Rawagede: still waiting for Dutch aid money

RNW, 13September 2011, by Michel Maas

(Photo:RNW)      

More: 

• The sole survivor's tale 
• A black page in Dutch history

Theyweren't allowed to call it reparation money or a compensation payment and ithad nothing to do with the 1947 massacre in Rawagede, but at the beginning of2009, the then Development Cooperation Minister Bert Koenders earmarked€850,000 for Balongsari, a small county in Java, Indonesia. It was developmentaid money and ostensibly had nothing to do with the fact that the village ofRawagede is also in Balongsari County.

On 9December 1947, Dutch troops rounded up and killed an estimated 431 men in theJavanese village of Rawagede. It was one of the worst massacres during the‘Dutch police action’ in the Dutch East Indies just after the Second World War.

It’s almost64 years later and the Dutch government still shies away from anyacknowledgement of guilt or hint of responsibility. It’s purely development aidmoney and not a reparations payment or compensation and it’s not for Rawagede,it’s for the entire county. The €850,000 was supposed to fund a school, amarket and expand the hospital in the village.

Waiting

Some 30months have elapsed since the money was allocated but almost nothing has beenaccomplished. On the outskirts of the village, a rice paddy measuring aroundone hectare has been cleared but the school still hasn’t been built. The localauthorities say the building plans are ready and they’re just waiting for themoney. Sukarman say construction will begin as soon as they get the money. He’sthe chairman of foundation that has already built one school in Rawagede; itstands across the road from the cleared rice paddy and has some 800 studentsalready. Sukarman: “We built that school in just 3 months. The World Bank gavethe money to our local foundation and we could arrange everything directly”.

The Dutchdevelopment aid money is taking a different route: it’s not going to Rawagede,it’s not going to Balongsari, and it’s not even going to the district ofKarawang; it’s going to the interior ministry in Jakarta. The ministry isresponsible for deciding who can build a school and when. The Hague has signedan agreement with the Ministry and a portion of the money was transferred lastDecember. The local authorities have still not received any notification fromJakarta and they still have no idea when, or if, the project will be started.

The Dutchembassy in Jakarta has defended the bureaucratic maze, calling it ‘due care andattention’. Ambassador Annemieke Ruigrok: “All of the projects must have asustainable character and everything has to be carefully calibrated and theindividual projects need to be coordinated with each other. Due care andattention take time.” She added that the ministry is currently “working out thefinal details.”

Microcredit

It’s notclear what "working out the details" means, nor is there any sign of‘coordination’. Even though the local authorities have had their plans readyand waiting for the past 2 years, the ministry still hasn’t made any contactwith them.

Not all ofthe money that was allocated in 2009 is in Jakarta; €254,500 went to the DutchHivos foundation. The organisation has used some of the money to fundmicro-credit loans in Rawagede. Hundreds of people in the village – andhundreds of others in neighbouring villages – have taken advantage of the HIVOS microcredit loans. A total of €106,533 has been lent so far, while the restof the €850,000 is doing nothing for the people of Rawagede.

Hivos hasset a cooperative up and it now has 1247 members. It is supposed to be runningan organic shop and the Dutch foundation has so far funded it to the tune of€50,000. The head of the cooperative, Riyadi, acknowledges that the shop hasn’tyet been set up although a small gas canister business has gotten off theground. According to Riyadi, the €50,000 has been sent spent on operational costsand salaries.

Apology

Severalattempts to get compensation for the victims’ relatives were dismissed on thegrounds that the events took place so long ago that the charges had lapsed. OnWednesday, judges will issue a ruling on a case brought by four relatives ofRawagede victims; they are demanding an apology and compensation.

Theirlawyer, Liesbeth Zegveld, does not believe that the case has expired, sayingthat the Netherlands still handles cases dating from World War Two. If thejudges rule in favour of the plaintiffs, it could have huge consequences forthe victims - and their relatives - of other Dutch ‘police actions’ as theycould also claim compensation.

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May 7th 2011 Rawagede - In memoriam: Sa'ih Bin Sakam†

Jambi Village Discovers Treasure Trove in Dutch-Era Safe

Jakarta Globe, August 13, 2011

Residentsof Koto Baru Hiang village in Kerinci district, Jambi, said on Friday that theyhad unearthed a veritable treasure trove of World War II-era money from an oldsafe.

AhmadNasril, the village head, said the discovery was made when the safe, which hadbeen sitting unused in the village hall as long as anyone could remember, wasopened during recent renovation work.

“The safehad always just been hidden away in a room in the village hall that peoplebelieved was haunted by a ghost, because it was always so dark,” he said.

The safe’srediscovery came after the village received funding to renovate the hall,itself a relic of the Dutch colonial era. Part of the work involved fixing up asection of the ceiling that had collapsed in the very room where the safe waslocated.

“When wefinally brought the safe out into the light of day, we used the chance to prizeit open,” Nasril said. “That’s when we found several bundles of old money fromthe Japanese colonial era.”

TheJapanese occupation of Indonesia lasted from 1942 until the end of the war in1945.

Nasril saidthat while the money did not bear any dates for when it was printed, it couldbe tracked to the Japanese occupation because it read: “ De Japansche RegeeringBetaalt Toonder Half Gulden ,” or “The Japanese Government Will Pay the BearerHalf a Guilder.”

However, hesaid the total value of the money remained unknown because many of the noteshad been damaged by mold, attributed to a half-century of humidity andrainwater leaking into the safe.

Nasril saidthe safe also contained documents with the old Indonesian spelling, including anotice decreeing the implementation of a livestock tax, dated July 1, 1947.

“Thisparticular document shows just how compliant the Kerinci people were aboutpaying taxes back then, even if it was to an occupying authority,” he said.

The villagehall had been used as an administrative office by the Dutch, who reoccupied thearchipelago shortly after the Japanese left in 1945. Later it was used as acenter for the traditional rulers of the district.

Nasril saidthe money and documents would be stored at his house for safekeeping while theKerinci administration was notified about the discovery.

“This isclearly a very significant find for us, especially coming so close toIndependence Day, when we look back at our history,” he said.

Antara

Surabaya govt officially recognizes house as Soekarno`s birth place

Antara News, Mon, June 6 2011

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Surabaya, East Java (ANTARA News) - The Surabaya city government at a ceremony on Monday officially recognized a house at Jalan Pandean IV/40 as the birth place of national founding father and first Indonesian President Soekarno.

At the ceremony, Surabaya Mayor Tri Rismaharini, Soekarno Instutute Director Peter A Rohi and a Soekarno relative, Prof Haryono Sigitm, jointly unveiled an inscribed plaque, witnessed by hundreds of Surabaya city council members and residents.

"Since the start of the reform era, we conducted a thorough study and research. We even did research in the Netherlands. Old history books have also proven that Soekarno was born in Surabaya (rather than in Blitar-Ed). Thank God, we can now officially indicate the place where he was born," Peter A. Rohi said.

In addition, Surabaya Mayor Tri Rismaharini also believed that Soekarno was not born in Blitar, East Java.

According to Tri Rismaharini, she had sent a letter to the Central Government to rectify the issue and was optimistic that the government would aprove it.

"We are still awaiting the central government`s response. But in 2010, Bambang DH, the previous Surabaya mayor signed the inscription and sent a letter (expectation) to the central government," Tri Rismaharini said.

In the meantime, the representative of Soekarno`s family Prof. Haryono Sigit, said that Soekarno`s parents once lived in the house concerned.

He also handed over the house to the Surabaya city administration to manage it.

Apart from that, Bambang Sulistomo, son of Bung Tomo, a noted hero from East Java who also attended the ceremony said so far no one had known that Soekarno was at the house on Jalan Pandean.

Editor: Priyambodo RH

A Message of Hope From a Colonial-Era Massacre

Jakarta Globe, May 10, 2011

A total of 70 actors, mainly from the Mister and Miss Jakarta Association
(IANTA), staged a play about a massacre of ethnic Chinese by the Dutch
on Oct. 9, 1740. (Antara Photo)

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Theater-goers were treated to a story of love, tragedy and comedy over the weekend — not to mention a particularly good-looking cast to watch on stage.

Based on a true story from Jakarta’s history, the musical theater production “Sangkala 9/10” was staged by the Mister and Miss Jakarta Association (IANTA) at Taman Ismail Marzuki’s Teater Jakarta from Friday to Sunday.

A cast of 70 actors, most alumni of Mister and Miss Jakarta contests, put on five shows over the weekend to an estimated 5,000 audience members.

A number of big names were also involved in the production, including former Mister Jakarta and TV personality Indra Bekti, radio host Iwet Ramadhan and actor Teuku Zacky.

Producer Maudy Koesnaedi, who is also a former Miss Jakarta, said the show aimed to highlight a story from Jakarta’s past to point a way forward for the future.

Based on true events that took place in Batavia, as Jakarta was once known, the play told the tragic story of a massacre carried out by the Dutch at nightfall on Oct. 9, 1740 — giving the show its title, “sangkala,” or “twilight,” and “9/10,” the date of the massacre.

Thousands of Chinese, mostly working in the city as businesspeople, were killed by the Dutch colonists, who also attempted to influence the local Betawi people to help them eradicate the Chinese from the city.

However, their attempts were destined to fail, as the Betawi people decided to work together with the Chinese and fight back against the Dutch.

Amid the conflict in the play, a love story blossomed between two young people: Said, a Betawi man, and Lily, an ethnic Chinese woman. Their heroic efforts to unite their love, along with the two ethnic groups, served as the center point for the show.

Director Adjie Nur Ahmad said the story had been chosen because it reflected contemporary problems faced by the country.

“We have seen how Indonesians today are easily manipulated in the name of difference,” Adjie said, adding that this had led to many bloody conflicts in the country.

“What we are supposed to do is fight wrongdoing and support what is right, not the other way around,” he said.

To illustrate the moral of the story, the play was given the tagline “Berbeda Bukan Berarti Tak Perlu Dibela” (“Being Different Doesn’t Mean They Shouldn’t Be Defended”).

Maudy, the producer, said that she especially hoped the younger people in the audience had grasped the core message of the play.

“Instead of going to the mall every weekend, we believe theater could be a perfect alternative form of entertainment for the young,” she said. “Through this show, we would like to present a different side of the Betawi people.”

TV personality Indra, who played a Betawi character named Kosim, said he learned so much from the production — including a few basic moves of “silat,” Indonesia’s traditional martial art.

“I think this is a great theater production, I’m having so much fun,” Indra said.

Unlike his job on TV, which allows for a lot of improvisation, the theater role posed the challenge of a set script.

“I had to keep reminding myself that I needed to follow the script and all the rules,” he laughed.

Drawing a bigger crowd than both of IANTA’s previous performances, “Cinta Dasima” (“Dasima’s Love”) in 2009 and last year’s “Doel,” “Sangkala 9/10” was judged a success by Maudy.

Maudy also expressed hope that, after three productions, IANTA would continue to build on its success.

“We hope this can be a long-term project and that we can produce more shows in the future,” she said.

Tanri Abeng to build cultural museum in Rotterdam

Antara News, Fri, February 25 2011

This is just a piece of the story as I know, there are many more other literacy in this epic. In fact, the original text translator who was invited by the Dutch Government to translate some 6,000 pages of the manuscript, Muhammad Salim is able to translate it in a period of 5.2 years

Makassar, S.Sulawesi (ANTARA News) - Former Minister of State Enterprises Tanri Abeng who became the originator of the staging epic I La Galigo, will build a cultural and historical museum in Fort Rotterdam in Makassar, South Sulawesi.

"After staging the epic I La Galaligo, we hope that the cultural and historical museum will also be built in Fort Rotterdam in Makassar," he said here Friday.

He added that there are officials who do not know the heroism saga of South Sulawesi I La Galigo which drove him to establish the museum filled with works of literature like epic I La Galigo.

Tanri Abeng that explained Surek Galigo also called La Galigo was an epic and myth of Buginese civilization in South Sulawesi written between the 13th and 15th centuries in the form of poetry in the ancient Bugisnese language.

The story was written in ancient Bugisnese Lontara letters, composed in pentameter and in addition to tell the story of human origins, also serves as a daily practical almanac.

The epic I La Galigo is the oldest and longest in the world before the epic of Mahabharata of India. It mostly contained poetry written in ancient Bugisnese language.

This epic tells the story of Sawerigading, a courageous hero and also foreigners.

He said that the epic I La Galigo Surek is not a history text because it is full of myth and extraordinary events. However, the epic is still given to show historians the Buginese culture before the 14th century.

"This is just a piece of the story as I know, there are many more other literacy in this epic. In fact, the original text translator who was invited by the Dutch Government to translate some 6,000 pages of the manuscript, Muhammad Salim is able to translate it in a period of 5.2 years," Tanri Abeng noted.

Therefore, the national businessman from Selayar district (South Sulawesi) said, it is very sad if there are officials or many people who did not know the epic figure of I La Galigo who received a recognition as a world heritage.

Hence, I will try to create a cultural and historic museum for the younger generation who wanted to know about the literary works of South Sulawesi and do no need to go overseas to study it, he said.

"If you want to study literature or the heroic figure of the Buginese in Makassar there is is no need to go abroad, and simply go to Fort Rotterdam museum. I do not want the younger generation to forget that in South Sulawesi the world has ever given birth to a legacy" Tanri Abeng said.

Editor: Aditia Maruli

Jakarta Calls for Renovation of Buildings in Old City

Nusantara Infrastructure, Pingit Aria. Tempo Interactive, Jakarta - 02/02/2011

The Jakarta government is calling on the owners of damaged buildings in the Old City to make renovations. “We can only coordinate with the owners,” Norviadi Setio Husodo, the restructure and development section chief of the Old City Technical Executive Unit, said yesterday.

As many as 13 old buildings owned by private companies, state-owned enterprises and individuals are damaged. Based on observations by Tempo, some of the windows and roofs have collapsed. The buildings were built during the Dutch colonial era and have historical value, said Norviadi. “That is why they were listed as cultural heritage buildings,” he said.

Of the 59 cultural conservation buildings in the area, only five belong to the Jakarta government, namely the Jakarta Historical Museum, Puppet Museum, Arts and Ceramic Museum, Maritime Museum, and a vacant space near the Old City Terminal.

Indonesian Jews fondly remember tropical home

Scholars, ex-members meet in Haifa to discuss a now-extinct Southeast Asian community.

The Jerusalem Post, By GIL SHEFLER , 12/29/2010

In 1938, as Nazi Germany absorbed Austria and anti- Semitic violence worsened, the situation of Jews in Europe became desperate. Lines of would-be émigrés formed outside embassies hoping to get permits that would allow them to escape.

Most were turned away.

Once upon a time in the Dutch East Indies (Photo by: Dr. Ely Dwek)

The Lehrers of Vienna were among the lucky ones. They boarded a boat that took them halfway across the world to Indonesia, where a relative who had been working as a physician had helped obtain permits for them.

Shoshana Lehrer, who was then four years old, recalled arriving in the Dutch East Indies and her encounter with the small but vibrant Jewish community.

“It was very hard, we were like olim,” Lehrer, who lives in Haifa’s bayside suburbs, said in an interview with The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday. “I never wanted to speak German so I had to speak Dutch with the other kids, which wasn’t easy. We were very poor, living together with other refugees in houses rented out for us by the Jewish community. It was a hard life,” Lehrer said.

“In Vienna I had a room and in Indonesia I had nothing but my bear. But although we had a very hard time there I loved it, it’s a beautiful place. It really felt like it was my country.”

The history of the Jews in Indonesia was the subject of a two-day symposium at the University of Haifa that ended on Monday. The gathering included many firsthand accounts by former community members like Lehrer, who spoke about what it was like being part of a tiny Jewish minority in what is now the most populous Muslim country in the world.

Prof. Rotem Kowner of the university’s Department of Asian Studies, who organized the event, said there was an unusual revival of interest in the remote and largely forgotten Jewish community.

“This is an interesting story of a community which was reformed in Israel after it had fallen apart,” Kowner said. “Seven years ago, the community members here decided to officially form an organization and sought funding but were largely ignored. The Dutch weren’t interested and the Indonesians certainly weren’t. Up until then not a word had been written about them.”

Lehrer is the head of Tempo Dulu, the association of Indonesian Jews in Israel, whose name means “former times” in Indonesian. She said the idea for members of the community to meet regularly emerged in 1995, when a Dutch film crew interviewed several of its members for a documentary.

“We meet in kibbutzim once or twice a year and at least 50 people come,” Lehrer said of the get-togethers, where participants often share spicy homecooked Indonesian food. “It’s not just members of the community but their children and grandchildren sometimes come, although they’re not as interested.”

Jews first arrived in the islands of Southeast Asia from the Netherlands when they were being colonized by the Dutch East India Company in the 19th century. These Jewish merchants and plantation owners were later joined by Jewish Iraqi businessmen, who had created a network of trading posts covering most of Asia from Mumbai to Shanghai.

Finally, the community was bolstered by refugees like the Lehrers fleeing Nazi persecution in Europe.

The Indonesian Jewish community was never big. At its peak shortly before outbreak of World War II, it numbered 3,000 people, based mostly in Surabaya, the island of Java’s second largest city; Batavia, later renamed Jakarta; and a few other smaller cities and towns.

With the exception of the refugees, life for members of the community during those years was one of privilege. Old photos reveal festive banquets held in large mansions, sports competitions and many religious ceremonies.

“We had a sports car which my father would drive around the island,” said Dr. Ely Dwek, who was born in Indonesia to Iraqi Jews but has lived in Israel most his life.

The Jews of Indonesia did not, however, escape the horrors of WWII. When Japan invaded the Dutch colony in 1942, most Jews were put together with other non-Asians in internment camps where conditions were extremely harsh. Many died of malnutrition, disease and violence inflicted by the Japanese and their allies.

Shoshana Lehrer was separated from her father and put in an internment camp with her mother for three years before the allies liberated them.

“My mother always said it was bad, but it was still better than what would have happened had we stayed in Europe,” she said.

After the war the community found itself in a precarious position, caught between the nationalists, who demanded independence, and the Dutch, who sought a return to the status quo before the war.

When the nationalists finally gained the upper hand in the fighting in 1949 it became increasingly difficult for Jews as well as for other non-Asians to remain. The Lehrers left for the Netherlands in 1952, never to return. Others moved to the UK, US, Israel and Australia. By 1965 there were only a few dozen Jews in Indonesia.

Nowadays an estimated 20 Jews live there. Judaism is not a recognized religion in the country and in 2009 the old synagogue in Surabaya, which seats 200 people, was forced to close under pressure from Islamists because of the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

Asked if she would like visit her childhood home, Lehrer, who has fond memories of the country, said she had mixed feelings.

“I would like to go back, but it has changed quite a lot so I’m not sure what I’ll see,” Lehrer said. “It is a place of 18,000 islands, a really beautiful place.”

But despite the community’s exodus the story of Jews in Indonesia may not be over yet.

Dr. Giora Eliraz of the Hebrew University referred on Monday to a recent New York Times article on a newly formed Jewish community in Manado, a city in a largely Christian part of the island of Sulawesi.

According to the article, pro- Jewish sentiment is widespread in the region. A giant menorah was recently erected on a mountain top and several families who claim Jewish ancestry are reconnecting with Judaism and even opened a small synagogue.

“The Jewish origin of these individuals is ambiguous,” Eliraz said. “There seems to be some Christian evangelical influence at work. Nonetheless, this may mean the curtain might not have set on Jews in Indonesia yet.”

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Bengkulu offers tourism object to Netherlands

Antara News, Thursday, December 2, 2010 16:26 WIB

Bengkulu (ANTARA News) - Lebong district Cultural Tourism and Transportation Services in Bengkulu province will offer the Netherlands tourism object and cooperation in the development of ancient history.

"We will offer a cooperation with the Netherlands to their ancestral heritage in Lebong district, district Cultural Tourism and Transportation Services spokesman Yustin Hendri said here on Thursday.

The site of former gold mining heritage, mined by the Dutch from 1902-1938 at Lebong district, is at present a potential object attracting both domestic and foreign tourists.

Yustin said that as a compensation of thousands of tons of gold which had been mined by the Dutch for 36 years in Lebong, it was necessary to cooperate with the Netherlands to promote various natural and historic heritages in the district.

According to him, Lebong district government would not ask for cash money but instead offer a cooperation with Dutch investors to develop various tourism objects in Lebong.

Yustin said it was necessary to offer the Dutch investors to operate at tourism sector in Lebong district because the area was the former activities of their ancestors.

The former Dutch mining sites which still exist today are among others Tambang Sawah, Lebong Simpang, Lebong Sulit, and Lebong Tandai in North Bengkulu district.

Meanwhile, Lebong district head Rosjohan Syah said he would fully support the cooperation with the Dutch investors to develop the natural and historical sites in the area into tourism objects.

"To restore our friendship with the grand children of the Dutchmen miners in Bengkulu, we will support such a cooperation," Rosjohan said.

Soeharto’s politics during the Japanese occupation

Dicky Christanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Sun, 11/28/2010

This book offers a rather unique perspective on Soeharto, the former president infamous for his militaristic leadership during his 32 years in office.

Based on various do-cuments and books, including Soeharto’s 1989 autobiography My Thoughts, Words and Deeds and interviews with Soeharto’s former Japanese superiors and his fellow Indonesian officers, David Jenkins, an Australian journalist and writer, is trying to offer us insight into Soeharto’s thoughts and strategies.

Early on, the book tries to provide multiple perspectives. For instance, in November 1942, in the early years of the Japanese occupation, it is said that Soeharto, a former Dutch KNIL (Koninklijke Nederlands-Indische Leger) sergeant, was “jobless and in great confusion” when just across the street, the Japanese were offering security positions to locals.

Soeharto was reluctant. He wanted to apply for the job but on the other hand he was afraid the Japanese would find out about his background as a former Dutch sergeant.

Soeharto recalled that “he finally managed to make his way to the force without revealing his army background” (page 14).

This is an important episode. Had the Japanese known that anyone previously worked for the Dutch, he or she would be sent to prison.

But Jenkins doubts Soeharto’s statement. His comparative data shows another fact that “a thorough yet tight screening method had been conducted by Keinpetai, an intelligence unit under the Japanese military, in recruiting local police candidates at that time” (page 14).

Thus, it would be almost impossible for the Japanese to let such a potentially dangerous person join the force.

Jenkins also supports his finding by interviewing Tsuchiya Kiso, a former Japanese army intelligence officer who knew Soeharto. Kiso tells him that “it was only in the beginning that the Japanese officers weren’t aware of Soeharto’s past as a Dutch sergeant” (page 15).

This of course raises another question: why the Japanese decided to let Soeharto join the force?

From what I have read, the sole reason behind the Japanese occupation force’s decision in welcoming Soeharto to its ranks, first as a policeman then an army officer, was simply because Soeharto was never considered a threat, but rather an officer with great potential (page 32).

Tsuchiya Kiso, who later recruited Soeharto to PETA, a local army battalion that was initially formed as a Japanese reserve army to fight US soldiers during World War II, acknowledged that he was fully aware of Soeharto’s background as a Dutch sergeant but nevertheless decided to accept Soeharto because, “Our need for such a professional profile had made me go against the army headquarters’ order to avoid recruiting any person affiliated with the Dutch” (page 83).

Soeharto earned the Japanese’s respect and trust. Second Lt. Nakamoto Yoshiyuki, Soeharto’s former superior officer, said that all Soeharto’s former Japanese trainers recalled the former president as “modest, clever and one who never lost control” (page 172).

These Japanese officers apparently never realized that Soeharto, from the time he joined the police through his time as a soldier with PETA, had grown dissatisfied with the Japanese occupation, especially with its practice of romusha, in which thousands of people were enslaved and put into forced labor to construct railways, roads and buildings (page 191).

Unlike Suprijadi, a fellow officer of PETA, who dared to confront the Japanese by organizing a local revolt in Blitar, East Java, in early 1945, Soeharto was at that time occupied with training a new PETA battalion also in Blitar when the Japanese occupation ended with Japan’s surrender to the US forces on Aug. 15, 1945.

Besides revealing Soeharto’s dedicated career during the Japanese occupation, the book unveils some interesting facts that might have helped develop Soeharto’s militaristic leadership skills.

Soeharto, for example, is described to have inherited a great distrust of the Muslim hardliners and the communists on both the Japanese and Dutch sides because “the followers of these two ideologies have shown great militancy and often unpredictability” (page 48).

The book also describes Soeharto as a person who showed a great interest in learning from the keinpetai’s method of interrogation, which was famous for its cruelty (page 24).

Another fact that has been unearthed is how the Japanese trainers successfully implanted the importance of showing solidarity especially toward subordinates through months of hard training.

Later on during his military and political careers, Soeharto was known as a commander who offered great protections, both literally and figuratively speaking, to his subordinates who paid great respect and loyalty to him.

Harsutedjo, the book’s translator, says, “Soeharto’s cronies will always consider him a hero since he is like a great protector of their corrupt behavior.”

Harsutedjo was once affiliated with the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI), which was outlawed by Soeharto. Many of its activists, including Harsutedjo, were sent to prison without proper trial.

The book also tells the readers how Soeharto maintained relations with those around him during the Japanese occupation.

It is rather surprising to find out that Soeharto in his early presidential tenure, visited several of his former Japanese officers as a sign of respect (page 112).

On the other side, it is also clearly described how Soeharto made enemies with some of his former colleagues at PETA. Soeharto for example, rejected the appointment of Pranoto Reksosamoedro, a military caretaker, by then president Sukarno after the abortive coup of the PKI.

According to the book, the rejection was actually only a reaction or some might say Soeharto’s revenge against Pranoto who had unveiled Soeharto’s smuggling activities when he was a military commander in Central Java (page 119).

Despite some minor weaknesses in the book — including some awkward expressions (probably the result of a poor translation) and in places very long explanations — this book will serve as good company to those interested in history.

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Manado Lights the Way for Diversity

Jakarta Globe, Norimitsu Onishi | November 25, 2010

Manado, the capital of North Sulawesi, has welcomed a new addition to the city’s skyline — a 62-foot-tall statue of a menorah, the seven-branched candelabrum recognized as an ancient symbol of Judaism, rising from the mountains overlooking the city.

The local government of the mostly Christian district of North Minahasa erected the giant menorah last year, possibly the world’s largest, at a cost of $150,000, said Margarita Rumokoy, the head of the district’s tourism department.

“It is also for the Jewish people to see that there is this sacred symbol, their sacred symbol, outside their country,” he said.

Flags of Israel can be spotted on motorcycle taxi stands around the city, one near a six-year-old synagogue that has received a face-lift, including a ceiling with a large Star of David, paid for by the city.

Denny Wowiling, a local legislator, said he proposed building the menorah after learning about the one in front of Israel’s Knesset.

He hoped it would help attract tourists and businessmen from Europe.

Long known as a Christian stronghold and more recently as home to evangelical Christian groups, this area on the fringes of northern Indonesia has become the unlikely setting for increasingly public displays of pro-Jewish sentiment as some people have embraced the faith of their Dutch Jewish ancestors.

With the local governments’ blessing, Manado’s Jews are carving out a small space for themselves in the shifting religious landscape of Indonesia, the country with the world’s largest Muslim population.

The trend comes as extremist Islamic groups have grown bolder in assailing Christian and other religious minorities elsewhere in Indonesia, while the central government, fearful of offending Muslim groups, has done little to prevent the attacks.

Last November, extremists protesting the 2008-09 war in Gaza shut down what had been the most prominent remnant of Indonesia’s historic but little-known Jewish community, a century-old synagogue in Surabaya, the country’s second-largest city.

That left the synagogue in a town just outside Manado — founded by Indonesians still struggling to learn about Judaism and now attended by about 10 people — as the nation’s sole surviving Jewish house of worship.

Before reaching out for help to occasionally suspicious Jewish communities outside Indonesia, the group researched Judaism at an Internet cafe.

They turned, they said jokingly, to “Rabbi Google” for answers. The group compiled a Torah by printing pages off the Internet. They sought the finer points of davening prayer on YouTube.

“We’re just trying to be good Jews,” said Toar Palilingan, 27, wearing a black coat and a broad-brimmed hat in the ultra-Orthodox style. Palilingan led a Sabbath dinner at his family home recently with two group regulars.

“But if you compare us to Jews in Jerusalem or Brooklyn, we’re not there yet,” he said.

Indonesia and Israel do not have diplomatic relations but have discreetly shared military and economic ties over the decades. In recent years, Jewish businessmen from Israel and elsewhere have quietly traveled here seeking business opportunities.

Moshe Kotel, 47, who was born in El Salvador and has Israeli and American citizenship, has been coming to Manado every year since 2003 and owns an organic egg business.

Kotel, whose wife is from the area, said he felt nervous landing at the airport here for the first time.

“It was 1 p.m. already, and I always carry tefillin with me,” Kotel said, referring to the small leather boxes housing scriptural passages. “But ever since I saw the Israeli flags on the taxis at the airport, I’ve always felt welcome here.”

Lawmaker Wowiling, a Pentecostal Christian, emphasized that Christians and Muslims generally live peacefully in North Sulawesi, but acknowledged that “there are worries that we might be targeted by people from outside.”

Increasingly strong pro-Jewish sentiments in the region also appear to be an outgrowth of an evangelical Christian movement, that with the help of American and European missionaries has taken root here in the past decade.

Some experts regard this movement as a reaction against the growing role of orthodox Islam in the rest of Indonesia.

“In Manado, Christianity has always strongly marked its identity with the belief that it is opposed to the surrounding sea of Islam,” said Theo Kamsma, a scholar at The Hague University who specializes in Manado’s Jewish legacy.

Christianity and a reemerging Judaism share a “rebellious” nature, he added.

Two years before the menorah was built, a Christian real estate developer raised a 98-foot-tall statue of Jesus on top of a hill here; the statue is about three-quarters the size of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro.

In the town center, churches belonging to a multitude of denominations now sit only a few hundred yards apart.

An abandoned building was once used for preparing the bodies of local Jews for burial in the Jewish cemetery in Surabaya.

During Dutch colonial rule, Jewish communities were established in major trading cities where they often dealt in real estate, acting as mediators between colonial rulers and locals, said Anthony Reid, a scholar on Southeast Asia at the Australian National University.

Given Indonesia’s traditionally moderate Islam, anti-Jewish sentiments were never strong.

“The anti-Jewish feelings really came in the 1980s and 1990s, because of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” Reid said.

In Surabaya, in a Jewish cemetery now overgrown with weeds, gravestones indicate that people were buried there as recently as 2007.

The synagogue, located on a major street, had been inactive for the past decade but was still being used for funeral services.

“We never had any problems until last year,” said Sunarmi Karti, 46, an Indonesian woman in Surabaya who still lives in a house inside the synagogue’s compound and whose stepfather was Jewish.

Here in Manado, families of Dutch Jewish ancestry practiced their faith openly before Indonesia gained independence from the Netherlands in 1949.

After that, they converted to Christianity or Islam to avoid persecution.

“We told our children never to talk about our Jewish origins,” said Leo van Beugen, 70, who was raised Roman Catholic. “So our grandchildren do not even know.”

It was just over a decade ago, during a heated exchange over the Bible and Moses, that Palilingan’s maternal great-aunt let slip the family’s Jewish roots.

Palilingan — a lecturer in law at Sam Ratulangi University, where his father, a Christian, and mother, a Muslim, also teach — learned that his relatives on his mother’s side descended from a 19th-century Dutch Jewish immigrant, Elias van Beugen.

His great-aunt suggested that he meet the Bollegrafs, once the most prominent Jewish family in Manado.

Oral Bollegraf, now 50, had been a Pentecostal Christian all his life but knew that his grandfather had maintained Manado’s only synagogue in their family home.

“We never acknowledged that we were Jewish,” said Bollegraf. “But everybody in town knew us as a Jewish family.”

Palilingan made contact with the rabbi who was physically closest, Mordechai Abergel, an emissary to Singapore from the Brooklyn-based Chabad Lubavitch movement.

Rabbi Abergel said Palilingan had done a “great job” in trying to reconnect with his Jewish roots, though he had yet to undergo a full conversion.

Committed to what he calls the “purity” of ultra-Orthodox Judaism, Palilingan sometimes wears its adherents’ telltale black and white clothing in public here and in Jakarta.

The New York Times

Related Article:

In Sliver of Indonesia, Public Embrace of Judaism

Business and pleasure: Children frolic on the beach in Manado, North Sulawesi, on Sunday. The beach is made of land reclaimed by the local government to give more space to businesses and ports. (JP / Antara/Basrul Haq)

Colonial Era Gets a New Coat of Paint

Jakarta Globe, Katrin Figge | November 19, 2010

The Dutch cultural center Erasmus Huis, known for staging high-quality cultural performances in Jakarta, celebrated its 40th anniversary this year with a big bash in April and an equally illustrious closing party at the beginning of this month.

The painting exhibition ‘Kota Tua,’ currently showing at
the Dutch cultural center Erasmus Huis, features works
that offer commentary on Indonesia’s colonial past.
(JG Photos / Katrin Figge)

One of the exhibitions currently being held as part of the festivities, “Kota Tua” (“Old City”), is a group effort by students of the Jakarta Institute of Arts, which is also celebrating its 40th anniversary this year.

The paintings, on display on the second floor of the cultural center, take a look at buildings and scenes from Jakarta’s old city center, Kota, or as it was known in the colonial era, Batavia.

“Painting old buildings reminds us of the modern city atmosphere of that era, the life that colored the Jakarta of those days,” the exhibition’s accompanying catalog says.

“The structures that were built to cater to the needs of a busy city. Hotels, highways, bridges, floodgates, office buildings, harbors, train stations, marketplaces, hospitals, the governor’s residence — they were all built in the architectural style of the Dutch East Indies.”

Some paintings radiate a sense of nostalgia as they capture how Kota Tua’s buildings looked when the area was still a flourishing city center.

One painting depicts a vintage car parked in front of what is now Cafe Batavia, while another one shows a peaceful scene at the old Sunda Kelapa harbor.

Other works focus on the neglected state of Jakarta’s historic buildings today. These architectural gems of yesteryear now seem forgotten, standing as silent witnesses to a colorful past.

“The paintings of old buildings are interesting,” the catalog says.

“It is nostalgic and it respects the work of the architects of the past. The students of the IKJ are used to painting Jakarta’s old buildings from various points of view, appreciating their historical and aesthetic values.”

Some of the works showcased at the exhibition convey a very strong message.

The most memorable painting shows the old administrative headquarters of the Dutch East India Company, and later the Dutch government. The second oldest structure on Fatahillah Square, the old headquarters was turned into the Jakarta History Museum in 1974.

Across the painting, the word “exploited” is written in white letters on a red background — the colors of the Indonesian flag. The painting, a voiceless accusation, encourages the viewer to reflect once more on a time when Indonesia was still under colonial rule.

“The Dutch government has left a heritage,” the catalog says.

“The good and the bad of the government of that time is a reality. And so are the values of the old buildings, which still stand as witnesses that can convey a lot to the coming generations.”

While this may be true, there has been no official recognition of the old city center’s historical value.

Several master plans to save Kota Tua’s fading heritage have been drawn up since the early 1990s, but little has been done by the city administration to restore the area. Instead, the city is left with fading buildings.

‘Kota Tua’

Painting exhibition by IKJ students

Until Jan. 13

Erasmus Huis

Jl. Rasuna Said Kav. S3

Kuningan, South Jakarta

Tel: 021 524 1069