UJte Htnertcan le JAARGANG No. 19
P
30 ME! 1963
B R 1 D G E
BETWEEN
EAST
AND
WEST
Herman Willem Daendels
i
6 PLU/?/eus
OARIWc
ONISV
Spotlight on Dutch-Indonesian History (XII)
The turn of the Century brought a sudden
end to the confusions of the Revolution and
changed the face of France, and from Eur
ope as well. This was all done by one man
Napoleon Bonaparte. In a short series of
decisive battles he defeated the numerous
enemies of France. Then he cleaned up in
ternal affairs quickly and in the year 1804
France was an Empire! About the same
happened in the Dutch East Indies, when on
the first of January 1808 an utterly unknown
man, chosen and appointed by Napoleon,
but without any papers to identify himself,
after an incognito voyage via Cadix and New
York, arrived in Bantam.
This man was Maarschalk (Marshall)
Herman Willem Daendels, a very dominating
personality with no regard at all for any
existing constitutions or powers. He at once
set to work in a furious pace. Finding the
climate of Batavia unhealthy, he ordered the
residence of the government to be moved to
Weltevreden, about ten miles higher up in
the hills. His palace was henceforth Buiten
zorg, formerly only a vacation resort for
Governor-Generals. High officials tried to
argue: in the rainy season it would take
thirty teams of horses to get there. "I shall
use thirty-one teams," Daendels said. Period.
There were no building materials for new
palaces and office buildings in Weltevreden?
No problem. Tear down the buildings in
Batavia! So the old Kasteel and many other
fortresses and buildings were demolished.
Their stones and wood moved higher up for
new buildings. The same happened in Sur
abaya and Semarang.
Like Napoleon Daendels considered a great
army the basis of a powerful and sound gov
ernment, so he made this army. At that
time the Dutch army consisted of 4000
troops, with scarely no weapons and only a
handful white officers. Daendels forced the
Sultans and Regents to "deliver" soldiers
and in a very short time he had an army of
18,000. No officers enough? He promoted
sergeants by the dozen and offered hundreds
of Indo's a rank as officer in this army.
Many of these Indo's couldn't read or write,
but like Napoleon Daendels did not worry.
Pie established an efficient schooling and
drilling system and many Indo's proved to be
excellent officers. Also officers ranks were
offered to Indonesian nobility.
We do not need, to point out that indirect
ly these measures were quite a boon for the
Indo group. Suddenly many Indo "nobodies"
got an important status and what is more:
proved to be worth it. The same happened
in many other newly created civil services.
Of course this army had to be clothed and
armed. But how could this be done with the
British blockade cutting off the possibility to
import guns and uniforms? Daendels dis
covered the native crafts. Gresik was famous
for its copper- and ironsmiths. Daendels or
dered Gresik to make guns. Semarang was
famous for its gongs. Daendels had it pro
duce cannonballs. No textiles could be im
ported? Daendels set the Indonesian weavers
and tailors to work and got uniforms of
kapas(native cotton). The native wharfs
came to new life, for Daendels ordered a
Navy to be built with 13 gunboats and 40
small cruisers (korra-korra's)Indeed these
ships were very small compared with the
big British battle-ships, but in the shallow
waters along the Java coast and on the big
rivers this little warriors proved to be vicious
fighters.
For this Navy a Naval Base should be
built. Daendels tried to build one at Sunda
Strait, but experiments in Meeuwenbaai and
Merakbaai failed. The climate was unhealthy
there and so many coolies died, that Daen
dels got into trouble with the Sultan. Daen
dels thereupon set to work near Surabaya
and here he succeeded. Up to now Sura
baya is the first Naval Base from Indonesia
and Daendels is its founder.
Also for his Grande Armee33 Daendels
built big Army Camps and Army Hospitals.
The first was the later famous 10de Bataljon
combined with theMilitair Hospitaal. Big
Army Camps also came in Meester Cornelis,
Buitenzorg, Semarang, Surabaya. Bandung
did not exist at that time. But it was soon to
come, thanks to another stupendous feat:
the building of De Grote Postweg, an enor
mous highway across the whole length of
Java from Sunda to Bali Strait. This high
way was built with forced labour at tre
mendous costs. Thousands of coolies died at
it. Daendels has been cursed for it ever
since, but it is also true that this highway
opened up Java, established splendid com
munications all the years to come and is
even by the Indonesians considered as the
main cause of the unity for the many peo
ples on the Island of Java.
It is impossible to make a list of all reno
vations Daendels established (or tried to
establish). He f.i. made an entirely new sys
tem of jurisdiction, ordered the State to be
neutral in religion, made a forceful end to
the privileges of governors and other high
officials, and established a new system of
coordination between Dutch and Indonesian
governing powers.
To obtain the money for all these rigorous
renovations Daendels installed the system of
the Particuliere Landerijen, by which enor
mous tracts of landfor the greater part in
the environments of the bigcitieswere sold
to Europeans and Chinese. The biggest
"deal" was the sale of the whole regency of
Probolinggo to a Chinese: Han Ti Ko, for
the sum of one million guilders. With this
system Java in a certain way was opened for
private enterprise. It made the first "Colon
ial landlords" with indeed the chance for
usurpation of the people but also with more
freedom and more wealth for the natives
than under their own regents. For several
Indo families this system of Particuliere Lan
derijen opened the opportunity to develop
their qualities as good farmers, businessmen
and rulers. The great families of the Dé-
zentjé's, the Van Motmans, the Biks, the
Van Riemsdijks and many others got their
uprising in these early days.
However: new methods always make many
enemies. Also by far not all Daendels ideas
were good. He got in troubles more and
more. When he was called back to Europe
in 1811, his successor, able Mr. Janssens
found a state and people desintegrating. The
skilful scheming Raflles did not wait any
longer and attaqued swiftly. Some of the
French generals, who came along with
Janssens, were total strangers with their
native troops. When the British troops made
a successful landing near Tjilintjing (east of
Batavia) and suddenly appeared near the
il10de Bataljon-camp," brigadier - general
Jumel met the enemy near the place where
is now the Kramat Bioscoop. He ordered
his troops at once to attaque, crying: Lari!
Lari!33 wherupon all his soldiers fled like
hares (The Indonesian word lari means
"move faster" but also "run away"). Jans
sens was defeated at Meester Cornelis and
once again at Salatiga. There he capitulated
and the Union Jack went up over the Dutch
East Indies with a new and strong master:
Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles.
Though Daendels reigned only for three
years, he made an enormous impression on
the Indonesian people, who remembered
him for many decades to come as Koeper-
noer Djendral Goentoer (Governor General
Thunder)the pun loving Sundanese with a
sub-title for the Maarschalk: Mas Kalak33
kalak knuckle-duster, boksbeugel)
Many institutions, built up during two cen
turies with the VOC, went for ever, and
many institutions, built by Daendels in three
years, live up to this day.
{To be continued)