Why Indonesians Don't Speak Dutch Despite Centuries of Colonisation

Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia - Before gaining independence on 17 August 1945, Indonesia was colonised by several nations. History records that the Dutch occupied the archipelago for the longest period, though the exact duration remains uncertain. Generally, colonisation leaves behind legacies in various aspects such as law, politics, mentality, culture, and linguistics. For instance, as former British colonies for hundreds of years, the populations of Malaysia and Singapore are fluent in English. However, the situation in Indonesia is different. The vast majority of Indonesians are not fluent in Dutch. Why is this so?

The Dutch linguistic influence that appears in Indonesia is limited to loanwords, such as gordijn becoming gorden (curtain), bioscoop becoming bioskop (cinema), and kantoor becoming kantor (office).

Fundamentally, this is due to the differing colonial styles of the Dutch and the British. The British deliberately conducted a Western cultural ‘invasion’ of Malay society, causing local culture to blend with or even be supplanted by Western culture. In the linguistic sector, this policy resulted in Malays becoming quite proficient in English.

In contrast, the Dutch did not do this to the Indonesian population. History researcher Christopher Reinhart from Nanyang Technological University explained there are two reasons the Dutch adopted a different attitude towards local culture, resulting in low Dutch language proficiency across generations of Indonesians.

First, from the perspective of Dutch colonial structure, the local population and the Dutch were in completely different strata. The Dutch considered themselves to be in the highest class, while the local population was at the bottom. The Dutch believed that spreading their culture would be akin to treating the local population and the Dutch as cultural equals. Consequently, they were unwilling to share Dutch culture in order to maintain this structure.

Second, the Dutch always viewed economic exploitation as the hallmark of a colonial state. Reinhart stated they felt it did not matter if they did not spread their culture. The most important thing was to continue exploitation and generate economic profit.

“Snouck Hurgronje, a colonial official, once said that ‘cultural matters should not be forced. Let them grow on their own, without eliminating local culture,’” Reinhart told CNBC Indonesia some time ago.

These two Dutch attitudes persisted from the phase of forced cultivation exploitation from 1830 to 1900 and continued when the Dutch implemented the Ethical Policy in 1900. Reinhart said the Dutch always focused on the economic aspect and were unwilling to damage local culture, especially after the Ethical Policy was implemented. They increasingly understood that invading another culture was not good.

However, this did not mean the local population was forbidden from adopting Western culture, as the Dutch were not closed off to this. In fact, many aspects of Western culture were adopted by the local population. It is for these reasons that local languages, Malay, and the Indonesian language have grown and developed to this day.