Bung Tomo: De revolutie van 1945, by Marjolein van Pagee
2024; Brill; Volume: 180; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1163/22134379-18001005
ISSN2213-4379
Autores Tópico(s)Asian Studies and History
ResumoMarjolein van Pagee studied history at Leiden University.She published a history of the Banda Islands and the role of Governor-General Coen in the annihilation of the Banda inhabitants-even by standards of the time an excessive act of violence.Van Pagee argues that this operation-and many more to come-was a logical and inevitable result of western colonialism, and inextricably connected with a policy of divide and rule.She goes on to say that only in this way were the intruders from Europe able to maintain their hold on places such as the East Indies with only a minimal proportion of Europeans, Chinese, and Indonesian aristocracy to support them.Reporting on and analyzing such a racist society was rare, and tended to be monopolized by scholars sympathetic to the colonial project who painted a rosy picture.With this context set, Van Pagee then turns to developments in Indonesia.There, in the wake of World War ii, the Dutch intended to restore their prewar occupation, not expecting to have to cope with much resistance.However, colonialism and racism now met with stiff opposition-embodied in the Indonesian Republic, proclaimed August 17, 1945.The Dutch reacted with overwhelming armed power, and soon a full-fledged guerrilla war was in progress.The support of Dutch passport holders for Dutch colonialism was self-evident and was reinforced by the Dutch through all means available.This new constellation of power, also brought about by two years of Japanese occupation, was crucial in the destruction of colonial "tranquility and order", as the euphemism went.There was no return to tempo dulu.Soon Indonesians and Dutch were engaged in violent encounters and the so-called bersiap period set in.It was characterized by the Dutch as a conscious policy of mass murder by the Indonesian Republic of (Indo-)Europeans.Until the present day, the term bersiap and its connotation are used as part of a Dutch discourse describing cruel one-sided mass murder.The discussion about the interpretation of these developments thus flares up regularly in the Netherlands, and understandably, it generally reflects a Dutch point of view.But this Dutch-centered view might be qualified when analyzing bersiap in combination with another term: berdaulat.Berdaulat as a historiographical concept is in Dutch circles as unknown as bersiap among Indonesian historians.Both are comparable: mass violence directed at Europeans vis-à-vis Indonesian officials.Both are rooted in colonialism and its negative effects.Van Pagee devotes almost half of her book to these more general questions, already discussed in her book on Banda.Then at last, the long awaited Bung Tomo (or Sutomo) enters the stage.He was prominent as an oppositional Sura-
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