「原住民委員会」をめぐる諸問題 : 支配と抵抗の様式に関連して

Abstract

In July 1913, the "Comite Boemi Poetra" ("Committee of Indigenous Sons") published a pamphlet consisting of an article written in Dutch, entitled "Als ik eens Nederlander was" ("If I were a Dutchman"), and its Malay translation. The author of this article was Soewardi Soerjaningrat, a nationalist writer from an aristocratic family in central Java. He and his friend Tjipto Mangoenkoesoemo, a nationalist medical doctor, had organized the Comite in order propagandize aganist the Dutch centennial celebration of Holland's independence from Napoleon's dominion. Activities of the comite, particularly Soewardi's article, were a challenge to Dutch legitimacy to rule ovre Dutch East Indies, or the present-day Indonesia. The colonial government reacted promptly and captured not only the Comite's members, including Tjipto and Soewardi, but also Douwes Dekker, a Dutch journalist, who was suspected of being the most dangerous character behind the scene. These three were banished from the colony in September 1913. In the historical literature of the nationalist movement in Indonesia, this event has never been illustrated as more than a mere "episode" showing a sign of radicalism, a kind of forerunner of Indonesian independence. This is because the Comite's activities, viewed at that time, hardly had any significant influence upon the mainstream of the mass movement in Java viz. the Sarekat Islam. However, if we consider the event with respect to the Dutch attitude towards it on the one hand, and to Soewardi's idea advocated in the article on the other, we can then understand the significant characteristics of the style of Dutch rule over the colony as well as the Javanese style of resistance to authority. This article attempts to characterize the style of the rulers as zakelijkheid and the style of the ruled as Semar-ness. "Zakelijkheid is a virtually untranslatable Dutch word roughly covering the ideas of efficiency, businesslike practicality and unsentimental precision". The colonial government employed the concept of zakelijkheid in dealing with the event. This shows how essential the idea was for the Dutch in governing the colony. To resist the zakelijkheid, Soewardi utilized one of the most popular figures in a wayang story, Semar. Semar is a clown who sometimes criticizes the satria (aristocracy) class; he is at the same time a manifestation of a god and is sent down so that god's will would be realized in this world. Thus, according to the wayang story, Semar is a symbol of sarcasm and disguise. The title "If I were a Dutchman, , indicates that Soewardi disguised himself as if he were a Dutchman and the contents of the article are full of sarcasm against the Dutch concept of zakelijkheid., This in some way shows that Soewardi is probably the first Indonesian nationalist who employed his own culture and symbolized it in the resistance to colonialism.