A PERCEPTION OF A PERCEPTION OF A PERCEPTION: 'S VIEW OF IN THE 1850s.

Robert Van Niel University of Hawaii

It seems no exaggeration to say that the district, is levying arbitrary assessments book , by Eduard Douwes on the populatiorland that the former Dekker writing under the nom de plume Assistant Resident had possibly been Multatuli, is the most famous literary work poisoned by the Regent's henchmen. He by a Hollander on colonial Java.! From quickly brings charges of corruption the time of its appearance in 1860, the book against the Regent and asks his superior, has aroused strong sentiments and has the Dutch Resident, to remove the Regent been the source of endless debate. The from this district so that the charges can be author became more than famous. He investigated. The Resident refuses to do became a cult figure and he remains one to this without further evidence, which this day, when his devotees can investigate Douwes Dekker refuses to supply. When his life and works in a foundation bearing his appeal to the Governor-General falls on his name. His collected writings are deaf ears, he resigns from the colonial published in thirteen volumes,2 but there is service, disillusioned over the way the no doubt that Max Havelaar is the jewel in Dutch government is governing Java. the crown. This is the book that made his This essentially biographical story is reputation and most clearly conveys his embellished and interlaced with a perception of Java. It is this perception that cracking good account of the I plan to analyze in this article, but before I sanctimonious Dutch bourgeois merchant do that I must make obeisance to the class who make a comfortable living by literary merit of the work. Whatever the trading in colonial produce, which is message, the style of the book is what has extracted by the colonial administration led to its enduring fame; it served as the from an impoverished, unjustly treated opening call to a literary renaissance of peasantry, whose sufferings form yet Dutch letters. As both Nieuwenhuys and another thread in the story.4 Beekman have pointed out, Multatuli was We are told that when the book appeared part of the romantic literary tradition it sent a shiver through the Dutch nation. It whose style gave a vitality to his writing has never been clear to me whether this that has seldom been equaled in Dutch shiver resulted from the literary style or the literature.3 message. Actually as the message of an Max Havelaar is Multatuli is Douwes ineffectual, somewhat oppressive colonial Dekker in a fictionalized, romantic style, administration had been conveyed in but in broad lines the story reflects the life various Dutch publications since the 1840s, of the Indies civil servant Douwes Dekker, it must have been the style of the message who in 1856 resigned from the colonial that really made this book so profound in its service. Mter a rather mediocre decade impact.5 This may explain why this and a half in the service of the impact was not what Multatuli had East Indies [NEI] government, upon intended; in fact, it was almost the opposite returning from home leave Douwes from what he intended. Dekker was stationed as Assistant Multatuli's perception of Java in the Resident (district administrator) in the 1850s, when his career as a civil servant depressed area of Lebak in West Java. came to an abrupt end, was that of a Within a matter of weeks he discovers that colonial government grown lax in the the Javanese Regent [Bupati], head of the enforcement of its regulations. It was this 22 Robert Van Niel laxness that allowed corruption to enter the contrary to Multatuli's message. The sad system, not only in .the European civil and ironic part of these events is that the service, but even more in the Javanese civil little man in Java was no better off under administration. Such a situation he the new governing system; in fact, many experienced in Lebak, where the Javanese would argue that he came to be noticeably Regent was exacting more labor and more worse off. goods from his compliant population than An even mo.re egregious twisting of was allowed by the regulations of the NEI Multatuli's storY occurred some years later government. The failure of the Dutch civil when Lenin/ used Max Havelaar to servants to enforce the existing regulations illustrate the message of anti-colonialism. resulted in this undisciplined situation, a If there is one thing that Multatuli was not, situation characterized by greed and self­ it was an anti-colonialist. Quite to the serving. The moral of the story for contrary he believed, along with the Multatuli was that the administration Europeans of his day, that colonial rule was needed to reform itself by stricter essentially good for native peoples. What enforcement of the regulations that had he wanted to see was a colonialism that been designed to protect the little man (the applied rules of justice and equity and did peasant) against the exactions of the not exploit the population, especially the stronger Javanese elite, whose baser defenseless little man.6 instincts had to be kept in line by a Having said this much about the European administration whose authority general moral tone of Max Havelaar, let was supposedly paramount. In short, with me now turn to the perception of Java in the reform and appropriate leadership the 1850s that the book presents. The core of the system of government cultivations, in story, as already indicated, has to do with existence in Java since 1830, could be made the efforts of the Assistant Resident Max to work. Someone like himself, for Havelaar [read Douwes Dekker] to seek instance, could do just that. justice for the little man in the district of This was generally not the way in Lebak, West Java, against the which Multatuli's story was perceived in malfeasance of the Javanese Regent. It is the Dutch parliament. The liberal voices that part of the story that has been most in The Netherlands and in Java had been analyzed by scholars. Were these efforts objecting to government control of the misguided? Was Douwes Dekker a poor fundamental export cultivations (such as civil servant? Was he following the rules sugar and ) for some time. They were only to find himself sandbagged by a able to use the book as one more item in corrupt system? Was he led to untenable their agenda for a dismantling of the conclusions through biased and system of government control over the untrustworthy sources? These questions economy of Java, the so-called concerning the events of early 185.6 have Kultuurstelsel [, been argued and discussed down to the sometimes called Culture System]. smallest detail so that anyone who has gone Whereas Max Havelaar was meant to into the literature surrounding Max convey the need to reform a lax Havelaar will be familiar with the most administration. it was instead minor players and the course of events on a misconstrued as a need to abolish the day-to-day basis.7 But do these happenings system that had appeared to result in the provide the reader with a picture of Java of abuse of the little man in Java. Within a the time? I would argue that they do not. decade after the appearance of M a x Lebak was a remote, out-of-the-way Havelaar, the economy of Java had been location that could be characterized as a opened to private enterprise, and the role of pocket of poverty with a lifestyle only the government in the economy was remotely related to what was happening in gradually being undone. This was the rest of the island of Java. , l'

Multatuli's View

H.owever, in an.other c.ontext Multatuli c.orresp.onding way .of life, is in a much d.oes express himself quite clearly .on h.oW higher positi.on ..... All this, then results in Java in a t.otal sense finds itself under the a strange situati.on whereby the inferior Dutch c.oI.onial g.overnment. These really c.ommands the superior ...... 1 think the t.one which sh.ould prevail in the statements, h.owever, c.ome early in the relati.onship is fairly well indicated in the b.o.ok bef.ore the incidents in Lebak begin to .official instructi.ons .on it: 'the European unf.old. They n.ot .only give the auth.or's .official is t.o treat tll~ native .officer wh.o percepti.on .of what was happening in the assists him as his you n g e r length and breadth .of c.oI.onial Java, but brother .'(pp.67 -71) they als.o pr.ovide a f.oundati.on .on which t.o build his st.ory .of abuse, maladmini­ This rather neatly stated, quite strati.on, and c.orrupti.on that is detailed in accurate descripti.on .of the relati.onship the Lebak st.ory. Let us examine this between the Eur.opean and the Javanese percepti.on m.ore cl.osely by citing fr.om the administrati.on is f.oll.owed by an analysis b.o.ok S.o that we will, as far as P.ossible, .of the differences in wealth between the tW.o av.oid dist.orting the image that the auth.or individuals wh.o act as elder and y.ounger seeks t.o create. The f.oll.owing descripti.ons br.other. It is n.oted, quite c.orrectly, that .of the administrati.on .of Java by the Dutch many Regents have an inc.ome that n.ot g.overnment are drawn fr.om Chapter Five .only exceeds the salaries .of .other Javanese .of Max Havelaar at the P.oint when the new many times .over but als.o exceeds that of Assistant Resident Max Havelaar is most Europeans. expected in Lebak. In a f.o.otn.ote Multatuli explains that it is necessary t.o include this The revenue .of such a Javanese secti.on .on the mechanisms .of the chief may be br.oken d.own int.o f.our g.overnance because the c.oI.onial parts. Firstly, his fixed m.onthly salary. administrati.on was S.o unkn.own t.o the Sec.ondly, a specific sum as general public in Eur.ope. c.ompensati.on f.or rights transferred to the Dutch Government. Thirdly, a b.onus ... the Assistant Resident is helped by a in pr.op.orti.on to the quantity yielded by native chief.ofhigh rank with the title.of his regency .of pr.oducts such as c.offee, Regent. Such a Regent, alth.ough his sugar, indig.o, cinnam.on, etc. And finally relati.on t.o the G.overnment and his the arbitrary use .of the lab.our and functi.on are entirely th.ose .of a paid pr.operty .of his subjects. official, is always .of the highest n.obility The last tw.o s.ources .of revenue .of the land. ... Very shrewd p.oli tical use is require s.ome explanati.on. The Javanese thus made .of their ancient feudal is naturally a husbandman. The soil .on influence ...... A Regency in Java is which he is b.orn, which pr.omises much headed by a native .official wh.o c.ombines f.or little w.ork, lures him t.o this, and, the rank given him by the Government above all, he is dev.oted heart and s.oul to with his autochthonous influence, in the cultivati.on .of his rice fields .... But .order t.o facilitate the rule .of the strangers came fr.om the West, wh.o Eur.opean .officer wh.o represents Dutch made themselves l.ords .of his land. They auth.ority. wished to benefit fr.om the fertility .of the The relati.on between Eur.opean s.oil, and c.ommanded its .occupant t.o .officials and such highly placed dev.ote part .of his labour and time to Javanese grandees is .of a very delicate gr.owing .other pr.oducts which w.ould nature. The Assistant Resident .of a yield greater pr.ofit in the markets .of Divisi.on is the resp.onsible pers.on. He EUROPE. T.o make the c.omm.on man d.o has his instructi.ons, and is c.onsidered to this, a very simple p.olicy sufficed. He be the head of the Divisi.on. Yet in spite .of .obeys his Chiefs; so it was.only necessary this the Regent, by virtue .of his l.ocal to win .over th.ose Chiefs by pr.omising kn.owledge, his birth, his influence .on the them part .of the pr.oceeds ...And the p.opulation, his financial res.ources and scheme succeeded c.ompletely ....the Robert Van Niel

entire business must yield a profit, this interest in this material. In this regard profit can be made in no other way than Max Havelaar was indeed an eye-opener. by paying the Javanese just enough to What has seldom been asked, both at the keep him from starving .... time and later, was whether Multatuli's It now remains for me to speak of perception of Java as conveyed in the the last and principal source of revenue of the native Chiefs: their arbitrary quotations above was correct and accurate. disposal of the person and property of Much has been written about the district of their subjects. Lebak and the events that occurred there, According to the idea generally held but the accuracy of his general account of over almost all of Asia the subject, with conditions in Java has not been subject to all he possesses, belongs to the Prince. scrutiny. This paper analyzes Multatuli's The descendants or relatives of the perception in the light of what we know former Princes gladly make use of the today about how Java was administered in ignorance of the people, who do not the 1850s, knowing, as we do, that his clearly understand that their perception had already been ignored by the TOMMONGONG or ADHIPATTI or Dutch parliament. P ANGERANG is now a paid official who has sold his own rights and theirs for a In our first series of quotations from fixed income, and that therefore the Max Havelaar, given above, Multatuli poorly paid labour in coffee plantation or describes the relationship between the sugar-cane field has taken the place of European colonial administration and the the taxes which were formerly exacted Javanese administration. From the days from the dwellers on the land by their of the East India Company, the lords. Accordingly, nothing is more administration of native peoples was normal than that hundreds of families indirect. That is to say, the fundamental should be summoned from great precept of governance was that each ethnic distance to work, without payment, on group would be governed by its own chiefs, fields that belong to the Regent. Nothing headmen, or whatever these people were is more normal than the supply, unpaid for, of food for the Regent's court. And called. In the parts of Java controlled by the should the horse, the buffalo, the NEI government, a fairly complex daughter, the wife of the common man administrative hierarchy had developed on find favour in the Regent's sight, it would both the European and the Javanese side by be unheard-of for the possessor to refuse the mid-nineteenth century. Though to give up the desired object present in rudimentary form much earlier, unconditionally. (pp. 72-74) the size and function of the administrative machinery became greater after 1830 when Here we have the essential perception of the Cultivation System was introduced. Multatuli about the sy'stem that was Under this System the NEI government operating throughout Java in the mid- undertook to have the Javanese peasant 1850s. Multatuli is presenting this view to grow crops that would be salable on the the Dutch reading public because he feels, world markets, and to grow them so quite correctly I would add, that most of the cheaply that products from Java could public in Europe knew nothing about the compete with similar products grown way in which Java was administered and elsewhere in the world. The principal how the wealth that flowed to Europe from products were sugar and coffee, also some Java was obtained. Though it was not tea and tobacco. Indigo was initially totally impossible to obtain information grown until about the 1850s. For the Dutch about Java in The Netherlands -- people the process was very profitable, especially such as Van Hoevell and others had been the coffee and sugar production. These exposing abuses for some years -- most of crops along with pepper and tin produced the Dutch public had no access or little substantial profits for the home government and for the Netherlands Multatuli's View

Trading Company [NEH], which to determine how things got done than was controlled the shipment and sale of the the European Assistant Resident. Most products. 8 So successful were these Assistant Residents in Java, having long government-controlled cultivations that learned this reality, would never have private entrepreneurs, Europeans and considered their position to be superior nor Chinese, soon made efforts to privatize the that of the Regent to be inferior. That is operations. After 1848 when the King's why most Assistant Residents never got authority was limited by parliamentary into the troubles that Max Havelaar control in the Netherlands, the efforts to [Douwes Dekker] did. move the government out of the production It should be pointed out before moving business gained momentum. During the on to the second set of quotations from Max 1860s some of the minor crops were Havelaar that the district of Lebak, in privatized; and sugar, by the Agrarian which Douwes Dekker's sad story unfolds, Laws of 1870, began to be phased out of was not and never had been involved in the government control into private hands. Cultivation System. It was known as a Only coffee remained a government 'poor' district. Producing few products for monopoly, but was devastated by blight in external sale, it consequently had little the 1880s. flow of cash. The Regent of Lebak was a Under the Cultivation System, which 'poor' Regent, always too short of revenue to was still in effect when Multatuli was in support his family and to maintain his Java, the colonial administration stature. Douwes Dekker knew this very exercised a major role in encouraging the well and makes mention of the Regent's production of exportable crops in those circumstances in the book. (pp. 126-127) He areas where these crops flourished. The was, however, consumed by his need to Javanese administrators, especially the follow the government's regulations to the Regent or Bupati, were expected to urge the letter about the unauthorized use of corvee peasantry to plant and tend whatever crop labor by the Regent. Yet he understood full was assigned to their village or district. It well the people's desire to keep public was indeed very much as Multatuli buildings neat and clean, a task that would describes it. The NEI government made require more labor than was readily use of the traditional authority of these available. (pp. 206-207) More important to Javanese elite figures: the Assistant Douwes Dekker was his conviction that "I Resident guided and prompted the Regent, will not put up with injustice, by God -- I who in turn was to command the people to do will not put up with it!"(p. 128) He meant to what he wanted done or else prod them to get follow the letter of the regulations as he it done. Without this Javanese authority, understood them. With such an attitude it the European administration could have is clear that in a situation of "a very accomplished little. Multatuli speaks of the delicate nature,"(p. 70) (as he himself inferior commanding the superior; this is describes it), he was not the right man in slightly misleading since both the the right place. Javanese Regents and the European If we turn to the second selection from Assistant Residents had from time to time Max Havelaar, we encounter more serious been discharged from their functions for problems with Multatuli's perception of lack of effectiveness. Multatuli's conditions in Java in the 1850s. In this statement that "there is no opinion so instance the subject of discussion is the general as to be a proverb in the Indies that sources of revenue enjoyed by the Regents the Government would rather dismiss ten in Java. In the previous section we Residents than one Regent," (p. 215) is just analyzed Multatuli's view regarding the that: an opinion not a fact. 9 However, the relationships of the Javanese and the idea is correct insofar as the relationship European administrations, and noted that was one in which the Regent was more able ~ although his perception might have been Robert Van Niel somewhat exaggerated it essentially was understandable. However, the correct. When we address the sources of explanations are interesting in that they income and the nature of the authority show how he thought that these matters enjoyed by the Regents, our analysis will worked, which is somewhat wide of the indicate that Multatuli was simply wrong mark. with regard to both facts and opinions. The third source of income for some The revenue of a Regent can be broken Regents was the percentage payment on down into four parts; first a fixed monthly government cultivations in their districts. salary; second, compensation for As Multatuli points out, transferred rights; thirdly, a percentage payment on the export products cultivated ... strangers came from the West, who in his Regency; and fourth the arbitrary made themselves lords of his [the use of the labor and property of his subjects. Javanese'] land. They wished to benefit Let us look at these in the order presented. from the fertility of the soil, and commanded its occupant to devote part Just prior to the passage on the of his labour and time to growing other breakdown of a Regent's income, Multatuli products which would yield greater informs his readers that "It is nothing profit in the markets of EUROPE. To unusual for Regents with an income to two make the common man do this, a very or three hundred thousand guilders a year simple policy sufficed. He obeys his to be in financial difficulties." (p. 72) We Chiefs; so it was only necessary to win should begin by pointing out that the salary over those Chiefs by promising them of the highest paid Regents of the mid­ part of the proceeds ... And the scheme nineteenth .century was about j1,200 per succeeded completely. (p. 73) month, and many earned less. The Regent of Lebak was in a remote district and had a What the NEI government did was to salary of j700 per month at the time that pay both the Javanese and the European Dekker was there. This was still a administrations in districts where crops princely sum compared with other salaries for export were grown ten percent of the of Javanese officials and was indeed better amount it paid for those crops: five percent than most Europeans earned. Yet it was went to the Javanese administration and rarely sufficient to maintain the extensive five percent to the European officials. establishments of most Regents, for they These monies were divided among the were constantly beset by family demands administrators with the largest amounts and other impositions. It certainly does not going to the higher officials. In districts place the Regents anywhere near the figure where the government crops did well it was given by Multatuli. possible for a Regent to more than double The second feature of a Regent's his salary through these payinents. All this revenue as given by Multatuli is is just as Multatuli describes it, and these compensation for rights transferred to the crops, which were purchased at a price Dutch Government. This is regulated by the government, were the incomprehensible. At one time in the source of the wealth that flowed to Europe eighteenth century the rulers of Mataram under the Cultivation System. were given compensation for transferred What is missing in Multatuli's rights, but they were not Regents and this explanation is a balancing of the policy compensation had ceased to exist by the with the reality. Government cultivations nineteenth century. I have no idea what were successful in only limited areas of Multatuli was referring to here. Java; some Regents received only small For the third and fourth sources of percentage payments or none at all. In revenue for the Regents, Multatuli supplies areas where the crops were successful both an explanation which is hardly necessary the Regents and the villagers profited and since they are quite correct and prosperity was in evidence. In areas where Multatuli's View

crops were unsuccessful there could be subject, with all he possesses, belongs to the suffering and little return to the peasant for Prince." (p. 74) He elaborates upon this his labor. In areas where there were no homily by informing the reader that the government cultivations there was usually people do not understand that their chiefs no or little sign of prosperity with a strong [the Regent and lesser officials] have retention of a simple, traditional lifestyle. traded rights, both their own and those of How severe was the suffering in those their peoples, for a/fixed income; that areas where the government cultivations therefore the poorly paid labor in the sugar were overextended or where they did not fields or coffee gro~~s has taken the place of prosper? Multatuli's description gives an earlier taxes exacted by the chiefs; and that impression of widespread suffering under as a consequence it seems normal that an administration that was indifferent to families should be summoned from great the little man. A number of writers both distanc.e to work the fields that belong to the before and after the appearance of Max Regent. While it will not be possible to Havelaar were compiling abuses and eliminate all abuses because of the people's malpractices that were occurring under the attachment to their chiefs, it is the duty of Cultivation System; it would be virtually the administration, especially the impossible to deny that both cruelties and European administration, to protect the stupidities occurred constantly that should docile population against the rapacity of not have been tolerated either by the their own chiefs. (pp. 74-76) European or the Javanese administrators. In the above perception of the nature of But the NEI government was not the Javanese people with regard to authority insensitive to such matters -- matters that and the socio-economic relationships were frequently much worse than in Lebak, within Javanese society, we see a closely on which Multatuli was basing his case. In woven mixture of truth and the worst scenario the government was misinformation which twists the image beset by such ethnic intolerance, just enough to bring it out of focus but not insensitivity, and greed on the part of its enough to make it unrecognizable. It is servants that reform was made difficult, true that the Regents and other Javanese while the best scenario recognized the administrators had been salaried since the impossibility of the European first decade of the nineteenth century. It is administration getting anything done also true that the salaries were partly in without the cooperation of the Javanese lieu of goods and services (and officials. The little man -- the Javanese occasionally money) which they exacted peasant -- continued to be subject to from the people. But it is also true that by the ,arbitrary treatment as he had been in the 1850s many Regents had been awarded past and would be in the future. Before pieces of populated land from which they Dutch colonialism touched him by could continue to draw sustenance for demanding the use of his land and labor themselves and their families in the form for the production of export crops, the of produce and labor. Such control of people burdens upon the peasant may have been and produce was essential to the lighter in magnitude but similar in form. maintenance of the status of the Regents Colonialism exacerbated the intensity and and other chiefs and could not be replicated speed of change but it did not alter the through a monetary salary arrangement. nature of basic social and economic However, the land held by Regents in lieu relationships within Javanese society. of salary was very limited in extent. The The fourth source of the Regent's people who lived on the Regent's lands were income, according to Multatuli, was the excused from cultivation services and arbitrary use of the persons and property of other exactions and were, therefore, not his subjects. It is understood, Multatuli involved in the government's crop scheme. tells us, that "over almost all Asia the Nor did the people on such lands work 28 Robert Van Niel anywhere except on the lands of the village well known that Douwes Dekker had little in which they lived or at the Regent's home. experience in the actual Javanese parts of The remaining lands of the Regent's Java. His earlier po stings in and district were under the control (I use this Sulawesi were in areas quite distinct from word rather than ownership) either of the the Javanese socio-economic patterns. The villages or of the NEI government. only place in Java that he was stationed Villages with their lands had been brought before his assignment in Lebak was in under a land tax

and economic situation in Java in the mid Tijdschrift voor Nederlandsch Indie (1838-1902). 1850s was constructed from misinfor­ This journal was published in Java from 1838 to mation and biases and then conflated with 1848 when Van Hoovell was expelled from the the emotions that were guiding his hero Indies. From 1849 on it was published in Groningen. The journal is filled with complaints throughout the book. and grievances directed against the administration of the colony. NOTES 6For the reference tol Lenin see Beekman, "Mterword," footnote ~ p. 378. Dekker was not 1All citations in this paper will be from the English against colonialism, ~ut on the dustjacket of the translation by Roy Edwards which was first University of Massachusetts edition (1982) we published by Sijthoffin 1967 under the title, Max read that Max Havelaar is "One of the most Havelaar Or the Coffee Auctions of the Dutch powerful indictments of colonialism ever Trading Company. This excellent translation has published.... " He was a romantic reformer who recently. been reissued by the University of was misunderstood. Massachusetts Press (1982) in the series "Library 7For contrasting views on this matter see Rob of the Indies", E. M. Beekman, General Editor. The Nieuwenhuys, "De Zaak van Lebak," in Tussen page citations are from this edition. Multatuli twee vaderlanden (: G.A. van means "Much have I suffered." Oorschot, 1959) and P. Spigt, "Lothario zal toch 2A number of editions of Multatuli's complete or hangen!" De Nieuwe Stem, vol. 15 (juniljuli 1960), collected works seem to exist, none of which is 392-414. truly complete. My reference here is to the 81n 1860, the year that Max Havelaar appeared, thirteen volume set [which I own] consisting of the profits from the Indies were 34 percent of the ten volumes edited by C. Vosmaer under the title total income of The Netherlands government. Verzamelde Werken van Multatuli (Amsterdam: 9C. Fasseur, Onhoorbaar groeit de padi: MJu. Elsevier, 1888), and three additional volumes Havelaar en de publieke zaak (Lei den: Huis aan published in 1890 by E. & M. Cohen in de Drie Grachten, 1987), p. 4. NijmegenlArnhem. lOIn the book Max Havelaar one of the most 3Rob Nieuwenhuys, Oost-Indische Spiegel touching tales is that of Sarjah and Adinda (Amsterdam: Querido, 1978 rev. ed.), pp. 136-154. (Chapter 17), two young villagers much in love E. M. Beekman, "Afterword" in Max Havelaar, and much abused by the cruel Javanese University of Massachusetts edition (1982), pp. administrator. Arbitrarily the buffalo of Safjah's 338-386. These are the two best sources that I father is confiscated -- an event that will be have found for positioning Multatuli and his burned in the memory of anyone who has seen writings in their literary context. the movie Max Havelaar. 4W.F. Wertheim in "Havelaar's Tekort," De Nieuwe Stem, vol. 15 (juniljuli 19!)0), 362, tells of Dekker's bourgeois upbringing struggling, on the

i one hand, with the equality concept of the Enlightenment, and with his preference for the aristocratic lifestyle, on the other. 51n this matter I follow Rob Nieuwenhuys, Oost­ Indische Spiegel, p. 151 who lays the emphasis on 1 the style rather than the message. On the matter of other writings about the Cultivation System and the failures of the colonial administration that were more factually based than Multatuli's account, I mention only two of the most obvious which Dekker must have read: (1) L. Vitalis, De invoering, werking en gebreken van het stelsel en kultures op Java (Zaltbommel: Joh. Noman, 1851). Vitalis had been on home leave in The Netherlands from 1852-1854 and noted the same indifference to matters of the Indies as Dekker noted. (2) Dr. W. R. van Hoevell was editor of