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).

Taqdir versus qadar in Utrecht, 1619

In the study of Islamic theology the concept of God's absolute will and power is important. It is often simplified as if Muslims confess predestination: all human actions are already from eternity fixed by God's will, taqdir. Some theological schools, however, were seen as 'liberal' giving more place to human will and planning, like the Maturidi, Mu'tazila, who thought that human responsibility (and divine reward or punishment) is only possible when human freedom is recognised, man as master of his own action, qadar.
Yesterday I saw a new book on a similar debate in the Netherlands, exactly 400 years ago, in 1619, at the Protestant Synod of Dordt or Dordrecht. This church council opted for taqdir: humans cannot do anything good unless decided and steered by divine taqdir.
This year there is much debate about this event, related also to the 'President' (or high administrator) of the Duch Republic, Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, who was executed because he opposed the feudal warlord Prince Maurits of Orange. In the theological debate it was Protestant minister Arminius who defended free will or qadar, while Prince Maurits took the side of the theologian Gomarus and the people of taqdir.
But it was not only a theological debate, it was also a struggle for political power. Between 1612-1621 the Dutch had a treaty of armistice, suspending the war with Spain. Prince Maurits was the leader of the army and had nothing to do in this period. He wanted to continue fighting and also conquer the region which is now Belgium. There was a peaceful party who wanted trade and expand the VOC for trade with Indonesia. Maurits won in 1619 and could continue fighting in 1622.

Frits Broeijer, my colleague at Utrecht University, wrote a book about the situation in my town of Utrecht. Between 1610-1618 all eight preachers in the Gomarus style, or defenders of taqdir were suspended from their churches and only sympathizers of Arminius were allowed in Utrecht. In 1619 Prince Maurits took over power in the town: he disbanded the local soldiers of the municipality, banned preaching in the Arminius tradition of qadar and he took over the city council, replacing all members with promotors of his party. In this vision there was some theological debate, but behind it was a political fight for power, then won by the feudal party of the Orange family, in case prince Maurits.
One conclusion from this: in theological debates one should also look for the political implications.

Black Gate, Hawking and Ibn Rushd

When I did my PhD research on pesantren in Indonesia, 1970-1, I had to memorise quite many pages in Arabic. One basic text was about the 20 attributes of God, sifat duapuluh. One of the most difficult words was mukhalafah lil hawadith, or 'God is different from anything new'. New here stands for something that once was created and so also may disappear. It is contingent, not necessary, or being from itself alone. Below here the three founders of Pesantren Gontor in their youth, not a I knew them (in fact only Zarkasji and Sahal).

I remembered this terminology while recently reading the collection of thoughts by Stephen Hawking, Brief answers to big questions. The origin of the universe here is described as beginning from a Blach Hole: page 32: When the Big Bang produces a massive amount of positive energy, it simultaneously produced the same amount of negative energy. In this way the positive and the negative add up to zero, always. It's another law of nature.'

Here only Pak Sahal uses a sarong, Pak Zarkasji liked a proper traditional wstern suite!
Hawking quotes some scholars who did not accept a beginning for the universe (page 49), Lifshitz and Khalatnikov. 'I realised that this was a very important question, but I wasn't convinced by the arguments that Lifshitz and K. had used.' I wrote in the margin of the book that also Ibn Rushd was among those who accepted a universe without a beginning and Aquinas even was accused of sharing his opinion. Indeed, Hawking adds a new argument: if there is no matter, there is no time. So, all material things can  be called 'new', hadith in the philosophical meaning of the word. When I will visit Gontor next October I hope to discuss this with old friends of the pesantren. In fact, when I was in Gontor in the early 1970s Ibn Rushd was here better known for his book on the interpretation of shari'a rulings: Bidayatul Mujtahid, where he exposed all conflicts and differences of opinion among scholars in this field and gave much freedom to people to take their own decisions. And perhaps now this had been curbed by the interest towards Ibn Taimiyya or isn't it that bad?

MN7 Mangkunegara 7

Only recently I read the book by Madelon Jayadiningrat, Vorst tussen twee werelden (2006). The author is married (since the 1970s) to a grandson of Mangkunegara VII (his daughter married dr. Husein Jayadinigrat, from Banten and the first Indonesian to receive a Ph.D in Leiden University). Her husband, Husein Jayadiningrat Jr. lived and worked as a psycbhologist in the Netherlands, so, she never lived in the palace of the Mangkunegara, but still is a member of the family. She could make use of many personal documents of the great ruler who was born in 1885, became successor of the throne in 1916 and died in 1944.

The book is written more as a historical novel than as a collection of sources for a dissertation (and it was also never meant as a trule academic exercise). It begins with the visit of Dutch painter Isaac Israëls who in 1922 made a portrait of the ruler. MN VII did not like it and also did no buy it, although he later regretted this and bought a copy.
A major theme in the book is the position of MN VII: as a feudal vasal who had to live with a variety of residents, some considering him as a good friend and cooperator, others more or less as a hindrance and opponent of Dutch colonial rule. MN VII liked to British rule in Malaysia, where the traditional rulers had much more authority. He tried to organise a Council of Local Rulers with the idea that they should be the kernel for a new Indonesian autonomy in harmony with the Dutch. It was not welcomed by the young nationalists, like Soekarno, but also not by the Dutch. Nothing came out of it.
MN VII was a fervent promotor of Javanese language and culture, although his Dutch was perfect and more and more people around him began to use Dutch too. He did not reject Islam as a religion, but did not like its functionaries and its detailed claim on many aspects of society. Initially this made him not enthusiast about a close Association with Husein Jajadiningrat who was from Banten and grown up in a family where formal Islam was much stronger than in Surakarta. Still, he liked Husein for his powerful position in Batavia, at the political centre. He also was not really in conflict with formal Islam. He was not too eager on drinking alcohol.
Mangkunegara VII regretted that after Ronggowarsito no new pujangga kraton was nominated. Such a person should inspire and formulate the spirit of Javanese culture (p. 83). Sarekat Islam was not seen by him as an Islamic, but as an etnic Javanese movement.
Pages 349-50: the British were much more lenient in giving privileges and power to native rulers than the Dutch. He felt really at home in Britain (after his visit to Holland, related to the marriage of Juliana, January 1937).
A wonderful book.
Some words written after reading the short notice by Merle Ricklefs on private versus state wealth in BKI 175.1:59-66. In the 1920s the financial position of the Mangkunegaran was quite good, while the Sunan had financial problems. Resident Nieuwenhuys had written in his Memorie van Overgave that the sunan had no private fortune other than the regalia, the pusaka (page 311).

Presidential elections: a competition in piety

Our Dutch newspaper, De Volkskrant, offers today information by Michel Maas about the presidential elections in Indonesia  under the title:Een wedstrijd in vroomheid om de stem van moslims.. Both Prabowo and Jokowi have shown outward concern for Islamic values. Already during 15 years Prabowo Subianto has tried to become president. In 2004 he found no party willing to support him, in 2009 he became running mate for Megawati and lost with bitter, low numbers. In 2014 he was stronger and got 46,85%. Not yet enough. Now his presentation in Senayan was like a Salafi religious meeting. Habib Rizieq the self-appointed Imam Besar and now in self-chosen exile in Mecca (because the police wants to arrest him in a case of sexual exposures) was in the stadium with giant photographs, banners of FPI and the (officially banned) Hizbut Tahrir. Alumni 212 support him: this refers to 2 December 2016, the great demonstration against the Protestant Governor of Jakarta, Ahok, who due to these protests had to enter jail for two years. Former President General Yudhoyono complained about this radical Islamic show and Prabowo had to seek also a Catholic priest and a Papua leader in his largest show before the elections.

Jokowi (above on the right) was in 2014 seen as the liberal, secular, but he reintroduced the effective execution of death penalty, did nothing to prevent the religious agitation against the Protestant Ahok and in order to show more Islamic personality even took Ma'ruf Amin as his vice-president. This NU leader had issued a fatwa against Ahok, claiming that a non-Muslim cannot/should not rule over Muslims. In his fatwa he called it forbidden or haram that Muslims should vote for a non-Muslim candidate. Besides support from Muslim circles, Jokowi also sought support from generals who were strong in the Suharto period. Wiranto, suspected of supporting the unrest in Timor and Ambon after the fall of Suharto, is an important member of the Jokowi government. Michel Maas mentions the Golput movement: voting without choosing between the two candidates, alias blanco, as a third possibility. It will only weaken Jokowi.

Muhammadiyah leader Amien Rais has already threatened that he will start a protest group if Prabowo is not chosen, 'because the majority of the population wants him and votes for him.' This is in contrast to 1998, when Amien Rais was himself a candidate for presidency and opposed Prabowo. Well, it is all politics, already in so many cases mixed up with religious sentiments. Perhaps we should ask or even pray the divinity to lessen his or her influence?

In memoriam Neles Tebay, 1946-2019

It was shocking news yesterday: on Palm Sunday, 14 April 2019, Father Dr. Neles Tebay passed away due to leukemia or blood cancer, in the Carolus Hospital of Jakarta. Neles was born in the mountainous regions of Indonesian Papua, the region of the Paniai lakes., and he published  one of his first articles in our journal Exchange on the vision of the Me people about the ideal human being and liberator, Jesus. I wrote in my book on Catholics in Independent Indonesia, p. 222, that he 'combines a deep concern for the need to foster and develop religious spirituality with the struggle for human rights in this part of Indonesia.' He studied at the Fajar Timur Seminary in Abepura, then for a MA in Manila and finally in the Urbaniana University in Rome (Ph.d. in 2006 on the Papua struggle for recognition of their own identity and independence). I was surprised that he quickly adapted to speaking Italian in Rome and felt at home in the world of the Vatican. He was several times in the Netherlands and we visited him in Abepura at Fajar Timur, where he was the rector, in 2009.

He was always a big, noisy, loud speaking and optimistic personality. Although the Catholics are a small minority in the northern section of Indonesian Papua, only 5% against more than 50% Protestants, he could become a major figure in the civil struggle for dialogue, recognition of human rights and freedom for Papua culture and concerns. This was partly because of the division of the Protestant Churches, partly also because of his realistic vision of absolute denial of the use of violence. He wanted dialogue, first between the Papua people themselves, then also with the national government in Jakarta. He was nominated something like the national embassador for dialogue by Jokowi.
From 2010 on he promoted the idea of Papua land of Peace, seen as an alternative for the violent efforts of those who supported a free and indepent West Papua. 'The idea of full independence as the goal of OPM, Organisasi Papua Merdeka was denounced by him as unrealistic at least for the short term.' (Same book, 362) But he was not a dull and meak fighter for peace in Papua: he was a powerful speaker and writer, Always with humour and concern to stay in good contact, naming but also solving conflicts. It is a great loss for Indonesia.

A convert to Islam in 1915: Carl Wolff Schoemaker

I am now finishing my last assignments for the great CMR: Bibliographical History of Christian Muslim Relations. In the entry on Ache I wrote about a father and a son. First the father: Jan Prosper Schoemaker was born in Ambarawa, south of Semarang, Fort Willem I, on 12 July 1852 apparently in a family of the KNIL, the Royal Dutch Indies Army. He married in 1877 and had three children between 1880 and 1886. He died in The Hague 23 February 1918. He was active in the KNIL in the 1870s and 1880s in Aceh and afterwards started a career as a writer on popular colonial history. His first book was on the Aceh War in two volumes, published in 1887 and 1890. They were followed by one on Lombok, another on wars in Java, Boni and Banjarmasin and several other works. He sometimes gave other titles to previous work and also published sections of it as separate booklets.  The two volumes on Aceh were also translated in Malay. Most of his books were several times reprinted in sometimes more than ten thousand copies. He was definitely a popular writer about the heroism of the colonial army. In 1908 he published with the prestigious firm of Brill a book on ‘the Asian Danger’ (Het Aziatisch Gevaar).  

The son is more adventurous: His son Charles Prosper Wolff Schoemaker (born 1882 in Banyubiru, Semarang, and died 1949 in Bandung) was a very successful architect in the last decades of colonial Indonesia. He was a professor at the Technical University of Bandung since 1922 and mentor of the first President of Indonesia, Soekarno. He converted in 1915 to Islam, but his five successive spouses were all Dutch ladies. In 1921 he became the architect for the new Catholic St. Peter’s Cathedral, built in neo-gothic style. In 1933 he built the mosque in the new European section of the town of Bandung on Nijlandweg (now Jalan Cipaganti). The mosque was built in traditional Javanese joglo-style with three roofs. However, in the history of architecture he is best known as the architect for great villas, like this Vila Isola (see above) in the mountains just outside Bandung. It was for one of the owners of the colonial newspapers in the 1920s.

In 1937 he published a small book of 116 pages, together with Muhammad Natsir, with the titel Cultuur Islam. It was reprinted in 1948 by Sinar Ilmu or Tintamas in Jakarta under the title of Keboedajaän Islam. In the copy I borrowed from KITLV/Asian Library in Leiden, there was a review by Baahrum Rangkuti. He writes that pages 67-114 are on international Islamic architecture and written by Schoemaker. The first section of the book must have been written by Natsir, although this is not clear from the book itself. The first section discusses early Muslim history, the results of the translation from Greek philosophers and other science to Arabic and the glory of Islam in Baghdad, Basra, Damascus, Toledo, Cordova. Quite much here about the excellence of medical knowledge with the Arabs, the decline of Europe in the period until 1100.
Wolff Schoemaker als writes about architecture of later periods like the Mughal of India and Muslim architecture in Indonesia.
Is this apologetic, a style so clearly rejected by Mukti Ali as not productive? While reading this material now, one may also conclude that this memory of the glory of Islam in previous centuries also may give confidence and pride to Muslims, esepcially in the colonial period. This somewhat apologetic pride about the past is better than the simple convictions of Salafi Muslims about a reclaimed but never changing past for doctrines and social commands.