A continuing colonial war

In 2016 the Dutch-Swiss Remy Limpach published his great book on Dutch crimes during the (lost) war of re-colonization of Indonesia, 1945-1949: De brandende kampongs van Generaal Spoor (The Burning Villages of General Spoor). More than 850 pages of large pages in small font. It has raised again the debate about the whole colonial period, and especially its aftermath after Europe (including the Netherlands) was set free from German Nazi regime in May 1945.
Following the publication by Limpach, the government gave money for a new research on the issue, with three agents: the Indonesia (and Carribean, including the other colonies of the Netherlands) Institute KITLV in Leiden, NIOD a research centre for the 2d World War in Amsterdam and the national centre for Dutch military history.

There are two contrasting parties in the debate about the uniliteral project of historical research (Indonesian parties were invited to join this project, but for various reasons found it not suitable to participate). One party is dominated by Eurasians in the Netherlands of mixed European-Indonesian origin. They find the leaders of the project biased: too negative about the Dutch efforts to interfere in the troubled situation in the country. They suggest that the Dutch only wanted to protect the lives of Europeans in that period, as well as break the terrorism of the small group of pro-independence freedom fighters. A group FIN, Federatie Indische Nederlanders are afraid that a one-sided narrative will be given, neglecting the cruelties of the Bersiap-period (September 1945-mid-1946) when freedom fighters from Surabaya killed so many white people, but also Indonesians who did not side with the wish for direct independence. FIN-people suggest that the Dutch army only wanted to restore safety for all people in a very turbulent and violent period.
The other side is represented by two small groups: Jeffry Pondaag of the Comité Nederlandse Ereschulden (Debt of Honour of the Netherlands) and Michael van Zeijl, spokesman for De Grauw Eeeuw (The Dark Century) who minimise Indonesian violence and want to consider colonialism per se as a crime.
Especially the last party broadens the theme of the research and probably this will be a more or less permanent issue for writers of colonial history.
In my own writings on Islam in Indonesia, beginning with the dissertation on the development of pesantren in the colonial period (1974), I took Dutch influence for granted, concluding that the dominant educational system in modern Indonesia was closer to Western culture than to the Muslim traditional practice. In the other line of research, on Christianity in Indonesia, I took for granted that Christian missionaries had an ambivalent attitude towards colonialism: it gave them prestige and money, but in the end they did not support the re-colonization efforts of 1945-1949 and were happy with the positions of Christians under Indonesian law (at least the vast majority of the missionaries).