Under Construction Verhandelingen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde Edited by Rosemarijn Hoefte KITLV, Leiden Henk Schulte Nordholt KITLV, Leiden Editorial Board Michael Laffan Princeton University Adrian Vickers Sydney University Anna Tsing University of California Santa Cruz VOLUME 246 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/vki Under Construction The Politics of Urban Space and Housing during the Decolonization of Indonesia, 1930-1960 By Freek Colombijn With the assistance of Martine Barwegen LEIDEN • BOSTON 2014 This hardback was originally published in paperback by KITLV Press, Leiden, The Netherlands, in 2010 under ISBN 9789067182911. Cover illustration: Creja ontwerpen, Leiderdorp. House under construction in Kebayoran Baru (front page Sociaal Spectrum van Indonesië 3(1) 1949). Library of Congress Control Number: 2013951262 ISSN 1572-1892 ISBN 978-90-04-25864-8 (hardback) ISBN 978-90-04-26393-2 (e-book) Copyright 2010 by Freek Colombijn This work is published by Koninklijke Brill NV. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Global Oriental, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers and Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. Koninklijke Brill NV reserves the right to protect the publication against unauthorized use and to authorize dissemination by means of off prints, legitimate photocopies, microform editions, reprints, translations, and secondary information sources, such as abstracting and indexing services including databases. Requests for commercial re‐use, use of parts of the publication, and/or translations must be addressed to Koninklijke Brill NV. This book is printed on acid-free paper. Contents Abbreviations ix List of figures and tables x Preface xiii I Introduction 1 Decolonization 6 Urban space and ethnicity 13 Housing 19 Methodology 21 Six portraits, one story 24 Conclusion 26 II A political and spatial history of Indonesian cities 29 The Dutch colonial period 30 The Japanese period 36 The Indonesian Revolution 46 The postcolonial democratic experiment 54 Runaway urbanization 65 Conclusion 69 PART ONE URBAN SPACE: RACE AND SOCIAL CLASS III Race, class, and spatial segregation 73 Ethnic divisions in colonial times 77 The case for racial segregation 82 Social class divisions 85 The housing market 92 Race, social class and spatial segregation 96 Live histories 97 Conclusion 100 vi Contents IV Life in the kampongs 103 Kampongs: chaos or order 104 Living conditions in kampongs 111 Social composition of kampongs 117 Indigenous and European types of houses 123 Urban planning 133 Conclusion 138 V Land tenure 141 Formal and informal forms of ownership 143 Local diversity and spatial patterns of land tenure 156 Insecurity of land tenure during decolonization 164 Conclusion 177 PART TWO HOUSING: INSECURITY AND OPPORTUNITY VI Housing in the kampong; The contest between dwellers and 183 the government Strategies of kampong improvement 184 Boon or burden of kampong improvement 194 The size of the investments 199 Squatting: the spread of mushrooms in the wet season 207 1950-1954: ad hoc moves against squatters 211 1954-1956: concerted actions 215 After 1956: facing the facts 221 Conclusion 224 VII The housing crisis during the years of turmoil 229 Housing shortages 231 The crisis in Jakarta 241 Tensions between the Army and the civil government 249 Tensions between the civil government and private property owners 253 Tensions between corporate enterprise, the military, and the state 258 The Housing Allocation Bureaus 263 Conclusion 273 VIII Post-war reconstruction and the recommencement of urban planning 277 A Japanese-Indonesian think-tank 279 Contents vii Reconstruction of eastern Indonesia 281 Post-war urban planning 288 Kebayoran Baru 297 Conclusion 307 IX Construction; Public housing and the private sector 311 The building sector 313 Real-estate developers 317 Company housing 320 Private house owners 322 Public housing in colonial times 325 The end of the NV Volkshuisvesting corporations 333 Public housing in independent times 336 The balance sheet of public housing in the 1950s 343 The rise of the concept of self-help housing 348 Conclusion 352 X Strategies of landlords and tenants 355 The composition of the rental sector 356 Housing agencies 363 How landlords and tenants reacted to fluctuations on the rental market 368 The rental market after 1945 373 The Rent Tribunals 379 Forum shopping 384 Conclusion 388 XI Conclusion 393 A landscape of chaos 393 ‘Race’ and class 396 Becoming a developing state 402 Three ugly legacies of the housing crisis 405 Surviving the chaos 407 National integration 409 The politics of housing during the long decolonization 411 Appendix 1. Population figures of Indonesia’s major cities 413 Bibliography 417 Index 463 Abbreviations ANRI Arsip Nasional Republik Indonesia DPD Dewan Pemerintahan Daerah DPRD Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat Daerah NA Nationaal Archief NEFIS/CMI Netherlands Forces Intelligence Service/Centrale Militaire Inlichtingendienst NICA Netherlands Indies Civil Administration PN Pengadilan Negeri PT Pengadilan Tinggi RI Republik Indonesia List of figures and tables Figures 1 The removal of the Jan-Pieterszoon Coen monument, Jakarta 42 2 Becak in Japanese times 44 3 Inside a tram in Japanese times 44 4 Municipal council (DPRD) in Bandung under construction, 1955 56 5 National Monument in Jakarta under construction in the early 1960s 64 6 Population of major cities, 1920-1960 66 7 Population of medium-sized cities, 1920-1960 67 8 Chinese quarter of Batavia, circa 1930 83 9 Kampong in Surabaya, late 1910s 104 10 Map of kampongs in Semarang 105 11 Kampong in Semarang around 1930 106 12 Petak multi-family dwelling in kampong Malokoe, Makassar 109 13 Subdivided kampong house 115 14 Middle-class house in Medan, circa 1930 127 15 Middle-class house in Semarang, circa 1930 128 16 Blueprint of a middle-class dwelling, 1912 129 17 Blueprint of a small villa, 1948 130 18 House designed by Liem Bwan Tjie for Tan Hong Hie, Semarang, 1941 131 19 Public housing built during Japanese times 131 20 A contested shop (kedai) 166 21 Kampong in Batavia before and after improvements 190 22 Map of building lines in kampong Pandjoenan, Cirebon, 1938 192 23 Kampong Kjooëi Matji, Cirebon, 1943 203 24 Kampong Ngaglik, Surabaya, 1955 211 25 Panitya Perdjuangan Tanah dan Rumah Ngaglik 218 26 Japanese soldiers search houses in Kupang destroyed by Allied bombing 235 List of figures and tables xi 27 Lodgings in Hotel des Indes, Jakarta 262 28 Design for a kampong house in Kebayoran Baru, circa 1949 305 29 Nirof apartment building built by Associatie NV 314 30 Advertisement for Darmo Boulevard, Surabaya 322 31 Public housing at the Sekip project, Medan 326 32 Public housing at the Djati Oeloe project, Medan 327 33 Poster for Congress on Healthy Public Housing (Kongres Perumahan Rakjat Sehat), 25 August 1950 337 34 Advertisement for the housing agency Nederlandsch-Indisch Verhuur en Administratie Kantoor 363 35 Front cover of Van Vloten’s Woninggids voor Soerabaia 364 Tables 1 Population and ethnic composition (in per cent) of major cities in 1930 25 2 Dates of return of Dutch administration to major cities 48 3 Average annual rate of population growth of major cities, 1920-1960 66 4 Gross monthly income of various occupations (unmarried workers) in guilders, 1942 and 1948 90 5 Percentage distribution of rental values of houses in Malang (1937) and Medan (1948) 93 6 Percentage distribution of monthly rents of houses, 1930-1940 94 7 Ethnic background of landowners in kampongs in Medan, 1923 120 8 Ethnic composition of kampong Tanah Tinggi, Batavia, 1939 120 9 Building material and ethnic background of occupants of houses in Jakarta, 1930 121 10 Building material and ethnic background of occupants of houses in Bandung, Semarang, Yogyakarta, and Surabaya, 1930 122 11 Government funds spent on kampong improvement, 1925-1940 200 12 Central government share in kampong improvement in Java, 1925-1937 201 13 Number of damaged houses, as reported in 1948 238 14 Private buildings in Jakarta occupied by military and other institutional users, December 1947 252 15 Budget for Kebayoran Baru, 1948 (in guilders) 299 16 Number of houses built for municipal housing authorities (gemeentelijke woningbedrijven) by the end of 1929 325 17 Capital and stock of houses of NV Volkshuisvesting corporations, 1930/1932 328 xii List of figures and tables 18 Number of houses and their building material in major Javanese cities, 1930 329 19 Share of public housing in the total housing stock of Javanese cities, 1930s 330 20 Percentage distribution of monthly rents of public housing, 1929, 1932 331 21 Number of houses financed by Djawatan Perumahan Rakjat, 1951-1954 342 22 Investments made by Djawatan Perumahan Rakjat, 1951-1954 343 23 Owner-occupied houses vs. tenant-occupied houses, Semarang, 1929 357 24 Number of houses owned per landlord, Surabaya, 1943 361 25 Average rent of upper-class houses advertised in Surabaya, Makassar and Medan (in guilders) 370 26 Rent reduction in Javanese cities in Japanese times 372 Preface This book is an outcome of the research programme Indonesia across Orders: The reorganisation of Indonesian society, which was coordinated by the Netherlands Institute for War Documentation (Nederlands Instituut voor Oorlogsdocumentatie, NIOD) in Amsterdam. This research programme was funded generously by the Dutch Ministry for Health, Welfare and Sport (Ministerie van Volksgezondheid, Welzijn en Sport). The stated aim of the Indonesia across Orders programme was ‘a broadly based historical investi- gation focusing particularly on the social and economic consequences of the Japanese occupation and the subsequent Bersiap and revolutionary period, as well as the decolonization process, for the different population groups in the different regions of the Dutch East Indies/Indonesia’. The fact that the research for this book was undertaken in the context of a large programme has had various consequences. The programme laid down important parameters: the focus on social change in the cities, the period 1930-1960, and the ambition to somehow cover the whole country.