I find the article written by Tifa Asrianti titled “Dutch Indonesians’ search for home,” (The Jakarta Post, Jan. 10) obnoxious and odiferous. It lacks depth which is caused by the erroneous information provided by the person who was interviewed.
I am an Indo because I am the offspring of a mixed marriage, my parents married in Batavia and their marriage is officially registered in the records of city hall, whereas my birth certificate is issued by the appropriate authority and registered in the European section in Blitar, East Java.
This gave me automatic Dutch citizenship and, therefore, access to the European schools. My father’s grandfather came from Leiden for the VOC and was posted in Manado and married there and the rest is history. My mother is also from Manado, Amurang to be exact.
First, the word Indo comes from the designation “Indo European” by the government in Batavia as a separate class of people and part of the colonial population makeup. The Dutch and Dutch Colonial law stipulated that the children of mixed marriage were granted automatic full Dutch citizenship.
Also about the word “Indo European”, it is akin to what is known in the world languages as Indo European languages. As to the Indo Europeans themselves, prior to March 7, 1942, they were represented in the Volksraad (People’s Council) by members of the political party Indo Europees Verbond (IEV) under the leadership of Dick de Hoog. The writer went to the IEV grade school near Tjikuda Pateuh railway station in Bandung and one of the representatives from Bandung was Nauta Lemcke in the Volksraad. I do not know why this so-called learned person, Tifa Asrianti, says that Indos are lost in the passage of time.
On the contrary, Indos know exactly what we were doing. And to mention that Indos like me, because of our facial characteristics, are taken for Hispanic immigrants and faced racial slurs is disgusting to say the least. If that were the case, then the many Indonesians who have studied in the United States would not, repeat would not, have lasted in this country.
Here in America one is immediately recognized by speech and diction, and I can say without hesitation that the Indos who emigrated to the United States all speak with a Dutch accent and that puts them in the non-Hispanic sphere. It is possible, and actually more likely, that Indonesians with Asian looks and with an unknown accent face racial slurs.
I myself was evacuated to Holland on the MV Kota Baroe and I arrived in Rotterdam on Oct. 2, 1946. Indeed at the time, life and living conditions were very difficult in all aspects (food – yes, potatoes, heating, clothing, etc.) but there was law and order, we survived and made the best of it.
For those who came in the mid-50s, after Indonesia’s president Sukarno expelled the Dutch and nationalized the Dutch companies and businesses, conditions were still difficult but a whole lot better than 10 years earlier.
What Sukarno did was actually a blessing in disguise, as many of us ended up in the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, with a small number going to Brazil.
Obviously, this successful film producer had bad experiences when he lived in Holland (would he have been any better off in Indonesia?) because of his denigrating remarks and the demeaning aspects of his life in the years he lived there. This learned person and the learned writer of the article have every right to express their opinions, but that also gives me the right to repudiate such reprehensible statements and such an ill-informed article which has no foundation and no basis at all.
Johan Ernst Celosse
New York
