governance first came within the sovereign power of the King in the 19th century
with a Minister in the Colonial Office as an intermediary. After 1848 the Royal
influence was sharply curtailed and the Ministry of the Colonies became the
official centre of colonial power. Insofar as the Asian colonies were concerned,
this was a power which for that matter, always had to be shared with the
authorities in Indonesia headed by a Governor-General.21 The Minister of the
Colonies initially shared his portfolio with the Navy and the Trade Ministries but
between 1842 and 1945 the office was exclusively concerned with running the
colonies and bore the name of Ministry of the Colonies throughout this whole
period. Although the term 'Colonies' was abandoned when the constitution
changed in 1922, it would not be until 1945 that the institutional name of the
Ministry was modified to 'Ministry of Overseas Territories'.22
Although the archives of the Protestant and Catholic Missions are not counted
as colonial archives in the strictest sense of the above definition, this annual will
nevertheless devote some attention to this type of archive. To a certain degree
Protestant mission, and later Catholic ones as well, profited from the presence of
the colonial authorities, although the relationship between them was ambivalent
and complicated. The Indonesian government continually had to balance the
maintenance of peace and order against the interests of the missions, who
wanted to convert the entire population of the archipelago to Christendom.
The colonial government was particularly fearful of clashes between the Islamic
population of Java and the missionaries and evangelists.
Scars and footprints
The territorial boundaries of a large number of countries that were decolonised
in the 20th century were drawn on a European drawing board at one time or
another. This did not only happen in Africa, it also happened in Asia. The
modern borders of many a post-colonial state can be regarded as an important
colonial legacy. For example in the Treaty of London of 1824, the Malayan world
was divided by Great Britain and the Netherlands. The Dutch swapped the
strategically located Malacca with the British for Sumatra, while also acceding to
the British claim over Singapore. The London Treaty drew the boundaries between
British and Dutch colonies by defining the Straits of Malacca as the border.23
Although the former British and Dutch colonies in South East Asia have all
become independent states, this does not mean that the colonial past has
been consigned to the history books. The colonial relationship has left a deep
and sometimes painful footprint which is still felt today. The renowned Dutch
historian Van Deursen wrote not long ago that 'the colonial past still (lives)
COLONIAL LEGACY IN SOUTH EAST ASIA -
THE DUTCH ARCHIVES
21 Efthymiou, De organisatie, Otten, Gids voor de Archieven ;Graaff, Kalm Temidden van Woedende Golven.
22 Oostindie and Klinkers, Knellende Koninkrijksbanden, 51-52.
23 However, this has not prevented many other border conflicts between these countries. A well documented
example of this is the conflict between Singapore and Malaysia over the diminuitive island of Pedra Branca
which was assigned to Malaysia by the UN International Court of Justice in 2007. The colonial archives
played an exceptionally important part as regards taking evidence in this process. See: Jayakumar and Koh,
Pedra Branca.
24 Deursen, De last van veel geluk, 244.
25 Statement by the spokesman for the Indonesian Embassy in The Hague, quoted by the NRC newspaper,
18 March 2002. See also: Oostindie, 'Historical memory and national canons', 69.
26 Interview with Minister Bot, NOS, dd. 15 August 2005. See http://nos.nl/artikel/51804-bot-maakt-gebaar-
naar-indonesie.html (viewed 2012-01-20).
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