I would like to comment on a statement: “More than 15 million hectares of degraded land suitable for plantation development, oil palm estates continue to push into so-called High Conservation Value Forests.” (“Greenpeace victory is a good lesson for oil palm sector and govt”, The Jakarta Post, May 25).

Much of the territory making up modern Indonesia was a Dutch colony for more than 350 years, until it became independent in 1945.

As a small country, the Netherlands could only send out a relatively small Dutch contingent to its colonial administration service. In order to manage the huge territory the Dutch empire relied instead on a system of alliances with local political entities, usually governed by customs.