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The Pattern of Administrative Reforms in the Closing Years of Dutch Rule in Indonesia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

Harry J. Benda
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The history of Indonesia in the last two or three decades of Dutch colonial rule still has to be written, and it can only be written when the abundant archival materials for this period, both in Indonesia and in the Netherlands, come to be opened up for scholarly investigation. Scholars who, since the Second World War, have turned their attention to modern Indonesian history have tended to focus on the development of Indonesian nationalism, and for understandable reasons. The Indonesian Revolution, crowned by the attainment of Indonesian independence in 1949, rendered an understanding of the Indonesian nationalist movement in colonial times imperative not only to Indonesian historians attempting to come to grips with their country's recent past but also to an ever-increasing number of foreign students. Welcome as this ongoing re-examination of Indonesian nationalism is, it, too, must remain incomplete until documentary evidence, whether archival or (auto)-biographical, can substantially enrich it.

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The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 25 , Issue 4 , August 1966 , pp. 589 - 605
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Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1966

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References

1 A new series of official documents is in the process of publication in the Netherlands, providing excellent materials for future research. The first volume is Wal, S. L. van der (ed.), Het onderwijsbeleid in Nederlandsch-Indië 1900–1940: Een bronnenpublikatie–Education Policy in the Netherlands-Indies 1900–1940 (with a Preface, Introduction and Survey of the Documents in English) (Groningen, 1963)Google Scholar. Attention should also be drawn to a three-volume publication of the official recommendations to both the colonial and home governments by the famous Arabist, one-time Adviser on Native and Arabian Affairs, and Professor of Arabic and Islamic Institutions at Leiden University, C. Snouck Hurgronje; two volumes have so far appeared. Gobée, E. and Adriaanse, C. (eds.), Ambtelifke adviezen van C. Snouck Hurgronje (The Hague, 1957, 1959).Google Scholar

2 Cf. Benda, Harry J., “Decolonization in Indonesia: The Problem of Continuity and Change,” American Historical Review, LXX (1965), 1058–73.Google Scholar

3 These figures are taken from Blumberger, J. Th. Petrus, De communistische beweging in Nederlandsch-lndië (Haarlem, 2nd rev. ed., 1935), 118–19.Google Scholar

4 The Batavia daily De Java Bode stated on December 8, 1937, that “the Indies have become a state living under a police regime.” Quoted in Bousquet, G.-H., A French View of the Netherlands-Indies (tr. by Lilienthal, Philip E.; New York, 1940), 34n.Google Scholar

5 For a thoughtful post-war Dutch discussion, see Idenburg, P. J. A., “Het Nederlandse antwoord op het Indonesisch nationalisme,” in Baudet, H. and Brugmans, I. J. (eds.), Balans van het Beleid: Terugblilk op de làatste halve eeuw van Nederlandsch-lndië (Assen, 1961), 121–51.Google Scholar

6 Cf. the symptomatic title, Mission Interrupted (Amsterdam, 1945), of an abbreviated English translation of a Dutch symposium on the Netherlands Indies, Helsdingen, W. H. van and Hoogenberk, H. (eds.), Daar wèrd wat groots verricht…: Nederlandsch-lndië in de XXe eeuw (Amsterdam, 1941)Google Scholar. The book, which contains many authoritative contributions by leading specialists, is pervaded by the spirit paraphrased in the text. The same may be said of most of Balans van Beleid (see Note 5, above), and it is truer still of the remarkable collection of essays included in a volume dedicated to the glory of the Binnenlands Bestuur (Department of Interior Administration), Gedenkboek van de Vereniging van Ambtenaren bij het Binnenlands Bestuur in Nederlands-lndië (Utrecht, 1956)Google Scholar. (Future references will read Gedenkboek.

7 The record is carefully chronicled in Kahin, George McTurnan, Nationalism and Revolution in Indonesia (Ithaca, 1952)Google Scholar, Ch. III. For an insightful reminiscence by an Indonesian, see Tajibnapis, S. H., “De laatste tien jaren voor de Japansche bezetting,” De Brug/Djambatan, I, 1 (April, 1946), 10–14 and I, 2 (May, 1946), 14–16Google Scholar. Cf. also Kadt, J. de, De lndonesische tragedie: het treurspel der gemiste kansen (Amsterdam, 1949).Google Scholar

8 Governor-General B. C. de Jonge (1931–1936), in an interview granted the North Sumatran daily Deli Courant, said i.a. “… I am always being asked in connection with … [our] policy of autonomy: when? Now I believe that since we have worked in the Indies for some 300 years, another 300 will have to be added before they may perhaps be ready for some kind of autonomy.” Cited in Koloniaal Tijdschrijt (The Hague), XXV (1936), 338.Google Scholar

9 Cf. Duynstee, F. J. M., Nieitw-Guinea als schakel tussen Nederland en Indonesië (Amsterdam, 1961).Google Scholar

10 A prominent Dutch journalist in colonial Indonesia accurately described the apolitical nature of die colonial polity when he called it a “… structure in which the problem of power plays no part, [and] in which die play of political forces cannot ever lead to a decisive influence on the development of the conduct of governmental [policy].“Ritman, J. H., “Eenige aanteekeningen over politeke partijen in Indië,” Koloniale Studiën (Batavia), XXI (1937), 339.Google Scholar

11 For the complete text of the speech from the throne, see Raalte, E. van (ed. & comp.), Troonredes, Openingsredes, lnhuldigingsredes 1814–1963 (The Hague, 1964), 193–94Google Scholar. The relevant passage reads as follows: “As a Christian Power, the Netherlands are duty-bound better to order the legal position of the native Christians in the Indian Archipelago, to lend firmer support to the Christian mission, and to permeate the entire governmental system by the realization that die Netherlands has to fulfill a moral obligation towards the population of these areas.” (p. 94).

12 “Demi-gods of die centralized regime” is how a Dutch commentator referred to the B.B. officials as late as 1936. See Bolhuis, J. J. van, “Indië en de Nederlandische Volksvertegenwoordiging,” De Indische Gids (Amsterdam), 58 (1936), 731.Google Scholar

13 The problems created by the rise of die technical services are briefly discussed by Helsdingen, W. H. van, “Het centraal en regionaal bewind,” in Daar wèrd wat groots verricht, 475–76Google Scholar, and Coolhaas, Ph., “Ontstaan en groei,” in Gedenkboek, 64Google Scholar. A far more profound change, also under the aegis of modernization, had been legal reform, which sought to separate judicial from administrative functions. The establishment of a judicature constituted an important diminution of the B.B. corps’ authority (see Coolhaas, ibid., 54 and 64). For a brief discussion, see Idema, H. A., “De rechtspraak,” in Daar wèrd wat groots verricht, 448 ff.Google Scholar

14 These events are carefully traced in Niel, Robert Van, The Development of the Indonesian Elite (The Hague and Bandung, 1960), 207–42.Google Scholar

15 The events of the mid-1920's gave rise to a flood of critical, often vindictive, literature, much of it seeking a causal connection between die uprisings and liberal reforms. One typical example is Treub's, M. W. F.Het gist in Indië (Haarlem, 1927)Google Scholar; its author was chairman of the “Ondernemersraad,” the plantation owners’ council in the Netherlands. The most important work in this flood of criticism was that by Dr.Colijn, H., later premier and minister of colonies, Koloniale vraagstukken van heden en morgen (Amsterdam, 1928).Google Scholar

16 For a brief discussion of the impact of the depression on the Indonesian economy, see Idema, M. A., “Impulsen tot Indië's ontwikkeling,” in Daar wèrd wat groots verricht, 433–35Google Scholar. Cf. also Gonggrijp, G., Schets ener eonomische geschiedenis van Indonesië (Haarlem, 4th impr., 1957), Ch. VIII, esp. 180 ff.Google Scholar

17 B. B. opposition to reforms is specifically acknowledged by Helsdingen, van, loc. cit., 461Google Scholar, and by Bertsch, R. K. A., “Het Binnenlandsch Bestuur,” in Daar wèrd wat groots verricht, 473–74Google Scholar. See also Wiranatakoesoema, R. A. A., “De Regentschapsraad,” in Kerchman, F. W. M. (ed.), 25 Jaren Decentralisatie in Nederlandsch-lndië, 1905–1930 (Semarang, n.d., ca. 1931), 191–92Google Scholar, and Koenders, W. C., “Het B. B. en de Indische maatschappij,” in Gedenkboek., 284.Google Scholar

18 “From die beginning,” wrote an astute British observer, “administrative and political reforms have been closely intertwined.” Furnivall, John S., Netherlands India: A Study in Plural Economy (Cambridge, 1944), 264.Google Scholar

19 Jansen, A., “Voortzetting van de bestuurshervorming,” Koloniale Studiën, XX (1936), 88–108Google Scholar; reprinted also in Koloniaal Tijdschrift, XXV (1936), 603–22Google Scholar. This is one of the most concise discussions of die reforms.

20 This aspect of decentralization is not discussed in this paper. For a brief critical evaluation, especially also of the constitutional relationship reflected in the new basic law of 1925, see Furnivall, , op. cit., 277–80.Google Scholar

21 Insofar as this also meant a measure of greater freedom of action for European civil servants outside the capital, decentralization in this limited sense of the word found ready approval among diem. See Coolhaas, , he. cit., 65.Google Scholar

22 For an excellent discussion of the historical development of the regent's office, see Schrieke, B., “The Native Rulers,” in Indonesian Sociological Studies: Selected Writings of B. Schrieke, Part One (The Hague/Bandung, 1955), 167–221.Google Scholar

23 Cited in Verslag van de Commissie tot bestudeering van staatsrechtelijke hervormingen (Batavia, 1941–1942, 2nd impr., New York, 1944), I, 134Google Scholar. Future references to this important publication, the official report on governmental reorganization published on the eve of the Japanese occupation, will be styled Visman Report, after the Commission's chairman, Dr. F. H. Visman, a member of the Council of the Indies.

24 The decentralization law can be found in Staatsblad van Nederlandsch-Indië, 1922, Nr. 216Google Scholar; the ordinances establishing the new provinces and regencies appeared in ibid., 1924, Nrs. 78 and 79.

25 For a detailed account of regional representation, see Levelt, H. J., “Samenstelling van de raden der autonome ressorten,” in 25 Jaren Decentralisatie, 24–39Google Scholar. A summary of the situation in later years can be found in Visman Report, I, 138 ff.

26 See Coolhaas, , loc. cit., 66–68Google Scholar; Bertsch, , loc. cit., 473–74Google Scholar, and Koenders, , loc. cit., 284.Google Scholar

27 For a brief discussion, see Furnivall, , op. cit., 275–77Google Scholar. An important collection of essays on the Volksraad appeared in Koloniale Studiën, XXII (1938)Google Scholar; that periodical devoted an entire issue (#3) to the chamber which was then celebrating its twentieth anniversary. A convenient survey of the Volksraad can be found in Visman Report, I, Ch. 4, Part I.

28 Cf. Helsdingen, van, loc. cit., 466.Google Scholar

29 See Note 22, above.

30 Bertsch, , loc. cit., 474.Google Scholar

31 Helsdingen, Van, loc. cit., 468–69Google Scholar. On the areas under indirect rule see also Emerson, Rupert, Malaysia: A Study in Direct and Indirect Rule (New York, 1937), Ch. IXGoogle Scholar, and Haar, J. C. C., De zelf-bestuurspolitiek. van de Korte Verklaringslandschappen m NederlandscA-lndië (Utrecht, 1939), Ch. IX.Google Scholar

32 Hurgronje, C. Snouck, “De inlandsche bestuursambtenaren, vooral op Java,” in Verspreide geschrijten van C. Snouck Hurgronje (Bonn and Leipzig, 1924), Vol. IV #2, 147–68Google Scholar. See also Ambtelijke Adviezen van C. Snouck. Hurgronje, I, 538–74Google Scholar, for several incisive comments.

33 See Benda, Harry J., “Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje and the Foundations of Dutch Islamic Policy in Indonesia,” The Journal of Modern History, XXX (1958), 338–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

34 Pieters, J. M., De zoogenaamde ontvoogding van het Inlandsch Bestuur (Wegeningen, 1932), 131–32.Google Scholar

35 Herinneringen van Pangeran Aria Achmad Djajadiningrat (Amsterdam and Batavia, 1936), 100.Google Scholar

36 Koenders, , he. cit., 284.Google Scholar

37 Bertsch, , loc. cit., 474.Google Scholar

38 Writing in the early 1940's Helsdingen, van (loc. cit., 567)Google Scholar observed that “although there has been no lack of prophets of doom, for the time being at least they have not been proved right [since] the Councils do not, in fact, exert a dominant influence.”

39 Out of a total Indonesian population of over 10 million in West Java, 1.8 million were eligible to vote for a total of 23,776 electors in 18 regencies; die equivalent figures for Central Java, with over 10 1/2 million native inhabitants, were 1.97 million and 25,154, resp.; for East Java wiuS over 14 million, 2.5 million and 32,384, resp. Visman Report, I, 145.

40 In the Bandung regency council, so its head reported in 1930, eighteen out of 23 elected members were government officials. Wiranatakoesoema, R. A. A., “De Regentschapsraad,” in 25 Jaren Decentralisatie, 190Google Scholar. He accounts for diis state of affairs by stressing the force of tradition. Bousquet, , op. cit., 69Google Scholar, briefly alludes to a possible rigging of elections in favor of officials. But Wiranatakoesoema also specifically mentions diat die radical nationalists of Portai Sarekat Islam Indonesia and Portai Nasional Indonesia boycotted the Council while the “cooperating” Pasundan and Budi Vtomo had most of their members in the city of Bandung which was not a constituency for die regency council. This essay contains some very interesting details on die problems besetting die regent's position vis-à-vis die council members.

41 See Oetoyo, Koesoemo, “De Volksraad en de inheemsche samenleving,” Koloniale Studiën, XXII (1938), 336Google Scholar, and P. A. A. Djajadiningrat, “Herinneringen aan de geboorte en aan de eerste jaren van den Volksraad,” ibid., 365.

42 See Note 15, above. “The political wisdom of most Netherlander [in the colony] may be briefly summed up in one sentence: Enough has already been ‘spoiled’ by all sorts of ‘reform’; for God's sake, put an end to it and keep your hands off!” Ritman, , op. cit., 354Google Scholar. See also Koenders, , loc. cit., 269.Google Scholar

43 Professor Cornells van Vollenhoven, the leading proponent of “ethical” colonial policies at Leiden University, called the reforms in Java a “deplorable fiasco.” Cited in Boer, D. W. N. de, “Herstel van inheemsch bestel de kern der bestuurshervorming in de Buitengewesten,” Koloniaal Tijdschrijt, XXV (1936), 151.Google Scholar

44 See the findings of the commission set up to inquire into the causes of the Communist-led revolt in West Java—me so-called Bantam Report—translated in Benda, Harry J. and McVey, Ruth T. (eds.), The Communist Uprisings of 1926–1927 in Indonesia: Key Documents, esp. 34 and 56–57.Google Scholar

45 For a detailed analysis of the administrative problems highlighted by the insurrection on the West Coast of Sumatra, see Rapport van de commissie van onderzoek ingesteld bij het Gouvernementsbesluit van 13 Februari 1927, No. la (Weltevreden, 1928), Vol. Ill, Part IGoogle Scholar. For a highly critical comment on the report and especially on administrative reforms in the area, see Faille, P. de Roo de la, Het Sumatra's Westkust Rapport en de Adat (The Hague, 1928)Google Scholar; the author was a former B. B. officer and ex-member of the Council of the Indies.

46 See Visman Report, I, 137. Fear that financial considerations would impair decentralization was expressed by the Adviser on Decentralization in 1930. Cohen-Stuart, A. B., “25 jaren Decentralisatie,” in 25 Jarén Decentralisatie, 23.Google Scholar

47 Colijn, , op. cit., 88–93Google Scholar. Actually “Colijn … when he became minister again … never even alluded to the ideas he had professed in his book.” Vlekke, B. H. M., Nusantara: A History of the East Indian Archipelago (Cambridge, Mass., 1943), 345.Google Scholar

48 The Province of West Java with its regencies came into existence on January 1, 1926, East Java on January 1, 1929, Central Java following suit on January 1, 1930. See Cohen-Stuart, , loc. cit., 21.Google Scholar

49 The initiative of the European B. B. is specifically acknowledged by Koenders, , loc. cit., 285.Google Scholar

50 Cohen-Stuart, , loc. cit., 23.Google Scholar

51 See Bertsch, , loc. cit., 467 ff.Google Scholar

52 See Koenders, , loc. cit., 284Google Scholar. The assistant resident had no formal place in the administrative structure of the regency (Bertsch, , loc. cit., 489Google Scholar). In die 1920's, the governor-general convened regents’ conferences from which assistant residents were excluded. Burger, D. H., “Het Binnenlands Bestuur op Java en Madoera,” in Gedenkboek, 93.Google Scholar

53 The causal connection between the political events of the mid-1920's and “recentralization” is specifically alluded to by Koenders, , loc. cit., 257–58Google Scholar. Apprehension concerning the new trend as a result of political extremism was expressed by Cohen-Stuart, (loc. cit., 22–23) 1930.Google Scholar

54 See Coolhaas, , loc. cit., 67Google Scholar and Koenders, , loc. cit., 285.Google Scholar

55 Cohen-Stuart, , loc. cit., 23.Google Scholar

56 This is specifically stated in Visman Report, I, 137.

57 See the analysis and statistics in ibid., I 151–56.

58 Jansen, , op. cit., 88Google Scholar. For a criticism of this budgetary optimism, see Burger, E. J., “Het zelfbekostigingsbeginsel in de Buitengewestenbestuurshervorming,” Koloniaal Tijdschrift, XXVIII (1939), 296–99.Google Scholar

59 See F. van Maurik, “De verdere doorvoering der Bestuurshervorming in de Buitengewesten,” ibid., 282–95.

60 Staatsblad van Nederlandsch-lndiè 1936, #68.

61 See Jansen, , op. cit., 107–08Google Scholar. For an angry reaction to the Dutch parliament's intervention, see Kiès, Ch., “De Bestuurshervorming in de Buitengewesten,” De Indische Gids, 58 (1936), 879–82.Google Scholar

62 For details on their composition, see “Kroniek,” Koloniaal Tijdschrijt, XXVIII (1939), 82–84Google Scholar. The Volksraad debate on these group communities is briefly reported in ibid., XXVI (1937), 331–32. Another such community was to be created for Tapanuli, but the plan was not carried out.

63 Jansen, , op. cit., 102–103Google Scholar. The vote was 45 for, 5 against (with 10 votes unaccounted for).

64 See “Kroniek,” Koloniaal Tijdschrijt, XXVII (1938), 505–506.Google Scholar

65 Cohen-Stuart, Cited, loc. cit., 20.Google Scholar

66 This was the interpretation of the perceptive American scholar, Amry Vandenbosch, The Dutch East Indies: Its Government, Problems and Politics (University of California Press: Berkeley and Los Angeles, 3rd. ed., 1944), 139.Google Scholar

67 Jansen, , op. cit., 96–97Google Scholar. The same author bluntly described die new reforms as “a welcome recon stitution of die erstwhile central position of die B. B.” (ibid., 101). See also Schrieke, J. J., “Indië en dominion-status,” Koloniale Studiën, XX (1936), 39.Google Scholar

68 “If we fully understand … the essence of ontvoogding, then the native administrative corps can only find a place within diat policy in the measure diat it must gradually see its tasks transferred to the traditional [adat] heads of the people.” Cited in Wal, H. van der, “De ontvoogding in den Volksraad,” Kohniaal Tijdschrift, XXVII (1938), 698Google Scholar. Cf. also Boer, de, op. cit., 156.Google Scholar

89 Van der Wal, 699–700.

70 For a recent discussion, see Pluvier, Jan M., “The Soetardjo Petition,” Journal of the Historical Society, (University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur) II (1963/1964), 51–65.Google Scholar

71 Visman Report, I, 130.

72 Helsdingen, Van, loc. cit., 469.Google Scholar

78 The Adviser for Decentralization acutely observed in 1930 that, in response to the early extremism of the national movement, the European community had turned to the safeguarding of its own political and economic interests. The resultant clash had brought the government to the fore as the sole “balance-creating and regulating force.” Cohen-Stuart, , loc. cit., 20Google Scholar, He continued by commenting on the “accentuated [tendency] to strengthen the guiding power of the administrative authorities.” (ibid., 23). See also Note 10, above.

74 See Note 8, above.

75 This interpretation is stressed by Koenders, , loc. cit., 257–58Google Scholar: “… [A]fter 1927, the ethical policy primarily lost its cause since the overwhelming majority of Indonesian politicians turned against the Netherlanders. … The aim for rapid constitutional reforms of the ethically-minded Netherlanders had run aground.”

76 The reorientation of colonial policy in part at least paralleled legal reforms inspired by Professor C. van Vollenhoven at Leiden and his followers. They opposed the Westernization of Indonesia on Dutch models and urged, instead, that modernization be based upon the reality of viable native adat institutions and practices. Though van Vollenhoven was politically a liberal, it seems likely that his emphasis on the adat community provided a welcome underpinning for the administrative reforms in the Outer Islands of the 1930's. I have suggested this hypothesis in my The Crescent and the Rising Sun: Indonesian Islam under the Japanese Occupation, 1942–1945 (The Hague and Bandung, 1958), 66–68Google Scholar. In his foreword to the book (ibid., ix), Professor W. F. Wertheim has recorded his reservations concerning this hypomesis. See also Niel, Van, op. cit., 243–51Google Scholar, for a similar interpretation. The legal problems were authoritatively discussed in two articles—separated by over a decade—by Haar, B. ter: “Een keerpunt in de adatrechtpolitiek: Toekomstbeschouwingen,” Koloniale Studiëen, XII (1928), 245–80Google Scholar, and “Halverwege de nieuwe adatrechtspraak,” Ibid., XXIII (1939), 113–41.

77 “The government,” some Indonesian spokesmen pleaded before the Visman Commission, “should place more confidence in the Indonesian intellectuals. Even granting that the choice may be limited, the government should take some risks and see things going less well according to Dutch standards. What might be lost in quality would be gained in appreciation and confidence.” Visman Report, II, 23.

78 A plea to admit regents to the Batavia Law School, thus equipping them at long last with a proper, modern education, can be found in two articles by Heyting, H. G.: “Positie en opleiding van regenten,” De Indisene Gids, 60 (1938), 509–16Google Scholar, and “Herbewapening van regenten, moreel en sociaal,” Ibid., 61 (1939), 403–07. Some regents and other native administrative personnel were trained in a separate institute, the Bestuursschool, founded in 1914 and subsequendy re-named Bestuursacademie; closed during the depression, the “academy” was reopened in 1938 with only fifteen candidates. See “Kroniek,” Koloniaal Tijdschrijt, XXVIII (1939), 85–87Google Scholar. Providing native officials with a thorough Western education had been Snouck Hurgronje's oft-repeated demand; see Note 32, above.

79 See Kahin, , op. cit., 351–90Google Scholar, passim. See also Schiller, A. Ardiur, The Formation of Federal Indonesia, 1945–1949 (The Hague and Bandung, 1955).Google Scholar

80 It could even be argued that the precolonial Javanese polity already was a highly developed patrimonial Beamtenstaat in its own right, which was further developed by the meticulously bureaucratic regime of the Nedierlands Indies, reaching an old-new, Dutch-Javanese syndiesis in independent Indonesia. This kind of continuity refers to style of governance radier than to structural similarities. See Wertheim, W. F., East-West Parallels: Sociological Approaches to Modern Asia (The Hague, 1964), 106 ff.Google Scholar

81 The many-faceted administrative and political problems of decentralization and recentralization in the history of the Indonesian Republic can be studied in Legge, J. D., Central Authority and Regional Autonomy in Indonesia, 1950–1960 (Ithaca, 1961)Google Scholar and Maryanov, Gerald, Decentralization in Indonesia as a Political Problem (Ithaca, 1958).Google Scholar