NEVER FORGIVE, NEVER FORGET!https://theconversation.com/the-dark-history-of-slavery-and-racism-in-indonesia-during-the-dutch-colonial-period-141457The dark history of slavery and racism in Indonesia Nusantara during the Dutch colonial periodMemorial of
slave tradersAlthough some novels and academic writings have described the life of indentured labour in North Sumatra, the general public rarely discuss the history of slavery.
Even until the end of the 20th century,
the Dutch government never acknowledged the violence during colonial times.Medan, famous as a trading city in the early 20th century, once erected two monuments to commemorate the glory of slave traders. In 1915, a fountain was erected in front of the Medan Post Office to commemorate Jacob Nienhuys as the “pioneer” of the Deli plantation.
.....
White racismThe Dutch planters treated the coolies
inhumanely and like slaves.A letter dated October 28, 1876, by Frans Carl Valck, the Assistant Resident in East Sumatra noted:
“It would be a miracle indeed, if respectable Chinese coolies would be attracted to a place where coolies are beaten to death or at least so mistreated that the thrashings leave permanent scars, where manhunts are the order of the day. …. Just recently I heard a rumour about a certain European who prided himself on having hung him down after the coolie had turned entirely blue.”
Nienhuys wrote that “Chinese are bold arch-swindlers and the Javanese are lazy and hot tempered” and “Batak is a stupid race, on the whole”.
An article dated May 30th, 1913 in Sumatra Post wrote that around 1867, Nienhuys was indicted of flogging seven Chinese coolies to death. The case was never proven nor disproved, but the Sultan of Deli ordered Nienhuys to leave the land of Deli and never to return.
In 1869, JT Cremer replaced Nienhuys as the administrator of the Deli company. To control thousands of workers from China and Java, Cremer designed the Coolie Ordinance, passed by the Dutch East Indies government in 1880. The regulation allowed companies to engage coolies in a contract that bound them for three years. The workers were meant to pay for their “debt” of transportation cost to Deli land.
The contract included a penal sanction that allowed the company to punish the workers if they forfeited the agreement. The ordinance gave power to the planters to punish coolies who were thought to be disobedient, lazy or tried to run away.
.....
Anticolonial activist from
Indonesia Nusantara, Tan Malaka, who was teacher a in Deli plantation in the 1920s, described the life there:
Deli, a land of gold, a haven for the capitalist, but a land of sweat, tears, and death, a hell for the workers.
The coolies were forced to work; they were slaves. The coolies worked from dawn to night, received enough wages to fill in their stomachs and cover their back;
they lived in a shed like goats in their cages, they were called godverdom and could be beaten any time and could lose their wives and daughters as desired by the master.Breman estimated that a fourth of the coolies died before their contract ended.