GROWTH OF POLITICAL LIFE
Spotlight on Dutch-Indonesian History (XX):
As we already have seen in former chap
ters many political movements in the Dutch
East Indies were ignited by events somewhere
else in the worid. Curiously enough the same
happened again in 1900. Shortly before the
Dutch Government had granted to Japanese
citizens equality of status with Europeans,
following the sudden rise of Japan as a first
rate power after its defeat of Russia in the
Japanese-Russian war.
This act of the Dutch Government was a
shock to the population of the Dutch East
Indies. Just a handful of Japanese merchants
of inferior class (Tjap Djepeng or Made in
Japan was a mark of inferiority!) European
status and the vast population of Chinese
not? Nor the Arabs and even the Indonesians?
A general unrest ensued, not of alarming
proportions, but it kept growing all the time.
The first symptom of organized thinking
(and acting) came with the founding of the
Society "Budi Utomo" ("High Endeavor") in
1908, striving for organization of schools on
a national basis. It was a non-political or
ganization, dedicated to social progress. The
leaders (most prominent: dr. Sutomo) looked
toward India for inspiration: Tagore, Gandhi.
Then came the "Revival of the Islam"
with the founding of the Sarekat Dagang Islam,
later reorganized as the Sarekat Islam under
leadership of Omar Said Tjokro Aminoto
(1912).
It was the sudden and meteoric growth
of the Sarekat Islam to 800.000 members,
that disturbed the Dutch ans surprised the
Indonesians.
In the same year another religious move
ment was established, the Muhammadyah,
started by Kiai Hadji Ahmad Dahlan.
It was clear that also Indo and Dutch
organizations should come into being sooner
or later.
Already in 1898 the "Indische Bond"
was established with Ch. Beynon as Chair
man and H. Verheye as secretary. It was in
fact nothing but a "Benevolent Society",
aiming at providing help for jobless Dutch,
living in the kampongs. The founders of the
organization very well realized that for a
sound "counter-balance" for the upcoming
Indonesian groups an economically sound
and well-educated Dutch society should
exist. The organization aimed at promoting
of farming for Europeans ("klein-landbouw")
and the establishment of organization-stories
("bondswinkels"), and issued an own month
ly: "De Stem van Indie".
In the same time another organization
came into being: the "Vereniging Insulinde".
Chairman R.W.G. Arendsen de Wolff, Secre
tary K.F. Aronds; 1907, Bandung,
Both organizations though, did not
achieve much. For positive guarantees
could not be promised to the great majority
of their members: The Indo's. These people
(still without a name, for the name Indo-
Europeaan was not yet "invented"), were
still living in great uncertainty with no clear
indication about their citizenship: were the^r
fully recognized Dutch or should they con-
sider Indonesia as their fatherland? In the
last case, they should choose sides with the
Indonesians. A certain standard of social
welfare as promoted by Indische Bond and
Vereniging Insulinde was not enough. There
were also rich Indonesians, Chinese and
Arabs. On the other hand even the poorest
Japanese had equality with European status!
Then the movement of Douwes Dekker
