As a result of all these developments, and many more,
the Indonesia of today has become even more highly diverse than it already
was.
The present
situation therefore carries all kinds of residues of earlier colonialism,
even in the sphere of religion.
People in
Germany may have been brought up with a perception and a political map of
Asia and Oceania that differs somewhat from that of the Dutch, particularly
because of our different colonial histories, Germany being more
oriented toward
Oceania.
Throughout the
centuries the Dutch have generally given more attention to the Asian area
(because of their colonies there), even though Australia was first
discovered by a Dutchman in 1606, and the whole Australian continent was
called Nieuw Holland (New Holland) from 1650 till 1817.
Former German
colonies in the East were particularly located in Oceania, for instance in
North Eastern Papua, a fact that is hardly known in the Netherlands, even
though the Dutch colonized the western part of Papua, which made Germany
and the Netherlands neighbors at the time in both Europe as well as in
Oceania.
Colonial
backgrounds are often reflected in the art collections of the former
colonizing countries. When I looked in Berlin for Indonesian treasures in
the Ethnological Museum in Dahlem, I found a rich collection of most
beautifully decorated boats from Oceania, but I could not detect anything
of Indonesian origin.
In Dutch
museums it is, obviously, the other way around. When visiting the Tropical
Museum in Amsterdam with my parents as a small child, I became familiar
with Indonesian gamelan music and Sumatran dances, as a result of which I
have been fascinated by Indonesia’s rich cultural heritage ever since.
The colonial
past is occasionally also clearly reflected in our diplomatic relations.
When I started in Jakarta, the Dutch Embassy there was still our biggest
diplomatic mission in the world, whereas the Belgian Embassy was among the
smallest.
On the other
hand, the Belgian Embassy in Kinshasa, Congo, is very important to Belgium,
but ours is of minor importance.
Looking at it
objectively: Indonesia is a very important country in the world, having a
strategic location with respect to China, a population of over 240 million
people, a stable democracy, a fast growing economy and being a serious
candidate member of the BRIC countries.
We usually take
the Western democratic orientation of Indonesia for granted, but just
imagine how different the Asian region might have looked if the Indonesian
Communist Party had succeeded in taking power in Indonesia in 1965.
For many years,
the biggest number of European political visits to Indonesia used to be
from the Netherlands. Whereas I hardly had to encourage or stimulate this
development, the French ambassador to Jakarta, on the other hand,
complained to me at the time that he had to, more or less, beg Paris to pay
more political attention to Indonesia.
All of this had
nothing to do with the objective importance of Indonesia, but rather with
our historic pasts, whether colonial or not. For the French Algeria is, for
instance, of high political relevance. For Belgium it is Congo. For Portugal,
East Timor or Timor Leste is relevant, and so on. For the Netherlands it is
obviously Indonesia (and Surinam).
It goes without
saying that in the Dutch public mind, also China and Japan are considered
to be highly relevant, particularly from an economic point of view. And it
is only logical that we devote ourselves to these countries in order to
best serve our economic and political interests.
Fewer people in
the Netherlands are aware, however, that, when it comes to Dutch exports,
the German federal states of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg are much more
important than China and Japan together; just like North Rhine-Westphalia,
to which our exports are bigger than to the whole world outside Europe.
In fact, some
countries are in our perception more important than they would perhaps
deserve to be from an “objective” point of view. But objectivity is a
relative concept, which cannot be based on economic factors alone.
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