Dutch Indies Own No Native Problem

By E. C. S. MARSHALL  
Foreign Editor of “The Sun”

BATAVIA, December 21, 1940.

DUTCHMEN tell the eager inquirer about the native problem in the Netherlands East Indies that no such animal exists. Mostly, this rebuff serves him right.

The Dutch are answering in the spirit of his question. They know from bitter experience what is too often in his mind.

They know that he uses the term “native problem” in the sense of a clawed, fanged, fearsome creature, only waiting to spring.

They know he is probably aware that in all these islands the pure white Dutch number at the outside 50,000, while the rest of the population, mostly native, is 69 or 70 millions.

They know that he has founded on that impressive fact a few profound suspicions about their security, more especially in time of danger from an external foe.

They know all that, and their blunt reply is meant to make him pause, observe and reflect. When he has done this, he will probably conclude that there is a native problem – but not a native peril.

The Dutch have not been here three centuries for nothing. They have learned “colonial tact.” In their dealings with the natives they apply it. They are the last people in the world to tease tigers, and whether it’s a question of tigers at all is very much open to debate.

Incidentally, the Dutch would not dream of admitting that they were only some 50,000 strong here. They rate with themselves, as equals, the Eurasians whom the inter-breeding of generations of Dutchmen with native women – it has declined enormously in the past 20 years – has produced.

The figure they would give you, then, as their strength, would be 240,000 or more.

The Dutch owe much of their success as colonisers to disregard of the color line. By keeping color prejudice out of the picture, they save themselves a lot of bother. The native may feel different, but he does not feel despised. He may have his grievances and his demands, but he is not embittered by contempt.

It is hard to speak of demands on the part of the natives in general, because the huge majority of them are illiterate and not politically conscious. By Dutch good luck, too, it’s doubtful whether, temperamentally, the natives in Java – most crowded, most fertile, most important of all the islands – are good material for political agitation.

Most outward signs suggest that they are a quiet, gentle people. I haven’t seen a brawl in West Java in weeks. The natives don’t cultivate sectarian bitterness as do the communities in British India. The Chinese here breed pigs, which are repellent to Mohammedans. The broadminded Mohammedan natives carry them to the abattoirs.

I can testify that, vocally, four healthy Australians would make more noise in 15 minutes than I have heard 10 times as many natives make in the course of a couple of hours.

The markets in Batavia and Bandoeng, for example, are extraordinarily peaceful places. The stranger who expects them to turn out a bedlam finds them more like a monastery.

All this might be very misleading as an index to the character of the people; yet it agrees with the remark which a native intellectual made to me the other day:

“Our people are far too soft! We must teach them a new spirit.”

Even the intellectuals themselves – and they are the political leaders – seem to gnash their teeth with difficulty. In their company, you do not feel that they want to devour the Dutch. And they will tell you privately it’s stupid to suggest that they want new masters – that they would plot, for instance, with the Japanese out of spite against their present rulers.

The leaders of the most influential native party declare that their objective is democracy for the Indies. They want full political rights for all natives, under a democratic system. They dream of a return to a Golden Age, when “native principles of life prevailed.” One put it to me thus:

“In former times, our people were happier. Everything was done in our villages on a co-operative basis. When there was hunger, neighbor helped neighbor with rice. This is done in the villages still.

“But even our own people, when they have studied in Western colleges, become materialistic. We were not materialistic; we have been forced to become so. We are compelled to change our character, or risk being always pushed to the wall.

“But if we were the rulers, under democracy, we could perhaps control this materialism, and make its grip weaker. We might be able to prevent even foreigners from living here on a materialistic basis.

“Some of us, who have Western training, are going back to our people. We are trying to reach them through a native Press. We are even thinking of printing papers in Dutch to reach those who, because of the present system, find the Dutch language more familiar than their own.”

It irritates the nationalist intellectuals that they themselves find the foreigner’s tongue easier to think in than the language of their people.

I heard two discussing party aims in Malay, the language used at party meetings.

Eventually they lapsed into Dutch. One of them commented wryly: “I am stuffed with Dutch ideas.”

They want to reform education, these nationalists. They want also to make it cheaper and spread it further. Schooling is not free and compulsory here. Fees for the ordinary native in the elementary schools are small, but native incomes are extremely slender.

When it is a question of schooling beyond the elementary stage, then for the brightest native youngsters the issue is whether uncles and aunts and cousins can and will join the parents in finding the necessary money. If a boy has shown much promise, a family fund may be organised to enable his education to go on.

There is also a native life insurance concern which, instead of paying bonuses, allots the money to scholarships.

But in practice, and broadly speaking, say the nationalists, the highest positions in the public service are held by the Dutch – including Eurasians – and the lowest by the natives.

It is the same in business, they state, only here comes the added competition of the Chinese and other foreigners. There is therefore a native agitation for commercial schools which would fit more natives to compete in business.

The penetration of the Chinese is serious, from the native point of view. The Chinese in the Indies are the most numerous non-native community – 1,233,000 strong, as against the 240,000-odd Europeans, including Eurasians.

They are chiefly small shopkeepers and traders. The Dutch find them good citizens, but the natives find them tough rivals. They can afford to give their sons higher education more easily than the natives can.

Java, with all its millions, has seen only one grave outbreak of native unrest in the present century. Communists stirred it up some 15 years ago, waving a green, not a red, flag and organising what they called “The Green Union.”

Their propaganda was a hotch-potch of Marxism, nationalism and religion. In the chief cities there was rioting. At Batavia, a plot for the seizure of key points was uncovered by a spy. A number of men lost their lives in the disorders and between 300 and 400 were rounded up and sent into exile.

The nationalist leaders maintained that they had no responsibility for the “putsch,” and in nationalist circles the story goes that the two Communists at the bottom of the affair made their escape to Russia.

But the Dutch had their own view. The greatest of the nationalists were banished from Java. One – Dr Soetomo – has since died.

Another, an engineer named Soekarno, is using his engineering gifts in Sumatra for the benefit of the Government.

The third, and oldest of the well-known leaders, Dr Tjipto, is reported at this moment to be coming back to Java. It’s a rather curious story.

It seems that at his place of exile he appeared at a celebration in honor of Queen Wilhelmina’s birthday.

There he delivered an unexpected speech in which he denounced the Nazis. His aims, he said, were democratic. He was ready to take his stand against all autocracies – side by side with the Dutch. The authorities listened with interest, and his return is ascribed to the speech.

Lawyers, doctors, journalists, professional men of all kinds, are to be found on the committees of the chief native party. Many of them live in smart and comfortable European-style homes. Some are married to pure white Dutchwomen, who help them in their political work!

At a meeting of a branch committee which I attended, fifteen members were present. Only one, a lawyer, was wearing the sarong.