OPINIONS AND BELIEFS

A friend of mine recently moved house. With his wife carrying their first child, the studio apartment had become too small. He had moved to a fairly recently built area, at some distance from the old haunts, not yet a satellite town, but getting close. When I asked him how it felt, and especially about his daily commute, he stated that the extra travelling time was not that serious, Jakarta traffic, after all, is a pain wherever one lives. He did not have a full picture of his close neighbours yet, he added, but they seemed quite all right. A bit further down the street, however, the people seemed a bit coarse and rowdy. On two consecutive nights the police had been called to sooth tempers during a neighbourhood quarrel. They were Madurese, he had heard. And he said it in a way that indicated his displeasure with having descendants from that island living in his neighbourhood…

Hold on a moment... where have I heard that before. Batavia, one hundred-plus years ago. Dutch literature from and about the Netherlands Indies—Louis Couperus, The Silent Force… If I remember correctly, the town is put on alert when the rumour spreads that the Soemeneppers are coming? They are the inhabitants of Sumenep, a regency in East Java Province and the most eastern part of Madura island. Apparently, in the old days, roving bands of them would descend on Java and survive by stealing valuables from houses, and crops and livestock from the fields. Lock your doors at night, was the warning, better still, double lock your doors!

And my fountain of knowledge, Encyclopaedie van Nederlandsch-Indië, Martinus Nijhoff 1917, also has some (harsh) words to say about the Madurese. The term ‘politically correct’, in its modern connotation, had then not yet been coined. A spade was called a spade, and everybody was convinced that the top of the monkey-rock was reserved for white Protestants. The Encyclopaedie thus describes the Madurese as: (Vol II, page 639)

energetic and independent which, however, often results in a coarse and ill-mannered attitude. The average Madurese also has an urge to contradict, is curious and cocksure. He is, however, faithful, and his promise can be relied upon. Probably due to the poor soils of the island, the resulting low yields and harsh life, the Madurese is almost miserly thrifty. Revenge for real or alleged insults or underestimation often results in heavy wounds, manslaughter and murder…

I'm sure that most of us harbour a set of "opinions", either as a result of how we were brought up, or inspired by more recent experiences. It could take the mild form of jokes—Irish jokes for the English, Belgian jokes for the Dutch, and Dutch jokes for the Belgians, to give a few examples.

It could, however, also take the shape of deeply ingrained "thou shalt not…", or even hatred. Romeo did not get his Juliet, and a friend of mine was rejected by the family of her boyfriend on religious grounds… and when she agreed to convert, she suddenly was of the wrong tribe. In a similar but rather playful banter, albeit with an undercurrent of unease, the GIs (US Army) during WW-II were described by the British as: oversexed, overpaid and over here.

Here in Indonesia more vicious forms of hate have recently resulted in evictions, arson and manslaughter… for no other reason than a difference in belief! Read that once more: for no other reason than a difference in belief!

A blot on the nation… it was said.
In need of purification… and they did!

And another sports centre had to be converted into a refugee shelter.

SILLY SONGS FROM A LONG TIME AGO

This one was for skipping rope, the long rope, that is.

                la-mus-ieur-de-mei-sjes-bùkken
                la-mus-ieur-hallee-hallo

on bùkken you had to duck and let the rope pass over your head, and it went on till you tripped up.

And this one is from Germany after the war, WWII that is. At least that is when I heard my cousins sing it for the first time, they had just come out of Germany.

But now I read in Wikipedia that the verse dates back to the Thirty Years' War of the 17th Century, in which Pomerania was pillaged and suffered heavily. Since World War II, it is associated in Germany also with the closing months of that war, when Russian troops advanced into Eastern Germany.

Maikäfer flieg                                                                    Cockchafer fly...

dein Vater ist im Krieg                                                    Your father is at war

deine Mutter ist in Pommerland                                Your mother is in Pomerania

Pommerland ist abgebrannt                                       Pomerania is burned to the ground

Maikäfer flieg                                                                    Cockchafer fly

dein Vater ist im Krieg!                                                  Your father is at war!

Max and Moritz shaking cockchafers from a tree

And the best is that the cockchafer also crops up in Max and Moritz (Wilhelm Busch), the naughty boys who in the end are ground up with the wheat and eaten by the village ducks… good riddance. 

Mind you, that was a children's book to teach the wee ones to behave, or else... 

RAFFLES – another side

…and the walls came tumbling down. That is the last line of the gospel song Joshua Won the Battle of Jericho. Remember, after circling the walled city of Jericho once each day for six days, and seven times on the seventh day, the wall came tumbling down.

I couldn't get those lines, and the bit of melody I remember, out of my head after attending the book launch of Tim Hannigan's Raffles and the British Invasion of Java.

Only recently had I written an article for the Jakarta Expat expressing approval and admiration for Thomas Stamford Raffles, the Lieutenant-Governor of Java, the visionary and enlightened administrator. Raffles the one who, during the British Interregnum, ended slavery and freed the indigenous people from the oppressive yoke that had been imposed by the Dutch. Raffles who had been told of the existence of a huge monument deep inside Central Java and who sent a survey team that brought back the first account and sketches of Borobudur. And of course thanks to Raffles we have his famous work, The History of Java.

And now the pedestal is crumbling and the hero has been reduced to a rather nasty man blinded by his insatiable ambitions. He also stands accused of inciting the massacre of the Dutch settlement in Palembang, the destruction and looting of the kraton (palace) in Yogyakarta, profiting from questionable proceedings of the sale of government land in Cianjur, and the introduction of land reform that, contrary to his grandiose plans and proclamations, did not result in higher government revenues, while it moreover reduced the farmers of East Java, where the scheme was tested, to penury. Such a shock…

What I find so astonishing is that in spite of many written complaints by compatriots and colleagues about his actions and behaviour, for instance from Colonel Rollo Gillespie, the military commander during the first years of the Interregnum, and a real certified hero at that, his image remains that of the visionary torch-bearer of a new class of colonial rulers, and the founder of Singapore.

On his return from the East the Directors of the East India Company did, however, decide that he would not get his pension of £500, and would also have to reimburse the Company the £22,000 (more than £1 million in current terms) received as salary while not on his post, and other unsanctioned commissions. It was their way of telling him that his actions had not really carried their approval.

Upon his death it was his second wife, Sophia, who set out to restore his reputation. Her Memoir and the Life and Services of Sir Thomas Stanford Raffles was published in 1830 and was based on her husband's letters and the replies he had received… heavily edited, that is, leaving out, erasing and eliminating any and all criticisms or doubts about the righteousness of Raffles' actions.

Tim Hannigan's book is the first to highlight the other side of the Raffles myth. It's a good read and I highly recommend it. Soon available in Europe and the US.