26 April 2010 -
4:04pm
The
Moluccan dream – still alive at
60
By Marina Brouwer
(Photo:
Flickr/polapix)
After
60 years, many Moluccans living in the Netherlands still hope their islands –
now part of Indonesia
– will be independent one day.
How
long can you go on believing in a dream? The Moluccans in the
Netherlands have been clinging to the dream of an independent homeland
for 60 years, although many might deny that. Younger Moluccans, born and
raised here in the Netherlands, seem to have other things on their
mind.
The Moluccan
community in the Netherlands hails from an archipelago that is now part
of Indonesia, but just over 60 years ago still formed part of Holland’s
colonial empire, the Dutch
East Indies.
Once
a year, the Moluccans hold a ritual flag-raising ceremony,
commemorating the declaration
of independence from Indonesia by their islands, the South Moluccas (known
within Indonesia as the Province of Maluku), on 25 April 1950 – 60 years
ago this month.
This
independence - officially recognised by one country only - was to be
short-lived. Just four months later, Indonesian troops put a violent end
to the largely Christian
Republic of South Molucca (RMS). A flow of refugees to the
Netherlands resulted.
Betrayal
The
Moluccan community in the
Netherlands numbers some 50,000 people and is ‘led’ by a
government in exile. The aspiration for an independent homeland is still
passed on from father to son, mother to daughter. Any expression of
doubt about the ideal of the RMS is almost regarded as an act of treason
by the older generation. Nonetheless, many young people have dropped
the whole notion, says Chris Soukotta (37).
“There
are more and more young people who don’t care much about it. It seems
to me that they’ve become Westernised. The ‘French Fries’ generation -
that’s what we call them”.
Powerless
The
feeling that they were betrayed by the Dutch unites the Moluccan
community almost as much as the struggle for an independent country.
After Indonesia won its independence in 1949, many Moluccan soldiers who
had fought on the side of the Dutch were sent to the Netherlands for
demobilisation, with the promise that they would return very shortly.
The
Dutch authorities housed them and their families in camps. They
believed their stay in the Netherlands would indeed be short, and that
they would soon be able to go back home. But Indonesia’s rule took a
firm hold, and the Dutch failed to do anything to bring
about Moluccan independence or the safe return of its former soldiers.
Most South Moluccans were Christian, part of the Dutch-speaking colonial
elite who had fought on the losing side. Their islands were
subsequently absorbed – although not totally - into a predominantly
Muslim Indonesia and the world they had known started to disappear.
The
powerlessness of the Moluccan community led to a radicalisation of
their young people in the 1970s. The result was a number of terrorist
incidents, including the occupation of and taking of hostages at the
Indonesian embassy in The
Hague.
The
independence cause made international headlines again when, in December
1975, a group of determined Dutch Moluccan youths seized a train,
taking 50 passengers hostage, two of whom were shot and killed in front
of television cameras. The Netherlands was thrown into a state of shock
by the hijacking. Another train hijack took place in 1977, along with
the seizure of toddlers and teachers at a primary school, again causing a
wave of disbelief in the country.
Since
then there have been no more terrorist incidents. As John Wattilete,
the newly-appointed president-in-exile of the RMS, points out, violence
doesn’t advance your cause at
all.
“We’re living in
different times now. We believe that to achieve our aim – the
establishment of an independent state – we don’t need to use violence.
It’s better to choose the path of dialogue, lobbying, and all that. That
way we’ll actually achieve more”.
Mr
Wattilete, a busy lawyer here in the Netherlands, has a more pragmatic
approach than his predecessors. While he advocates an independent RMS as
his ideal, he hints at a more realistic solution – some degree of
autonomy
from Indonesia. And he has demonstrated a willingness to talk to the
old adversary, unlike the old diehards within the Moluccan community who
cling to the image of Indonesia as the bitter enemy.
Fear
Josina
Soumokil, the widow of one of the men who read out the RMS’ declaration
of independence 60 years ago, is part of the old guard. Her husband,
Chris Soumokil, died at the hands of Indonesian military forces in 1966.
Chris had urged his wife to continue the struggle in the Netherlands.
“The
way I see it, if the RMS is only a dream, why is the Indonesian
government frightened of us? A dream is what you have in the evening, at
night, while you’re asleep in your bed. When you wake up in the
morning, it’s gone, forgotten. But if you look at what happened on the
island of Ambon - why does the army arrest peaceful people who raise the
RMS flag? Why are they thrown into prison if the RMS is only a dream in
the eyes of the Indonesian government?”
It’s
not yet known how the Moluccans plan to commemorate this special 60th
anniversary of the
short-lived independence of their republic.
http://www.rnw.nl/english/article/moluccan-dream-%E2%80%93-still-alive-60
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