\ 86

CHAPTER FOUR

REPRESENT A nONS OF HISTORY AND A HISTORY OF

REPRESENTA nONS: CONTEXTUALIZING PRAMOEDYA ANANTA

TOER'S BURU QUARTET

The novelist as historian has the manifold task of

contextualizing the characters, establishing the authenticity

of the historical figures and individualizing them.

(D. Maya 130)

The four novels of Buru Quartet talk about the history of national

awakening in Indonesia from 1898 until the years just preceding independence. In

Buru Quartet Pramoedya not only tells a story of Indonesia but also presents in

the form of narrative historical accounts as real events of a past. Through Buru

Quartet, Pramoedya provides the explanation in terms of the how and why of real

events that happened in Indonesia in a chronological sequence. He also describes

and analyzes human experiences in the colonial period in order to make them

comprehensible to the reader. That is to say, Bum Quartet is a good example for

one to analyze the past in relation to the historical narrative. The representations

of history and a history of representations that Pramoedya contextualizes through

his tetralogy, Buru Quartet, form the main discussion in the chapter. By

discussing the aspect of history in relation to representations, it would be

plausible to look at Pramoedya's work as a rewriting of Indonesian history.

87

With regard to the mam discussion of the chapter, themes such as

historical narratives as factual representations, political structures in the Dutch

colonial period, the advent of modem organizations and vernacular press, the

cultivation system (Cultuurste!sel), and the Dutch colonial system of education

which directly relate to the historical events in Indonesia are analyzed.

For the section on "historical narratives as factual representations", I focus

on the definition of the historical narrative based on prominent theorists and

Pramoedya's factual representations in Buru Quartet. In the next two sections, I

analyze the historical accounts in terms of political structures in the Dutch

colonial period, and the advent of modem organizations and vernacular press in

Indonesia that Pramoedya presents in Buru Quartet. For the cultivation system

(Cultuurstelsel), I discuss the role of Dutch colonial policy in the modernization

of sugar industry, which is described by Pramoedya in Buru Quartet. For this

section, an attempt is also made to know why and how the Dutch applied the

particular system. For the last section, the Dutch colonial system of education, I

attempt to discuss how the Dutch government controlled the education as well as

the information from outside.

Historical Narratives as Factual Representations

The historical narrative is a genre which uses the story as a vehicle to talk

about historical events. By and large, historical narratives talk about real people

and places in the form of a story rooted in a specific time and tell us what really

88

happened in the past. For example, in the nineteenth century British writers such

as Walter Scott, Dickens, Thackeray, George Eliot and Thomas Hardy wrote

novels based on the historical narrative. A historical narrative, which talks about

the story of historical events, depicts the social and ideological basis from which a

situation emerges. The narration of historical events, according to Roland Barthes

is "commonly subject in our culture, since the Greeks, to the sanction of historical

"science," placed under the imperious warrant of the "real" justified by principles

of "rational" exposition" (Discourse 127). Therefore, the historical narrative

should be supported by historical authenticity such as the quality of the inner life,

the morality, heroism, capacity for sacrifice, steadfastness, etc. peculiar to a given

age.

On the contrary, Jameson feels doubtful about representations of history.

He argues that "(tJhe representation of history ... is essentially a narrative problem,

a question of the adequacy of any story-telling framework in which history might

be represented" (49). This is probably because the ambiguity of the term "history"

is further compounded by the fact that it is according to Kuper and Kuper, "part

science and part art ... discoverer and interpreter of the past" (360-1). In addition,

the historical narrative, for Hegel, consists of politics: the kinds of interests at

play. As he points out:

We must suppose historical narrations to have appeared

contemporaneously with historical deeds and events. Family memorials,

patriarchal traditions, have an interest confined to the family and the clan.

89

The uniform cost of events that such a condition implies is no subject of

serious remembrance .... It is the state first presents a subject matter that

not only is adapted to the prose of history but also involves the production

of such history in the very progress of its own being. (83)

In other words, Hegel says that in historical narrative, the content of the historical

discourse is not the real story of what happened in the past but the specific

relation between a public present and a past that is suitable for the interest of a

group or a clan.

However, "historical narratives" for F. R. Ankersmit, "is the birthplace of

meaning," (quoted in Roberts 11) by which he means that historical narratives are

not only numerous individual descriptive statements of the past but a picture of

the past that reveals the meaning of a real story. In relation to the point, he adds

that the historical narrative is a legitimate form of knowledge, at least on par with

other approaches to the study of the past. Thus, the historical narrative, for Walsh,

may not only contain "plain or chronicle narrative" but also "significant

narrative" (quoted in Dray 28). The historical narrative must have not only "plain

or chronicle narrative" that would tell us what exactly happened in the past but

"significant narrative" that would also explain to us why things happened in a

specific sequence. Therefore, the historical stories are essentially different from

fictionalized representations. The distinction between historical and fictional

stories, according to Hayden White, is primarily "their content" (Content, 27). As

White writes in his book, The Content of the Form: Narrative Discourse and

90

Historical Representation "The content of historical stories is real events, events

that really happened rather than imaginary events, events invented by the

narrator" (27), This implies that the historical events are discovered by the

narrator rather than constructed by the characters, Further, he adds that although

the subject matter, the aim, or the mode of representation is sometimes lacking in

the historical narrative, "it may still be a contribution to knowledge but something

less than a full contribution to historical knowledge" (30).

Many textbooks generally give the literal meaning of history as

information of chronological records but the fact is that the word "history" derives

from a Greek root that means "to weave". This etymology is associated with two

things: first is that the Greeks conceived the historian's task as one of selecting

the appropriate threads of the past in order to weave a pattern and second is that

like the weaver, the historian too had to think out a pattern before he actually

started knitting or weaving his text (Poduval 95). The way of patterning thus is

the function of narrative. Meanwhile, the word 'narrative' derives from Latin

'narrare' meaning 'recount' or 'to relate'. Based on the meanings of history and

narrative, the historical narrative is "closely connected to the power of knowledge

and is perceived as a truthful discursive account of past events" (ibid). By and

large, the knowledge of the real events of a past is transmitted or experienced

through textual productions such as testimony, eyewitness accounts or novels.

As one of the textual productions, the novel consisting of the factual

events of the past represents the truth of life and could be read in the light of the

91

historical narrative. According to Boulton, "[tJhe novelist who wrote the truth of

life is ... a historian" (15). The truths as the factual representations wrinen by

historians through their novels by and large deal with the reconstruction of a

sequence of human actions from the past.

Since Pramoedya wrote the four novels of Buru Quartet consisting of the

truth of life with reference to the real events from the past, he could be called not

only as a novelist but also as a historian. In addition, in Buru Quartet Pramoedya

provides an account of the historical agents that are taken from the history of

Indonesia and represents the past entirely from the standpoint of the agents.

In Bunt Quartet, the real events of the past are made up into the narrative

by finding the story that lies buried within or behind the events. The real events of

the past in Buru Quartet are also told in a way that ordinary people would

understand. The significant thing is that the human actions in Buru Quartet are the

primary events with which Pramoedya deals.

Foulcher quotes from Pramoedya' s interview regarding his purpose in

writing Buru Quartet to one of Indonesian magazines, "Tempo" dated August 30,

1980: "he aimed through the novel to confront young Indonesian readers with the

historical forces which had shaped their present" (Bumi Manusia, 1). Here,

Pramoedya points out that young Indonesians know nothing about the true history

of the nation because there is the real power or the New Order regime led by

Suharto that is shaping the youth with the use of historical accounts based on its

92

own selective interest. For that reason, Pramoedya rewrites Indonesian history

through his Buru Quartet in order to challenge the imagination of the youth.

For some critics, the factual representations in Buru Quartet are more

significant to world history than Indonesian history itself. For Roosa and Ratih,

"Buru Quartet is a classic historical novel of the Lukacsian type and it tries to

accurately present the thoughts and feelings at a given historical period" (2683).

They add that "[t]he novels depict the rise of the reading public, the spread of

colonial schooling, and the impact of new technology, especially the railroad"

(2683). One of critics, Maier says that the narratives of the Buru Quartet are

"realistic novels ... published at the beginning of the eighties which can be read

not only as impressive description of the evils of the colonial system, but also as

an indictment of repression and an exhortation to fight it" (28). It is for the first

time that "an Indonesian writer [Pramoedya] ... makers] the historical

circumstances which has produced the complex reality of "Indonesia" and "the

Indonesian", the framework for a novel," writes Foulcher in his essay ""Bumi

Manusia" and "Anak Semua Bangsa": Pramoedya Ananta Toer enters the 1980s"

(I).

In Buru Quartet, Pramoedya not only evokes the past time through the

first person narration but also offers the narrative structure taken from the life of

an Indonesian nationalist - Tirto Adi Suryo [Minke] as the central character. As

Max Lane writes in the "Introduction" to House of Glass, Tirto Adi Suryo was

"one of the pioneers of the Indonesian national awakening and of journalism"

93

(ix). Although the four novels of Bum Quartet talks about the life of the main

character, Minke [Tirto Adi Suryo], Max Lane argues that "he is not the real

protagonist'" (xi) and the real protagonist, for him, is the history itself. As he

writes:

Somewhat like a Hindu god, the protagonist of these novels appears in

several forms. Perhaps the highest form-which many readers will already

have discerned from the earlier novels - is history, the inexorable march of

history itself. ("Introduction" of House of Glass xi)

Because readers who read the Burn Quartet are brought to the awareness

of the history of the Dutch East Indies and its slow emergence as the independent

state of Indonesia, Vickers says that the Bum Quartet is "as much a historian's

novel as it is a people's history" (Reading Pramoedya 95). Unfortunately,

Pramoedya does not have Indonesian young readers because Burn Quartet as well

as his other works were banned in Indonesia until the fall of Suharto's era (1965-

98). Not only were Pramoedya's works banned but his publishers, Yusuf Isak and

Hasym Rahman, were also banned from publishing and writing. Since Max Lane,

a second secretary in Australian embassy in Indonesia, has translated Burn

Quartet into English, there are international readers and critics for Pramoedya' s

works. However, because of his translation of Pramoedya's Burn Quartet, Max

Lane was recalled in 1981.

94

The Political Structures in the Dutch Colonial Period

In Bunl Quartet, Pramoedya provides factual representations regarding

political structures in the Dutch colonial period. Some of the political structures

along with their policies continue to exist in Indonesia which is why the youth had

a major demonstration in 1997 forcing Suharto who had been Indonesian

President for thirty two years to finally step down. During his regime, Suharto

adopted the European-style state administration of colonial times: he created

centrally controlled and functionally organized bureaucracies to govern provinces

or regions. He also did not allow provinces or regions to be autonomous. During

Suharto's regime, corruption, collusion, and nepotism were also rampant.

At the beginning of the occupation, the Dutch adopted the administrative

style based on the kingdom of Mataram in Java. They recruited Javanese

aristocrats to be regional administrators under the Dutch general governor who

acted as the ruler at the center. The Javanese aristocrats, the "priyayis'·, who ruled

the region, were called "bupatis". As Trocki points out:

[The] Dutch control had been first grafted on the top of the old

'feudalistic' system and over time the bupatis or regents had been

transformed into bureaucrats ... " (91).

Trocki throws light on the political structures the Dutch adopted in the

beginning of their occupation. He says that the Dutch recruited the Javanese upper

class to be the chief administrators in a region. The Dutch also gave training to the

members of the Javanese upper class (priyayis) in order that they could be

95

professional in their job. The members, at that time, who were given the training,

were called as "Pangreh Pradjas." During the colonial times, Trocki adds that

"[t]he Dutch government found it necessary to post Javanese priyayi members of

Pangreh Pradjas to administrative posts in Borneo and Sumatra" (94). For him,

by posting "Pangreh Pradjas" to administrative posts in the other islands such as

Borneo and Sumatra, the Dutch could control the vast archipelago.

Pramoedya represents the political structures through the story in This

Earth of Mankind. In the story, Minke's father is promoted as the "bupati" in the

region of B. His father scolds him angrily because he is a shameless boy who has

polluted his family pride. His father says to him, "Haven't you read in the papers

that tomorrow night your father is celebrating his appointment as a bupati? Bupati

of B_7"(125). With regard to this matter, Minke's father reminds his son that

he should retain his manners because his father is a bupati or the head of a region.

For the priyayis, to be a bupati was a great achievement during the colonial times

because the bupati was the highest position among the natives.

To tum the kings, the regents, and the aristocrats in the archipelago into

"priyayis" and assign them as "bupatis" by the Dutch brought an important result:

the distance between the priyayi and ordinary people. As Vickers writes in his

book A History of Modern Indonesia:

The most important result of the transformation caused by the policy was

to distance the aristocracy from the rest of the population. The regents

96

were meant to be lesser versions of the Central Javanese kingdom, but the

subordinates of the Dutch states at the same time. (36)

For Vickers, although the priyayis could be the bupatis, the rulers· of

regions, they were still the subordinates of the Dutch state. The title "bupati" for

the head official of a region is still used in Indonesia. However, in Indonesia the

bupatis who run the administration in the regions do not belong to the aristocracy

anymore but belong to the new class set up in post-independence era: the political

leaders or elite who are from members of the political parties.

Before the Dutch occupied the vast archipelago, the Icing, the regents and

the aristocrats had their own states. These states that were able to determine both

their internal and external political structures were independent political entities.

After the Diponegoro9 (Java) War, the priyayis were absorbed into the colonial

state. Since then, they transformed themselves to become the vehicles of the

Dutch in order to run the administration. The Dutch wanted to recruit them

because they realized that the power of their policies is strong only at the center of

the state. To resolve this issue, they had to send the priyayis to be the bupatis to

control the administration outside the center of the state.

They chose the priyayis to run the administration of various regIOns

because they had a very strongly developed set of values and norms, which

stressed status, etiquette, refinement and self-control. This is described through

Minke's mother's lines in This Earth of Mankind.

9 Diponegoro was the priyayi who led a war or rebellion against Dutch colonial rule in 1825-1830.

97

'That is the sign you're no longer Javanese, not paying heed to those

older, those with the greater right to your respect, those who have more

power."[ ... ] "Javanese bow down in submission to those older, more

powerful; this is a way to achieve nobility of character. People must have

the courage to surrender, Gus". (130)

Minke's mother tells him how a Javanese should behave. She says that a

Javanese should respect elders and those who have power whether they [the elders

and those in power] are wrong or not. From her explanation and given her

attitude, it is not surprising that the Dutch could colonize lavaand as Pramoeday

says"[t]hat's why Java was occupied by foreign powers for centuries" (quoted in

Vltchek and Indira 85).

The Dutch government also employed the Javanese priyayis as the bupatis

in order to be their official representatives. According to Brown, the significant

link between "the Dutch ruler and their various bupati was [only] taxation" (38).

He further points out how the bupatis as Dutch officials ran the administration

under the colonial system.

These Dutch officials were not paid a salary; rather they have the right to

keep the difference between the taxes they could extract from their

regions, and the net tax to the ruler. (38)

Brown says that the Dutch government did not pay any salary to them but they

earned their income by extracting from their region whatever possible after they

98

sent the net tax to the Dutch government. In some cases, this would have put the

bupatis in a powerful position enabling them to have a grip on the local people.

As a ruler at the center in the Indies, the Governor-General could be said

to be a powerful person. In a scene from Footsteps, Pramoedya"s narrator, Minke,

tells Raja Kasiruta how powerful the Governor-General in the Indies was:

I [MINKE] explained to him about Korte Veklaring and van Heutsz's

intention to unify the Indies. He would take action against all sultans,

rajas, and tribal chiefs that he did not like, especially those who defied his

will. There was no power that could stop him, except God Himself. I

[MINKE] then told him about the exorbitante rechten, the extraordinary

powers vested in the governor-general, the greatest powers vested in the

hands of the greatest of the colonial officials. (326)

Historically, the Dutch general governor in the Netherlands East Indies

had extraordinary power and with his power, he had rights to do anything he

liked. For example, every governor-general killed or expelled sultans, rajas, and

tribal chiefs who went against him.

However, van Heutsz who was the Dutch general governor in the Indies

from 1904 to 1909 did things differently from his predecessor. In Footsteps,

Minke explains that during the van Heutsz period "there was no military war"

(120). Instead, van Heutsz implemented one of the Ethical Policies of the Liberal

movement, which had been a source of campaign in Holland: "Emigration"'. The

Ethical Policies inaugurated by Queen Wilhelmina, according to Vickers, were

99

intended "to bring progress and prosperity to the natives. including the provision

of education and other opportunities" (A History 17).

The emigration implemented by van Heutsz was for Javanese peasants.

For them [Javanese peasants], van Heutsz promised that "transport, tools, kitchen

utensils and food were provided for six months" (Footsteps, 121). Van Heutsz

said that for the sake of human civilization, the peasants could repay in

installments. Yet Minke's friend, Ter Haar, did not believe in van Heutsz's

kindness. He then sent a letter to Minke to explain the reason behind van Heutsz's

compassIOn.

Sugar! ... Sugar needs land. It's all tied in with sugar. People are sent to

Lampung to protect the Sunda straits. The straits are undefended while the

coast is unpopulated and unoccupied. Don't think that van Heutsz has

thOUght of all this himself. (Footsteps, 122)

Ter Haar's letter to Minke throws light on van Heutsz' s strategy. Van

Heutsz implemented the emigration in order that the peasants could open up the

jungle and plant sugar cane. By implementing the strategy, the Dutch could

simultaneously occupy the land apart from wielding power. From Ter Haar's

point of view, the strategy is not van Heutsz's decision but there is another force

behind him. Van Heutsz's other strategy of professing mercy and compassion at

that time was meant for the prohibition of "the practice of the burning of widows

at their husband funerals that was prevalent in Bali" (ibid, pI20).

\00

In another scene from Footsteps, Pramoedya describes van Heutsz's

intervention in the marriage of the princess of Kasiruta, a matter that makes Raja

Kasiruta angry. However, he [Raja Kasiruta] could not do anything because .he

was in exile.

"And whom does His Excellency [van Heutsz the governor-general]

intend my daughter to marry?" he [Raja Kasiruta] asked cautiously [and]

he continued in a growling voice, "They tore my daughter away from me;

put her with a Dutch famil y in Bandung. They are trying to tum my

daughter into a Dutch woman and an infidel. Now they want to decide

whom she marries. That is going too far, isn't it? God's curse be on

them!" (327)

As a general governor in the Indies, van Heutsz who has absolute power

could do everything which includes interference in the marriage of someone's

daughter. He does that because there is a motive behind his deed. He knows that

the native woman could not conduct any movement or struggle in the Indies once

she is married. Therefore, van Heutsz interferes in the marriage of Raja Kasiruta's

daughter, a strategy that was also used by his predecessor, Rosenboom (1899-

1904). He forced the bupati from Jepara to arrange for his daughter's marriage.

Before that happened, Rosenboom had already asked the bupati from Rembang to

propose to the bupati's daughter from Jepara which is why Minke was angry at

the trick. He cries, "How evil it was to trick a woman [from Jepara] who was as

educated as she was" (Footsteps, 398). In Footsteps, Minke also points out that

101

the girl from Jepara had known that her suitor was deceiving her, and she also

knew that behind the suitor, the bupati of Rembang, is his superior- the Dutch

government. However, she should accept this humiliation as a consequence of her

own vacillation.

The woman from Jepara, that Pramoedya talks about through his narrator,

Minke, is Raden Ajeng Kartini, a national heroine. She was renowned because of

her writing, Habis Gelap Terbitlah Terang (Out of Dark Comes Light) and her

dedication to Javanese women. During the colonial period, she taught women

around her neighborhood to read and write. Since then, many schools were built

for women in the Indies.

Tbe Advent of Modern Organizations and tbe Rise of tbe Vernacular Press

For the nations under Western control, national consciousness became the

basis to oppose western rule. The people of the nations conducted anti-colonial

movements in order to confront the colonizers. In the Netherlands East Indies,

anti-colonial movements conducted by the nationalists Were based on Islam and

socialism. These anti-colonial movements mushroomed not only in Java but also

in Sumatra. They (anti-colonial movements) started when one of the Dutch ethical

policies- education- was implemented. Indonesians who acquired Western

education from Dutch institutions either in Indonesia or in Holland established the

native organizations and spread education significantly in order to develop the

102

anti-colonial movements. As a consequence to the establishment of native

organizations, many nationalists emerged.

In the Indies, the other nationalists who conducted anti-coloriial

movements were people who acquired religious learning, especially Islamic

learning. In Mecca, when the people fulfilled the last religious duty they mingled

with co-religionists of all classes and races and learned about the crisis being

faced by Islam because of western expansion. According to Illeto, once they

returned from pilgrimage they were "aware of the need for purification, renewal,

and even outright assertion against the colonizers" (220). In order to challenge the

Dutch, therefore they set up the Islamic organizations.

By establishing a modem organization, the natives could begin the process

of awakening in the colonial period. Such a modem organization was not only

created democratically but also recognized by the Dutch government. According

to Pramoedya, a modem organization has the "legal status and legal identity- like

that of a European" (Footsteps 196). Thus, it is necessary for natives to establish

the modem organizations. With the help of these organizations, the natives could

also challenge the Dutch government's policies and they became places for the

natives to express their voices.

The novel Footsteps speaks of the major contribution by native

organizations in the creation of a nation and gives the historical background to the

invention of a nation as well as the beginning of national consciousness. As Max

Lane points out in the "Introduction" of Footsteps:

103

Footsteps is a story of a beginning in two ways. It is not just a story set

against the background of the creation of a nation but a story that puts the

reader right inside that beginning. (10)

In Footsteps, one of Pramoedya's characters, the retired Java doctor says

that the natives are still asleep and ignorant but only the Eurasian and the Chinese

understand what needs to be done. The Chinese have already begun the process of

awakening. They have organized themselves and established the modern

organization named the Tion Hoa Hwee Koan. Such an organization is not only

done democratically but is also recognized by authorities, the Netherlands East

Indies. The Chinese organization, he says, has "the same right as a Pure-Blood

European [and] is recognized by under the law as a body corporate" (126). Thus,

for him, it is important to establish a modern organization in the Indies because it

has legal recognition. He adds, "if it were not done, the native people of the Indies

would never have anyone who could represent them before the law and who could

defend them before the law" (127).

The modern organization described by the retired Java Doctor awakes

Minke's consciousness. Minke learns about the modern organization and intends

to build the organization, which could help the natives. He uses "Syarikat" as the

name of organization after consulting his friend, Thamrin Mohammad Thabrie.

Minke and Thamrin Mohammad Thabrie are the initiators for "the very first

Native modern organization" in the Indies (191) called "Sarekat Priyayi." They

choose the name "priyayi" for their organization because the priyayis are the most

104

educated among the natives. However, due to the title "priyayi", the people from

the lower classes could not be recruited. In addition, the Netherland East Indies

had already registered and published it in the State Gazette which says, "the

organization [Syarikat Priyayi] now had a legal status, and a legal identity-like

that of a European'· (Footsteps 195).

Through Footsteps, we know that the modern organization was necessary

in the Indies to awake national consciousness and the aim of the establishment of

"Syarikat Priyayi" was to help the natives. Because of the word "priyayi" attached

to the name of the organization, not all people in the Indies could be recruited.

However, Minke could not rename it either because the name had been registered

by the Dutch colonial state.

To increase the audience and members of the organization, Minke

publishes the weekly paper named "Medan." Historically, "Medan" was the first

newspaper run by a native and this newspaper contributed immensely to the

educated natives who wish to know about laws and regulations in the Netherlands

East Indies. The weekly paper "Medan" in fact serves the priyayi or government

officials who want to know more about laws and regulations in order that "they

would not make mistakes and would be promoted more quickly" (198). Because

of the fact that Minke only helps the priyayi and the Dutch government, Nyai

Ontosoroh, Minke's mother in-law, reminds him of his publication.

Your magazine mainly publishes explanations of laws and regulations.

Many priyayi need this so as to be able to more confidently violate them

105

[the ordinary people]. You yourself have been a victim of the law. At the

very least, there were both just and unjust laws. Regulations just reinforce

the laws. Don't you remember what happened when you yourself were the

victim? Be careful! Don't end up strengthening injustice as a result of your

work. (Footsteps 197)

Nyai ontosoroh offers her opinion to Minke in his weekly paper. She says

that laws and regulations passed by the Dutch government are not just. The proof

is that Minke was a victim of the law. Therefore, she reminds him to be careful

because the laws and regulations are not for the people in the Indies but for the

benefit of colonizers and oppressors. She further tells him that "there are many

things more important that these laws and regulations" (ibid 198). For her, Minke

is only working for the Dutch government free of charge. She suggests him to

publish his own daily newspaper meant to help ordinary people and defend his

fellow natives, his people. For Minke, what Nyai Ontosoroh said is a challenge

but he could not do anything because the weekly paper is still run using the

Syarikat Priyayi's finance.

In the next few years, there is a problem within the Syarikat Priyayi. The

members of the organizations and subscribers of the weekly paper declined with

time. This leads to the collapse of Syarikat Priyayi. In addition, all the European

and Chinese printers refuse to publish "Medan." Since Minke met van Heutsz, the

Governor-General, the colonial press also refused to publish his articles.

106

Minke finally decided to publish his own daily newspaper called

"Medan." For Minke, Medan is for all natives and something nourishing the

minds of the natives and giving them the energy to fight for truth and justice. As

the first native owning the newspaper, Minke also considers his paper as a place

for all natives to seek and find justice. Because the circulation of ··Medan'· was

growing rapidly, colonial papers start expressing their complaints. Due to the

complaints, the paper importers from Europe stop their sales to him. Minke is

forced to buy from Chinese importers for a higher price. In order to solve the

problem, he arranges "to import paper from Stockholm" (ibid 247).

Through his newspaper "Medan'·, the native people in the Indies have a

place where they could report injustices they experienced. "Medan" has been

accepted "as a reality, as the defender of the Natives" (ibid 248). For example, the

workers on a cocoa plantation report to Minke that the manager, Mr. Meyer had

been cruelly mistreating their family. The workers banded together to bring

accusations against him. However, Meyer already knew about this matter. He was

then in league with the local prosecutor who received the worker's complaints

that he, the local prosecutor, froze the case.

To solve the problem, Minke and his lawyer, Mr. Frishcboten, took up the

case and sent a statement to the local prosecutor.

If Mr. Meyer does not desire to stand trial before the courts, we would be

very happy to bring him before another court- Medan and its readers

107

whose prosecutors and judges, European and Native, are almost infinite in

number. (ibid 248)

Because of the above statement, the local prosecutor finally brought Mr. Meyer to

trial and he was sent to jail. In all the cases that Minke dealt with, he realized that

many crimes were committed by Europeans in the Indies. The crimes were

generally more extensive, bigger, and worse. He thinks that it was like five

hundred years ago, "when those who had power did what they like - enslaved,

oppressed, killed, stole, and destroyed" (ibid 249).

Minke's vernacular press is also used as a means to spread the news about

the establishment of the other modem organization: "Budi Utomo." Minke

actually does not agree with the establishment of "Budi Utomo" by students from

the medical school because the organization, "Budi Utomo" is only for the

Javanese. One of the medical students, Raden Torno says that the organization is

for the Javanese as they are the ones who know each other's language, customs,

and they have similar origins, the same ancestors, one civilization and one culture.

Minke then replies that in Java, not only the Javanese live but many people from

different cultures and they know the Javanese language. However, Raden Torno,

one of the Budi Utomo members ignores Minke's opinion.

To recruit members, the STOVIA or medical students who were members

of Budi Utomo travel around doing propaganda for their organization. They call

out to people in Java to join the Budi Utomo.

108

Only Budi Utomo can give the children a Western education. Without a

European education will never be able to become a priyayi! In these

modem times, those who do not receive a European education will never

be more than tiller of the soil. (ibid 255)

Their propaganda is successful and many people from the high and low

class Javanese become Budi Utomo's members. Minke feels that"the propaganda

is not true and in fact is leading many people astray. Minke and his employee,

Wardi, have also received western education but they refuse to become the

priyayis, government employees, wage addicts and slaves. Thus, he is doubtful

that the Budi Utomo could last for another five years unless they receive members

from other classes. He is afraid that the fate of the organization [Budi Utomo) is

the same as his organization "Syarikat Priyayi." For him, because the Netherlands

East Indies comprises many people and not only the Javanese, the organization

built in the Indies must not be based on linguistic and cultural chauvinism. He

concludes that the proper organization must be a place for all natives who live in

the Indies regardless of their religions, cultures, languages and places.

Because of the fact that in the Indies, not only do the Javanese live but

also the people belonging to different cultures, Minke makes up his mind to

establish a modem organization for the people in the Indies who are traders. This

is because "the traders", according to his friend, Thamrin Muhammad Thabrie,

"are the most dynamic people among humanity" (Footsteps 338). They are the

people who struggle for livelihood standing on their own feet. Thus, Minke

109

decides to establish a modern organization that comprises multi-ethnic people

with Malay as the official language. For him, the most significant thing is that the

organization is not based on the priyayis but on the traders. He names his

organization "Sarekat Dagang Islam" (Islamic Trader's Union). He uses the term

"Islam" for his organization because he thinks that it was Islam which always

fought and opposed the occupiers ever since Europeans first came to the Indies,

and that it would continue fighting as long as the colonialists hold power. For

Minke, the Syarikat Dagang Islam (The Islamic Trader's Union) aims to advance

native commerce as a means of strengthening the position of the natives in the

Netherlands East Indies

The Cultivation System (The Cultuurstelsel)

The French Revolution (1789) and subsequent Napoleonic Wars led to

British occupation in the islands but they were returned to the Dutch at the end of

the hostilities. Because Holland needed money to rebuild itself after the wars,

especially after its losses to Belgium in 1830, they implemented the "Cultivation

System" (the Cultuurstelsel) meant for compulsory cultivation of cash crops to the

people of the archipelago. For Netherlands, the Netherlands East Indies was a

source of funds enabling them to pay their debts. To get the money, they

introduced the Cultivation System (the Cultuurstelsel): the compulsory cultivation

of cash crops that generated essential revenues for them. The peasants were

forced to grow cash crops under the charge of local regents and district officers.

110

The implementation of the Cultivation System (the Cultuurstelsel) led to a

series of rebellions. Through Eduard Douwes Dekker in Multatuli's novel, Max

Have/aar or the Coffee Auctions of Dutch Trading Company, we see the Dutch

injustice and inhumanity in implementing the Cultivation System (the

Cultuurstelsel). Although in Ills writing, Multatuli's cry for reform in 1860 sent a

shockwave through the Netherlands, it did not achieve any major change in the

Indies until much later. The colonial condition remained the same for the natives

until the end of the century.

The Cultivation System (the Cultuurstelsel) was created by Johannes van

den Bosch, appointed Governor-General in 1830. He invented the system because

for Illm, the reason for the existence of the colonies was to make profit. Thus,

every colony had to be run along the lines that produced the greatest possible net

return. He did not believe that this could be acllleved by freeing the Javanese of

the obligation 10 surrender produce or labor to their rulers. For Illm, "only by

requiring the Javanese to make payment of such produce and labor could the

maximum profit be derived" (quoted in Brown 84).

The peasants were imposed upon to give up a part of their rice fields for

the production of a crop chosen by the government and suitable for the European

market. They also had to provide labor to work on the government's crops as

well. The main crops required at the time were coffee, sugar, tea, and tobacco.

The processing of the crops was to be undertaken by European entrepreneurs.

III

The Cultivation System was a phenomenal financial success and the Dutch

could payoff their debts. The revenues that the Dutch acquired from the system

not only enabled them to pay the costs of their wars but also to strengthen their

economy. Because of the profits from the agricultural production in Java, the

Dutch could build the Netherlands' railways and military fortifications.

The impact on the peasants was exacerbated when the system was

unevenly administered. Both the Dutch colonial officials and the local officials

who were responsible for running the system were paid, in part, by way of a

commission on the cash crops produced. Both had the incentive to go into the

production of cash crops useful to the colonial masters at the expense of food

crops which were of use to the natives. Many village heads become particularly

adept at manipulating the system for their own benefit, to the disadvantage of

their fellow peasants. After the abolishment of the cultivation system in 1862, the

peasants had been substantially freed of their obligation to provide the labor and

the lands.

However, in practice the Dutch by collaborating with the village heads

continued to force the peasants to give up their lands. In Child of all Nations, one

of the peasant characters, Trunodongso, narrates that he should allow his land to

be rented to the owner of a sugar mill.

My inheritance was five bahu lO- three paddy fields, two dry fields- and

this house garden. Three bahu are being used by the mill. I didn't happily

10 A measure of area equivaent to 7096.5 square meter

112

rent them Qut but was brutally forced to do so by the mill priyayi, the

village head, all kinds of officials, and God knows how many others! The

land was contracted for eighteen months .... But now it has been two years!

You have to wait until the cane stumps have all been dug out. (163)

Because sugar at that time was necessary for the European market,

Javanese peasants should allow their lands to be rented to European entrepreneurs

in order that their lands be planted with sugarcane. Minke thus says that "Java

was the second biggest producer of sugar in the world" (Child oj all Nations 160)

but the peasants still lived in poverty. They just get a very small amount from

their lands, which are rented. For instance, Trunodongso just gets" 15 perak 11 for

every bahu, for over eighteen months although in the contract he should get 22

perak" (ibid 163). Because Trunodongso does not want to rent his land again, he

is threatened, taunted and insulted. The thugs hired by the mill owner and native

officials close the channel bringing water to his paddy field so much so that he

could not farm the paddy anymore.

By knowing Trunodongso's situation as the oppressed, Minke intends to

write an article about his (Trunodongso's) suffering because of the people from

the sugar factory. After he finished writing the article, he meets Marteen Nijman,

the owner of Soerabaiaasch Niews (Surabaya News) and shows the article.

Nijman in fact rejects his article because it talks about a sugar factory and he

challenges Minke: "Could you prove these embezzlements if the appropriate

" A Malay tenn for one rupiah (100 cents)

113

ollicials demanded evidence Irom youT'(ibid 193), Minke replies that he does not

have the proof but for him the newspaper is the place for the Javanese peasant

grievances. He believes that "the world must be told how a Java's farmers are

being thrown off their rice lands by the sugar factories and with the aid of the

Native civil servants" (ibid 190). Minke at first does not know why Nijman is not

on his side. Later on he understands why Nijman did not want to publish his

article. Nijman's newspaper, according to his friend, Kommer, is "owned by

sugar interests, funded by the sugar companies to protect the interests of the sugar

lobby" (ibid 201). After knowing the fact that Nijman's newspaper is owned by

the sugar companies, Minke regrets that he could not help Trunodongso.

Minke then gets the information from the newspaper that there is a peasant

rebellion which has broken out in the region, Siduarjo, where Trunodongso lived.

The leader, Kyai Sukri was arrested and punished "with eighty lashes before

being taken to stand trial" (ibid 227). Trunodongso, one of peasants in the

rebellion manages to escape and come to Minke for help.

On his way to help Trunodongso's family, Minke feels that the Europeans

and the native leaders have forced the peasants in the Indies to abase themselves.

The wages of continuous defeat in the battlefield of confrontation with Europeans

are a reflection of peasant lives in the colonial period.

The Dutch Colonial System of Education

In the first novel of Buru Quartet, This Earth of Mankind, Minke throws

light on the Dutch educational system. In the colonial times, the Dutch

114

government provided Dutch language high school- HBS- for the aristocrats. For

instance, Minke was accepted not only because of his intelligence but also

because of his social background. He was the son of a Bupati, a native Javanese

official appointed by the Dutch. The Dutch were successful in educating Minke so

much so that in the beginning he believed that Europe was everything. In

addition, the director of his school told him that "[the] teachers have given [him] a

very broad general knowledge much broader than that received by students of the

same level in many of the European countries" (This Earth of Mankind 2). This

pleased him very much and he decided to believe the director's words. He thinks

that by studying at the Dutch school he would raise himself above the other

natives as well as put himself on the same plane as the "Pure," the Dutch.

For the Dutch, to provide education to the local people was a symbol of

their duty which meant having to civilize the natives. As Pangemanann, the

narrator in House of Glass says:

According to the Colonial Europeans, everything that is done by the white

race for the colonized people is superior to that which the Native rulers

previously done for them. Everything that is done to the colonized people

is motivated by the whites's sacred duty to civilize them. How great was

this sacred duty! At one moment, it was the banner under which any and

all action could be justified. (55)

Because of this civilizing mission of the Dutch, Minke never realizes that

they attempted to control the local people in order to prevent the rise of

115

nationalism. Even though his teacher Magda Peters had introduced him to the

writings of Multatuli, Minke did not pay attention to the troubled history of his

own country. In Child of All Nations, Khow Ah Soe, a Chinese nationalist

working underground in the Indies, reminds Minke of the inherent inequalities of

the colonial system when he says: " ... don't hold out any hopes that a modern

education will ever be given to the conquered countries such as this country of

yours" (87). Khow Ah Soe made his point by saying that there was no university

built in the Indies. Only HBS provided by the Dutch government was the highest

level in the Dutch educational system.

During the colonial period, the Dutch controlled either the education or the

information from the outside or both of them. Therefore, Minke knows nothing

when Khow Ah Soe explains to him about the awakening in the Philippines and

neither does Minke know what it is all about when Khow Ah Soe talks about the

Filipinos as the colonized who became the founders of the first Asian Republic.

Khow Ah Soe also explains the meaning of the war between the Spaniards and the

Americans in the Philippines to Minke.

Their war- it was all an act. There was no conflict between them; it was all

to do with letting the Spaniards sell the Filipino people to the United

States without having to lose face before the eyes of the world. (Child of

All Nations 88)

Khow Ah Soe's story confuses Minke because no newspapers III the

Indies reported this particular news. Minke then realizes that the Dutch

116

government did ITOt allow the news to spread to the archipelago in order not to

allow the people to think of any of the issues that Khow Ah Soe brought up.

When Mei, another Chinese nationalist working underground in the Indies

for China, gives Minke knowledge about the foreign domination of Asian

countries, he comes to his senses realizing for the first time that the Dutch

controlled his education as well as the flow of information to the people in the

Indies. Because of the volume of the information controlled by the Dutch, Minke

realizes that it is not only from Europe that so much could be learned. In Child of

All Nations, he realizes that he is "a child of all nations, of all ages, past and

present" (169). Thus, he must seek knowledge outside the limits of Dutch

education because the Dutch restricted native access to those ideas or world

events that might make the people in the Indies restless and eager for freedom.

From Mci, he also finds out that though Asians by no means accept

western superiority it is only the Japanese who began to make a name for

themselves in the sciences as well as in Asian politics. Minke once again comes to

his senses that he "felt far below them [the Japanese] because he was a child of a

conquered race" (ibid 48). The European teaching that Minke received had not

equipped him enough for him to understand Japan. Mei further shows him how

the Asian people are working amongst themselves in order to get rid of foreign

domination. She completes his knowledge of European history by giving him

facts that do not glorify the civilizing mission as portrayed by the Dutch.

117

[Mei says), "There have been so many Europeans who have caused so

much suffering in this world". She told me about Sir John Hawkins, the

Englishman who pioneered the slave trade between Africa and America,

so that forty million Africans ended up dead or condemned to a life of

misery. And I never come across this story before. I had never heard it

from anyone or read it anywhere, in school or outside. (Footsteps 110)

Mei has given him so much knowledge that Minke could never get from

his Dutch school. Minke uses his formal education, HBS, only to find access in

the European quarters. When Minke's friend, Ter Haar, talks about sugar, he does

not know anything. He feels ashamed and he thinks of himself in the following

words as being "stupid and ignorant" (Child of All Nations, 254). Since he

received knowledge about the awakening trom his friends, his sense of identity

and history grow together.

The voices of the old Java Doctor, of Mei, ofTer Haar, echoed within my

mind, of the rise of Japan until its victory, of the time we first met until the

time we separated forever. In the end, I concluded a progressive people

can look after their own welfare, no matter how few they are or how small

their country. The Netherlands Indies government has an interest in

limiting Native people's access to modem knowledge and science. The

Native must look after themselves. (Footsteps 179)

By controlling the educational system and information from the outside,

the natives in the Netherlands East Indies were still under the Dutch's grip. With

118

regard to the issue, Pramoedya tells what happened to his father's school that was

not based on the Dutch government-established curriculum in his memoir, The

Mute's Soliloquy.

The only bastion left for the leftist nationalists [was 1 their [own 1

educational institutions which the government set out to destroy .... Using a

bludgeon known as the unlicensed schools Ordinance, all private schools

that were not using a government-established curriculum, even ones that

received no subsidy from the government such as my father's, were to be

closed" (110).

Pramoedya points out that the Dutch government destroyed his father's

school, because it was not based on the government-established curriculum. He

adds that the Dutch government officials confiscated the lesson books that his

father had compiled and printed. Because the Dutch realized that education was a

powerful tool in determining the country's fate they should control education and

the information from outside in the Netherlands East Indies.

The historical account that Pramoedya expresses through his narrator

Minke is an articulation of the issues dealing with the oppression of the colonizers

and the national awakening in Indonesia from 1898 until the years preceding

independence. By reading Buru Quartet, we find numerous factual

representations that young Indonesian readers could never get in their formal

education during the Suharto period. The historical events that Pramoedya

recounts offer an explanation of when, why and how these events existed in

119

Indonesia. The factual representations in Buru Quartet contain not only "plain or

chronicle narrative" but also "significant narrative.

120

Works Cited

Barthes, Roland. 'The Discourse of History. ,. The Rustle ofLang'lllge. Trans.

Richard Howard. California: University of California Press, 1989.

Boulton, MaIjourie. The Anatomy of the Novel. London: Routledge& Kegan Paul

Ltd, 1975.

Brown, Colin. A Short History o{1ndonesia: the Unlikely Nation. Crows Nest:

N.S.W.Allen& Unwin, 2003.

Dray, W.H. "Narrative and the Real World: An Argument for Continuity." The

History and Narrative Reader. Ed. Roberts Geoffrey. London and New

York: Routledge, 200 1.

Foulcher, Keith .. , "Bumi Manusia" and "i\nak Semua Bangsa": Pramoedya

Ananta Toer Enters the 19805". Indonesia 32 (Oct., 1981): 1-15. JSTOR.

09 Dec 2009. <http://www.jstor.orgiStable/33508253>

Fou1cher, Keith and Day, Tony, ed. Clearing a Space: Postcolonial Readings of

Modern Indonesian Literature. Leidcn: KILTY Press, 2002.

Hegel, G.F.W. Lectures on the Philosophy on World History: Introduction:

Reason in History. Trans. H B. Nisbet. Cambridge: Cambridge University

Press, 1975.

Illeto, Reynaldo. "Religion and Anti Movement'". The Cambridge History of

Southeast Asia, Volume Threefrom c.1800 to the 1930. Ed. Nicholas

Tarling. Singapore: Cambridge University Press, 1994.

Jameson, Fredric. The Political Unconsciousness: Narrative as a Socially

121

Symbolic Act. Ithaca, New York: Comell University Press, 1981.

Kuper, Adam., and Kuper, Jessica, cds. The Social Science Encyclopedia.

London, Boston and Henley: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1985.

Lane, Max. "Introduction." Footsteps. By Pramocdya Ananta Tocr. Trans. Max

Lane. The United States of America: Penguin Books USA, 1997.

---. "Introduction." HOllse o(Glass. By Pramoedya Ananta Tocr. Trans. Max

Lane. The United States of America: Penguin Books USA, 1997.

Maier. Hendrik MJ. Thairil Anwar's "Heritage: The Fear of Stultification":

Another Side of Modem Indonesian Literature". Indonesia 43 (Apr.,

1987): 1-29. JSTOR. 09 Dec 2009. <httpllwwwJstor.org/stable/3351207>

Multatuli. Max Havelaar or the Coffee Alictions of Dutch Trading Company.

Trans. Baron Alphonse Nahuys. Edinburgh: Edmonstond and Douglas,

1868.

Poduval, Satish. "Historical Narrative and Imagined Regions: A Study of

Territorial Design in Indian Nationalism." Diss. Hyderabad, 2000.

Roberts, Geoffrey, cd. The Histmy and Narrative Reader. London and New York:

Routledge, 200 I.

Roosa, John., and Ratih, Ayn. "Solipsism and Solidatary: The Nation, Pramocdya

and Salman Rushdie." Economic and Political Weekly 36.28 (Jul. 14-20,

2001),2681-2688. JSTOR. 04 Feb 2010.

<http://www.Jstor.orgisearchl4410859>

Schultz, Daniel., and Felter, Maryanne. "Education, History, and Nationalism in

122

Pramoed)'6 Toer's BUrll Quartet" Crossroads: An Interdisciplinwy

Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 16.2 (2002), 143-175. JSTOR. 27

March 2012. <http://www .j stoLorgistable/40860802>

Toer, Pramoedya Ananta. This Earth o.fMankind. Trans. Max Lane. The United

States of America: Penguin Books USA, 1997.

---. Child of All Nations. Trans. Max lane. The United States of America: Penguin

Books USA, 1997.

---.Footsteps. Trans. Max Lane. The United States of America: Penguin Books

USA,1997.

---. House of Glass. Trans. Max Lane. The United States of America: Penh'llin

Books USA, 1997.

Trocki, Carl A. "Political Structures in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth

Century." The Camhridge !listory of Southeast Asia Volume Three from c.

1800 to the 1930s. Ed. Nicholas Tarling. Singapore: Cambridge

University Press, 1994.

Vickers, Adrian. "Reading Pramoedya Ananta Toer and Writing Indonesian

Cultural History." New Literatures Review 22 (Winter, 1991): 82-102.

---. A History of Modern Indonesia. United Kingdom: Cambridge University

Press, 2005.

Vltchek, Andre and Indira Rossi. Exile: Conversation with Pramoedya Ananta

Toer. Chichago: Haymarket Book, 2006.

White, Hayden. The Content of the Form: Narrative Discourse and Historical

123

Representation. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987.

---. Tropics of Discourse: Essays in Cultural Criticism. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins

University Press, 1978.