Colonial Print Culture: Sundanese Book Publishing in the Dutch East Indies in the Early Twentieth Century

The indigenous book publishing business for Sundanese-speaking communities started in the early 20th century, when the nationalist movement was set in motion. The modern school system had continued to spread in colonial society from the mid–19th century. The more education spread, the more literate people there were among the indigenous population. The indigenous book publishing business responded to the demands of this newly-emerging readership. Book publishing finally turned into a business by the 1920s. It seems to have provided distinctive readings from those provided by Balai Poestaka. The indigenous publishers played a supplemental role in nurturing print culture in the colonial context. Both government and private indigenous publishers contributed to promote modern readership and a colonial print culture. The book publishing and print culture in regional languages like Sundanese were nurtured in the colonial period and grew to constitute a medium to decolonize knowledge and knowledge culture.

Balai Pustaka and the Politics of Knowledge

During the colonial period of Indonesia the Dutch government was an important source of knowledge which was disseminated through the production of books, such as textbooks and other printed material. In response to the establishment of many new commercial printers and publishers, the colonial government, in 1917, set up its own publishing company, Balai Pustaka, which also published attractive and popular books. This new publishing house intentionally and unintentionally served several goals at a time that was characterized by the rise of young Indonesian intellectuals who were part of new political movements formed in the first decades of the 20th century.

Decolonization of Petroleum Education and Training in the Indonesian Oil Industry, 1950-1968

The article explores the decolonization of education within the Indonesian petroleum industry. The Netherlands Indies had one of the largest petroleum industries in the world with many major petroleum players involved. Despite this there was a lack of investment in training and schooling of engineers and workers in the Netherlands Indies. The article showed that the development of training and tertiary education in the 1950s was conducted by both the major oil companies and Indonesian government which invested in creating vocational training schools and university departments to meet industry needs. This development allowed for the creation of a government-run national education and research institute based in Java. The article shows that the role of the oil companies was still indispensable for the decolonization gap before the development of state-owned education institutes and the inclusion of Indonesian participation in the industry during the 1950s and 1960s. The active participation of the foreign oil industry in the Indonesianization of the industry was part of its ‘exceptionalism’ and the specific role oil played in the Indonesian economy.

A Book Industry in Transition: The Shortage of Books in Indonesia in the Late 1940s and 1950s’

This paper examines the book shortage crisis in Indonesia in the late 1940s and 1950s. After the Second World War, several Dutch colonial publishing houses decided to continue their businesses in Indonesia. During the second half of the 1940s there seemed to be an evergrowing demand for books in Indonesia, and by the end of 1949, several Dutch newspapers reported a so-called book crisis. A small booklet entitled De boekennood van modern Indonesië (Book Crisis of Modern Indonesia) (1949) seemed to be the herald of this alarming news. It was written by A.P. van Schieveen, who was a board member of the Vereniging van Indische Boekhandelaren, a society of Dutch book traders which had been established in 1926. In this booklet he emphasizes the importance of reading for Indonesia’s development, but also warns the Dutch publishing industry of the fact that the preferred second language seems to have become English. As a solution to support the continuing use of the Dutch language, he urged the Dutch publishing industry to distribute large quantities of Dutch books all over Indonesia. G. Ockeloen, the editor of Madjallah perdagangan buku di Indonesia/Maandblad voor de boekhandel in Indonesië (1949), responded to this matter. According to Ockeloen, Van Schieveen was stating the obvious, and he wrote that there was an even larger crisis going on, which was the shortage of books in Bahasa Indonesia.

A Vast Expansion, Yet a Sorry Infrastructure: A Paradox of the Decolonization of Indonesian Education, c. 1950s

The multitude of infrastructural problems in the Indonesian educational sector which had to be dealt with during the 1950s was counterpointed by the sector’s massive expansion. The aim of this paper is to explore this paradox in the framework of Indonesian decolonization. The government policy was to greatly expand education at all levels because it believed education was a gateway to “fulfilling independence (mengisi kemerdekaan)”. This paper argues that this expansion was a strategy of decolonization by which the education legacy of the colonial past was to be delegitimized. However, severe budgetary limitations, and a lack of infrastruture and facilities forced the government to continue its dependence on the inherited colonial education facilities and on foreign aid, hence made the strategy of decolonization unrealized in this process of expansion.

The Dilemma of Knowledge Transfer in Early Independent Indonesia

This article addresses the dilemma of knowledge transfer at the time of decolonization and early independence in Indonesian history. There was an urgently felt need to replace Dutch knowledge as far as possible with knowledge held by Indonesians or imported from foreign countries other than the Netherlands. Concurrently, from the time of Indonesia’s independence there was also a necessity to retain or gain access to practical knowledge required for economic development The article argues that this dilemma was resolved by a mix of policies geared towards different levels of sophistication of the knowledge involved. The article contains a brief theoretical treatment of this dilemma, followed by a global overview of policies implemented. A separate case study on the key banking sector serves to demonstrate the possibilities and constraints in effectuating a transfer of knowledge soon after independence.

The Making of the “Chinese Problem”: Indonesian Local Agencies’ Perceptions of Ethnic Chinese and Communist China, 1950-1979

When Indonesia gained its independence, it knew almost nothing about its Chinese population of more than 2 million. During the Dutch colonial and Japanese occupation periods, the authorities established offices for Chinese Affairs staffed by sinologists; however, the young Republic of Indonesia did not have such experts. By the early 1950s, the Foreign Ministry set up its “School of Sinology”. The school’s founder was suspicious of Communist China and therefore viewed that Indonesia must be cautious, with the overseas Chinese in Indonesia constituting a “sumber subversi” (source of subversion). Its first class had twenty students and with the conduct of its first class can be regarded as the earliest effort to study China and the ethnic Chinese by the Indonesian authorities. In the turbulent 1950s and 1960s, the Chinese were considered a problem, and so the term “Chinese problem” (“Masalah Cina”) was created, which then became commonly used throughout the New Order period. This paper explores how perceptions about the Chinese and Communist China were shaped by local agencies during 1950-1979, who the agencies were, and their publications.. The paper looks at how scholars, journalists, intelligence bureau and publishing houses contributed to the construction of the perceived “Chinese Problem”. Particular focus is also given to sinology-trained military officer and their works, in shaping perceptions towards the Chinese in Indonesia and also mainland China.