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De koelie wordt toean: "het drama van de Nederlands-Indonesische betrekkingen in de jaren vijftig"
Dit boek had ook getiteld kunnen zijn: Van Genève tot Bukittinggi. Het is een beschouwende reportage van al die gebeurtenissen, welke tussen 1956 en 1958 Nederland en Indonesië steeds verder uit elkaar hebben gedreven, met als tragisch slot de verbanning der Nederlanders uit het eilanden-rijk, dat hun zo lief was, en de verandering van een vrijheidsdroom in een nachtmerrie van broedertwist. En hier en daar worden zijsprongen gemaakt voor vergelijkingen met de omwentelingen in de wereld daarbuiten.
140 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1959
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August 17, 2010
The growing pains of a young nation
1956 and 1957 were years when both the Soviet Union and the United States were trying to get a foothold in Indonesia, a young nation with many natural resources and the largest domino stone for anyone wanting to dominate Southeast Asia. The former colonizers were on the way out. Domestically in Indonesia the Dutch were only significant as scapegoats through the continued occupancy of what is now the Indonesian province of Papua. They had maintained some influence through the Confederation that the Indonesians were about to end. Their main influence was economic by running Indonesia's larger businesses.
The country itself was still trying to find out what it wanted to be: a capitalist or socialist country, a nationalist or an Islamic republic, a country with a strong central state or a confederation. At the same time that its outer islands were revolting against Jakarta, its Western-trained middle classes were Westernising, which created new questions again: how Western was the country supposed to become?
Indonesia had just held its first democratic election. Indonesia had had no civil registration, and 878.305 civil servants were sent out to set this up. 93 of them lost their lives in the process: 19 were killed and 74 were kidnapped. Soekarno's party won, but the Muslim parties came out as the largest block. Soekarno invented Pancasila as a national philosophy to unify the country. The author of this book consequently compares Soekarno to Tito and Mussolini, who wanted to be absolute leaders that could not accept any leadership, even if it was of a religion.
You find all this back in this snapshot of the mid-1950's by the Dutch journalist Theo C. Drooghe. Soeharto's Orde Baru later solved some of the issues discussed in this book: Indonesia became a centralised state run by a semi-feudal ruler who accepted capitalism with monopolies for his family and cronies. However, although Pancasila is still on schools' curriculum, the arguments about the influence of Islam have not changed very much.
There was one thing that all Indonesians agreed upon: they were entitled to the entire former Dutch colony. The Dutch reluctance to give up Papua led to the expulsion of all Dutch corporations (except the oil company) and their Dutch workers from Indonesian soil by the end of 1957, effectively ending nearly all Dutch influence. On Java, units of the Communist Party occupied the board rooms, together with the military. The communists would later be the big losers, the companies were often mismanaged and many lead marginal existences nowadays or went bankrupt in the Asian Crisis in the late 1990's.
The American diplomat Hugh S. Cumming nicely summarises the conflict: the Dutch wanted to nail down the future relationship with its former colony through treaties and laws. It took 120 years to get good relations between England and the US. No law has accelerated that process.
Admittedly, I picked up this book because of its funny title ("The Coolie Becomes a Gentleman" would be the translation into English) more than anything else. It is a short read and it does not dig very deep. It contains some funny details however. I had somehow never expected that in the 1950's 40% of the Saudis had contracted a venereal disease, for example.
1956 and 1957 were years when both the Soviet Union and the United States were trying to get a foothold in Indonesia, a young nation with many natural resources and the largest domino stone for anyone wanting to dominate Southeast Asia. The former colonizers were on the way out. Domestically in Indonesia the Dutch were only significant as scapegoats through the continued occupancy of what is now the Indonesian province of Papua. They had maintained some influence through the Confederation that the Indonesians were about to end. Their main influence was economic by running Indonesia's larger businesses.
The country itself was still trying to find out what it wanted to be: a capitalist or socialist country, a nationalist or an Islamic republic, a country with a strong central state or a confederation. At the same time that its outer islands were revolting against Jakarta, its Western-trained middle classes were Westernising, which created new questions again: how Western was the country supposed to become?
Indonesia had just held its first democratic election. Indonesia had had no civil registration, and 878.305 civil servants were sent out to set this up. 93 of them lost their lives in the process: 19 were killed and 74 were kidnapped. Soekarno's party won, but the Muslim parties came out as the largest block. Soekarno invented Pancasila as a national philosophy to unify the country. The author of this book consequently compares Soekarno to Tito and Mussolini, who wanted to be absolute leaders that could not accept any leadership, even if it was of a religion.
You find all this back in this snapshot of the mid-1950's by the Dutch journalist Theo C. Drooghe. Soeharto's Orde Baru later solved some of the issues discussed in this book: Indonesia became a centralised state run by a semi-feudal ruler who accepted capitalism with monopolies for his family and cronies. However, although Pancasila is still on schools' curriculum, the arguments about the influence of Islam have not changed very much.
There was one thing that all Indonesians agreed upon: they were entitled to the entire former Dutch colony. The Dutch reluctance to give up Papua led to the expulsion of all Dutch corporations (except the oil company) and their Dutch workers from Indonesian soil by the end of 1957, effectively ending nearly all Dutch influence. On Java, units of the Communist Party occupied the board rooms, together with the military. The communists would later be the big losers, the companies were often mismanaged and many lead marginal existences nowadays or went bankrupt in the Asian Crisis in the late 1990's.
The American diplomat Hugh S. Cumming nicely summarises the conflict: the Dutch wanted to nail down the future relationship with its former colony through treaties and laws. It took 120 years to get good relations between England and the US. No law has accelerated that process.
Admittedly, I picked up this book because of its funny title ("The Coolie Becomes a Gentleman" would be the translation into English) more than anything else. It is a short read and it does not dig very deep. It contains some funny details however. I had somehow never expected that in the 1950's 40% of the Saudis had contracted a venereal disease, for example.
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