrate the institution which heralded the tiny European state's golden era.

But sentiments here could not be more contrasting.

The advent of the VOC era in 1602 marked the darkest period of more than three centuries of Dutch rule of the people and land we now call Indonesia.

Indonesian and Dutch history clearly documents how the VOC used its Octrooi rights -- which grants monopoly on trade, the right to wage war and build fortresses -- to turn itself into a successful trading company by brutally colonizing the archipelago along with other poor indigenous populations around the world.

According to the VOC Foundation, a Dutch heritage foundation, commemorations this year will not only mark VOC's 400th anniversary but also the 350th anniversary of the VOC settlement in the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa.

Understandably many here are concerned that these events will gloss over VOC's sins of the past.

The Directorate of History of the Cultural and Tourism Development Agency has taken the initiative to hold a seminar of its own to put this period in its proper historical context.

Historians Anhar Gonggong and R.Z. Leirissa will speak at the Ministry of National Education building in Central Jakarta on Wednesday morning in a bid to remind people of VOC's dualistic approach of not only trading but also colonizing.

Others have decided to take a more aggressive approach, with a group calling themselves the National Committee for the Defense of Indonesian Dignity, pledging to hold a rally in front of the Dutch Embassy here.

In their view they say that though VOC folded in 1799 due to mismanagement and corruption, the Dutch government took over the company's charter and possessions, sustaining the oppression of the Indonesian archipelago.