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Examining decolonization for greater understanding
Unfortunately, the debate on Dutch colonialism and colonial war is sometimes shrouded by heated arguments and opposing opinions.
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The headquarters of the Dutch East Indies Railway Company in Semarang, Central Java. The place is also known as Lawang Sewu. (Shutterstock/File)
T
he Indonesian-Dutch project entitled “Decolonization, Violence and War in Indonesia, 19451950” has caused an uproar. This research project on Indonesia’s fight for independence is being executed by researchers from three Dutch institutes and Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta.
On Nov. 27, 2017, a group of academics and activists published a letter to express concerns about the objectivity of this project.
They fear that it might be compromised and influenced by the Dutch government, which provides the entire fund of €4.1 million.
This group also calls for a more prominent role of Indonesian researchers in the project. Finally, they claim that Dutch colonial history prior to the war and the Dutch colonial mentality at the time of the war as well as its traces in modern-day society, should be problematized.
The concern of these people is understandable and must be heard. Their contribution to the historical debate is valuable. After all, it is important to ensure that scholars can execute their research unhampered at all times.
Nonetheless, it is not true that the funding itself has any effect on the research output. Scientific research in The Netherlands is nearly always funded (indirectly) by the government, but executed by scholars in research institutes and universities.
Funding research, however, does not necessarily entail influencing the research output. If this was the case, then nearly all university projects would be fundamentally flawed.
