Concluding his great work on rise and fall of Dutch colonialism, Bossenbroek writes that 'in the 21st century heroes of colonialism like General De Kock and Governor-General Van Mook once were considered as heroes in their country, The Netherlands, but now they are blamed as criminals. On the other side, also in Dutch perspective, Diponegoro and Soekarno are now seen as great fighters for independence of their country. That is the inevitable fate of writing (and reading) history.
Writing now about the second part of the book by Bossenbroek, the period 1925-1950 (pp. 329-682), I feel it as a strange exercise. The outcome of the historical struggle is clear: the Dutch did not like to allow and acknowledge independence for the Indonesians, but the final result is clear: independence recognised by the international community, finally also accepted by the Dutch. Many smaller aspects in this history were not yet known and they are mentioned, elucidated here. On 1 and 2 December 1930 Soekarno defended his political work in a famous speech in court: Indonesia menggugat! (= Indonesia accuses, Dutch translation Indonesië klaagt aan.) The Dutch translation has on its front page the harsh general Van Heutz with a number of coffins and a prison showing the fate of his enemies. This was published in 1931 by a Dutch Socialist Party! Bossenbroek writes in a vivid style, but has no images or pictures in his book.
Colijn is in this book the personification of the dream of Dutch politicians opposing Indonesian independence. The Indonesian organization, strongly defending contnuation of Dutch presence was the Vaderlandsche Club. Governor General De Jonge (1931-6): 'we have ruled here for 300 years and will continue this for another 300 years'. They receive also much attention, besides the Indonesian protagonists for independence, as well as some Dutch supporters. The anti-hero here is Hubertus van Mook, high official from 1920-1942 and Lieutenant Governor General 1945-8: he started as a progressive man, willing to give Indonesians more responsibility. But he remained someone who wanted to remain the deciding leader. He was the architect of the idea of a federal Indonesia, with strong states in Borneo and East Indonesia.
Hatta, Sjahrir are here sometimes depicted as the 'rivals' of Soekarno (501-2), but very few attention is given to opposition from Muslim side (Kartosuwiryo, Darul Islam in West Java) and the Communist uprising in Madiun, 1948 comes out of nothing (and leads to nothing!).
Australia is in 1945 the strongest supporter for Indonesian Independence. The British were also willing to recognise Soekarno, until General Mallaby was shot in Surabaya by pemuda (p. 564), followed by the killing of British pilots and Gurkan/Indian army in Bekasi.
Quite much attention is here given to Nasution: from his education (at a KNIL military academy under Dutch supervision) to the strongest military man under Sudirman, leading the Siliwangi division. At many places in this book we see developments that could have directed towards different developments in the future, but the study of history cannot do much with suggestions like 'what if..', Bossenbroek manages to keep his book clear and leading towards understanding how the fight and war between the Dutch and the Indonesians was determined by the strong will for independence on the Indonesian side and the strong support finally from the UN and the USA.
The 2d 'police action' or overall attack on the Republic in Java of 19 December 1948 is mentioned on p. 646-653, It mentions that Soekarno and Hatta had promised to flee from the capital of Yogyakarta to the mountains and join the guerilla fight against the Dutch. Soekarno and Hatta did not run away, but in fact were taken prisnoer to the island ofBangka. They are followed here in some detail, but it is not mentioned, that some six ministers fled to the mountains and lived for six months the life of guerilla warriors. Because of my own interest I only mention here the Catholic Minister Kasimo (Catholics in Independent Indonesia, p. 160). In this way no history is complete and all have their preference, in the case of Bossenbroek very much information is about the negotiations between the Dutch and the Americans.
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