one can admire the sinking sun, its beautiful colors changing every minute. Go and witness it for yourself! The journey now comes to an end. The Indian Ocean has been crossed, from the African-Arabian coast to the coast of Sumatra. This was the ocean that the ancestors of today’s Indonesian nation sang about in the dim past.
[46] A nation of wanderers: this is only half accurate.76 Nature gradually changed the region of the original Indonesian inhabitants into a fallow and desert place, forcing them always to wander. The spirit of endurance became characteristic, displayed from west of the Indian Ocean to Central America on the east of the Pacific Ocean.77
This wandering spirit was also encouraged by the structure of society over two thousand years ago. From the remnants of the social system in the Minangkabau matriarchy and in the Batak patriarchy, which also used to exist in Java, we can still see how the youths of each village were organized into fighting forces. They lived in houses specially set aside for youths, where they were educated in things spiritual (adat and religion) and physical (silat and pencak).78
Guided by the moon and stars, sailing in their tiny boats, they were protected by their wits, and their spirit of community and gotong-royong in both good times (hati gadjah sama dilapah, hati tungau sama ditjatjah) and bad (telantang sama minum air, terlungkup sama makan tanah).79 And even the ocean became only a lake in their eyes.
Chapter 6
DELI
[47] A land of gold, a haven for the capitalist class, but also a land of sweat, tears, and death, a hell for the proletariat. The very memories of Deli at the time I was there (December 1919 to June 1921) even now tear at my heart.1 There the sharp conflict between capital and labor, between colonizer and colonized, was played out. The natural wealth of Deli gave rise to the most wealthy, cruel, arrogant, and conservative colonizing capitalist class as well as that most oppressed, exploited, and humiliated class, the Indonesian contract coolie. What the Dutch had called “the gentlest people on earth” changed its character after suffering so much torment and cruelty, and, to take an analogy from the world around Deli, became “like a buffalo charging and trampling its enemies.” When I was there, between one and two hundred Dutch people were killed or wounded in attacks by coolies every year.2
Was there anything that Deli did not have? On the border between Deli and Aceh, in the region around Pangkalan Brandan, Pangkalan Susu, and Perlak there was oil.3 If I am not mistaken, there was iron on the border between Deli and Jambi.4 Jambi itself had tin, as did Singkep, Bangka, and Belitung. There was bauxite in Riau and alumina in Asahan. If all this wealth were linked with the coal in Sawahlunto or the waterfall on the Asahan River (the second or third largest in the world), then the area around Deli could support any kind of heavy industry, even more so if it had access to the iron, tin, and other metals on the nearby Malay Peninsula, which has long historical ties to Deli.5
[48] But the Dutch did not look in that direction, and indeed it was impossible for them to see the opportunities for heavy industry, which involves many difficulties in its early stages. Usually the Dutch are attracted by enterprises that are easy and involve little risk but that are nevertheless solid and provide a large investment return. They go in for profitable monopolies that can be quickly started up, but which will never, or at least not in the short run, give rise to competition.
All the conditions that meet this kruidenier spirit were to be found in Deli, particularly in the tobacco industry. The tobacco of Deli has a special place in the world market as the wrapping leaf for Manila cigars. Of course in the beginning it was hard to recruit the labor force, but once profits started coming, obtaining even larger numbers of workers was easy. Within three or four months of planting, tobacco leaves are ready to be picked. Around the tobacco plantations, enterprises producing latex, palm products, tea, and hemp grew up in addition to Deli’s oil industry.
It was tobacco that gave birth to the first Deli millionaire. Cremer was famous for his wealth and cruelty, qualities that led to his being known in the Netherlands as “Coolie Cremer.”6 The forerunner of all those who later made millions from latex and oil, he was the first to sacrifice contract coolies by the hundreds in an effort to drain the swamps and clear the jungle in Deli three-quarters of a century ago.
I do not have the statistics to elaborate on the climate of Deli, the metals hidden in the ground, or its development in matters of population, industry, plantations, and trade over the last three-quarters of a century. In any case, it is not my intention to analyze all this here. It will suffice to present some of the facts that I have stored in my head for nearly thirty years, giving a picture of the atmosphere of Deli when I was there.
[49] There were some five hundred estates in Deli at that time.7 Travel between them was very easy and could be accomplished either by car or truck on the many roads that crisscrossed the area, or by the Deli railway. Belawan harbor was one of the largest in Indonesia. If I am not mistaken, in terms of exports it had already equalled, if not surpassed, Java by 1927.8 A rough estimate of the number of coolies in plantations, oil fields, mines, and transport at that time was about four hundred thousand.9 At a rough calculation, of the total population of Deli, numbering around two million (consisting of nearly all the nationalities of Indonesia—Javanese, Batak, Minangkabau, Bugis, Banjar, Deli-Malay, and so forth),10 about 60 percent of the families were genuinely proletarian.11 (Here I am assuming that each contract coolie, or former contract coolie, had only one child.) In short, Deli was a region of the modern Indonesian nation, and a region of the true proletariat also. Even a quick glance at its social system reveals that the upper class consisted of foreign bourgeoisie, primarily European and American, and secondarily Chinese. And the Indonesian bourgeoisie, even though it consisted of only a few individuals, cannot be dismissed out of hand. The Sultan of Serdang and the Sultan of Deli, as a result of their oil concessions, were capitalist aristocrats who had to be taken into account.12
At the top of the European bourgeoisie, sitting high on his throne far away in the Netherlands or in some other foreign country, was the great master, known by the contract coolies as the Tuan Maskapai and by the Dutch as the director.13 Beneath him as the viceroy resident in Deli was the Tuan Kebun, or chief administrator.14 Only after this level do we come across those called by the respectful title of Tuan Besar, known to the Dutch simply as administrators.15 Senembah Mij. consisted of several branches and thus had several Tuan Besar. To complete our sketch of the capitalist class we must include those appendages known as Tuan Kecil, or assistants.16 The word kecil (small) must not be interpreted as being derogatory. Here it means apprentice or prospective. Every lazy good-for-nothing and schlemiel who came to Deli from the Netherlands had hopes of becoming a Tuan Kecil, a prospective Deli capitalist.17
Deli was full of these Dutch layabouts and schlemiels. Big sticks, empty heads, and loud voices: this is the picture of the shabby bourgeois of Deli. They could get rich quickly, since they received high wages and, after a certain number of years’ work, a fixed portion of the profits. If I am not mistaken, apart from his salary of some tens of thousands of rupiah annually, a Tuan Kebun received some two hundred thousand guilders as his share in the profits.18 And the Tuan Maskapai got even more: not only did he get his salary as a director and advisor of several companies, and the dividends from the capital he had invested in them, but he also received a large share of the profits. The Tuan Maskapai was the principal shareholder and the director and advisor, but he did not work there and usually resided far away, tripping around Europe.
The rich get richer: such was the dream of the empty-headed Dutch schlemiels on the Deli plantations, sitting with their big sticks in the pool room in front of their glasses of beer and whiskey.
[50] The class that slaved from dawn till dusk, paid
