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Racial apartheid continues, targeting Indonesian war victims
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Impression of the past: A model conference room at the Linggarjati Museum gives visitors an idea of what the meeting may have looked like that led to a heated debate between Indonesian and Dutch delegates prior to the signing of the Linggarjati Agreement. (The Jakarta Post/Rita Widiadana)
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n October 2021, under the banner of “collective recognition”, the Dutch government announced that in the coming four years, they would allocate 20.4 million euro (US$23.36 million) in a show of appreciation for the Indische gemeenschap (Indies community) and to highlight their special place in Dutch society.
The Indies community consists of Indo-Dutch people whose family history is linked to the colonial occupation of Indonesia. They are multi-ethnic, non-white Dutch citizens with Indonesian roots identified as Indisch (Indies). The term relates to the name that the Dutch colonizers gave to the large territory that they occupied: Nederlands-Indië (the Dutch East Indies).
The ancestors of the Indisch people did not support the Republic of Indonesia, which was born as an independent state on Aug. 17, 1945. That is why they moved to the Netherlands, and it explains why their descendants never identify themselves as Indonesians. Even worse, the people who call themselves Indisch are often offended when white Dutch people confuse them for Indonesians.
To be clear, this expensive “collective recognition” is not meant for me, an Indonesian living in the Netherlands. In an official letter, the Dutch government stated that it is about the acknowledgment of the suffering that Indo-Dutch people went through during, and after, World War II.
This gesture is totally misplaced and inappropriate: The Indisch identity is a very colonial one. The huge amount of money proves the Dutch are not condemning the colonial past, they are honoring it.
The sum is in stark contrast to the amount that Indonesian war victims received. Starting in 2006, the Committee of Dutch Honorary Debt (KUKB) won a series of lawsuits against the Dutch state. In the case of Indonesian widows of Indonesian men who were executed by the Dutch Army between 1945-1949, the court in The Hague ruled that the state had to pay each of them 20,000 euro in damages. But since children of victims also started lawsuits, the Dutch court ordered the payment of embarrassingly low amounts. The lowest amount paid was even 123.48 euro!
The huge difference between 20.4 million euro and 123.48 euro reveals the true face of the Netherlands: a face hidden in darkness with features of apartheid and racism. By this expensive gesture, once again, the traitors (Indo-Dutch) are rewarded by the perpetrators (white Dutch) for their loyalty.
