A PERCEPTION OF A PERCEPTION OF A PERCEPTION: MULTATULI'S VIEW OF JAVA IN THE 1850s. Robert Van Niel University of Hawaii It seems no exaggeration to say that the district, is levying arbitrary assessments book Max Havelaar, 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 Netherlands 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 coffee) 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 [Cultivation System, 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.