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Letter: People of Dutch descent living in Indonesia
Let me introduce myself
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Let me introduce myself. I was born in 1930 in Ternate, North Maluku. I hold a Netherlands passport. I moved to the Netherlands on June 15, 1948. I am a retired psychologist.
After the Netherlands accepted the existence of the Republic of Indonesia in December 1949, they advised Indonesian people living in the country to return to Indonesia and become Indonesian citizens. Many of them did so.
While the Netherlands accepted the existence of the Indonesian Republic, there were still disagreements between Indonesia and the Netherlands. It was over Papua.
The conflict lasted until 1963 when the Dutch gave in and, in my opinion, made more and deeper scars to relations between the two countries than their war from 1945 to 1949.
Many Indonesian citizens took back their Dutch nationality and went to live in the Netherlands in the early sixties.
But public opinion in the Netherlands of people of Dutch descent living in Indonesia saw various problems: discrimination, harassment and intimidation.
Because of such public opinion, a group in the Netherlands established a foundation to support Dutch people living in Indonesia who had fallen into poverty.
I myself support the foundation by making yearly donations, and I will keep on doing so because I believe these poor people really exist (although I understand there are also many people of Dutch descent who live successfully in Indonesia).
In trying to counter public opinion about people of Dutch descent living in Indonesia, I would like to collect brief biographies of such people who have been successful and I would like to publish those stories in a book.
It is , however, impossible for me to reach all these people and therefore I need your help to get information about them. I will, of course, guard their privacy.
H. C. MELIEZER
Assen, the Netherlands
e-mail: meliezer*home.nl
