Скачать или смотреть New Dutch exhibition examines Indonesia's independence

(9 Feb 2022) LEAD IN
A new exhibition at the Dutch national museum offers a raw look at Indonesia's independence struggle following World War Two.
"Revolusi! Indonesia Independent" is part of the national museum's ongoing examination of the Netherlands' colonial past.

STORY-LINE
Video of Dutch troops overseeing the torching of houses in an Indonesian village plays in one room of the Rijks Museum's new exhibition, a few meters away, a baby's clothes sewn from book covers — the only scraps of cloth the mother could find — are laid out.
The exhibits show two different elements of suffering as part of the Dutch national museum's new exhibition "Revolusi! Indonesia Independent".
The collection offers a multifaceted view of the violent birth of the Southeast Asian nation from the ashes of World War II and three centuries of colonial rule.
The show is part of the national museum's examination of the Netherlands' colonial past that last year featured a major exhibition on the country's role in the global slave trade.
"Well, if you look at the Dutch educational system, the Indonesian independence is described from a Dutch perspective, and we felt it very important to continuously broaden our history and to invite two Indonesian curators, two Dutch curators to make the exhibition together," explains the Director of the Rijks Museum, Taco Dibbits.
"Because this is a moment in time that's important for the Netherlands and of 300 years economy. It's important, obviously, for Indonesia because it was their independence struggle, but it's also an important moment internationally. Indonesia is now a country with more than 270 million people living there."
One of the Indonesian curators, historian Bonnie Triyana, sparked controversy last month when he criticized the use of the word "bersiap" in the exhibition.
"If we use the term 'bersiap' in general to refer to violence against the Dutch during the revolution, it takes on a strongly racist connotation," he wrote in Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad.
The word, meaning "be ready", is often used in the Netherlands to refer to violence by Indonesians in the early days of the independence struggle immediately after the end of World War II.
One group has gone so far as to file a complaint with police and prosecutors over use of the term, saying the museum "knowingly continues to use a term that stigmatizes Indonesians in a colonial way."
"We want to use (the word)," says Triyana.
"What I want to do is give the contextual explanation into it. To make the people understand what does this term mean, at least from my perspective, as an Indonesian historian."
Dibbits understands the anger about a term that is used to describe one part of the suffering unleashed by the conflict.
"It's very understandable that there's this discussion. I think very important that there's this discussion on the usage of words or usage of term, because for a lot of people who suffered immensely their children, their grandchildren," he says.
"For them, it's still very much history of today that's important."
Indonesia proclaimed independence on 17 August 1945, declaring an end to Japan's World War II dominance as well as 350 years of Dutch colonial rule. But the Netherlands fought fiercely to maintain control for four years before recognizing Indonesia's independence in 1949.
The country's leaders have addressed widespread reports of excessive violence by Dutch troops during the independence war.
During a visit in 2020, King Willem-Alexander apologized for "the excessive violence on the part of the Dutch" during the independence struggle.

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