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Text: Tu Lao Hat
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introduction
Asia, Africa, and the Americas were once colonies of Western powers, and later, especially after World War II, the colonized countries became independent, but most of the colonies after independence still spoke the language of the suzerain.
That's why so many countries in the world now speak English. Of course, there are also countries that speak French, Spanish, and other languages.
(Indonesia map)
However, Indonesia is an exception, Indonesia has been colonized by the Dutch for more than 300 years, which can be said to be a long time, but after independence, Indonesia not only does not speak Dutch, but even foreign languages put English in the first place, and Dutch is excluded.
So what is the reason why Indonesia does not speak Dutch?
1. Characteristics of Dutch colonial rule in Indonesia
Dutch colonial rule of Indonesia began in 1596, after it was colonized by Spain.
The Netherlands were initially colonized by the East India Company. This company engages in both trade and armed aggression, and it is really "both civil and military." With this company, the Dutch monopolized Indonesia's spices – in fact, plundering would be more accurate. Later, the company went bankrupt and the Dutch and Indian authorities took over Indonesia.
(Colonist)
Indonesia is a big country, with a territory of 1.9 million square kilometers, compared to the Netherlands, which is a small country, the Netherlands only had a population of 5 million at that time, and the Netherlands simply did not have enough manpower to manage such a huge country, not to mention, the Netherlands has colonies in the Americas and Africa, and it is a bit overwhelmed.
The Dutch entered Indonesia, not to occupy the entire territory of Indonesia at once, but to complete it step by step, because the Netherlands had a little appetite after all. Moreover, when the Dutch began to govern Indonesia, they found that the management cost was very high, and in order to solve this contradiction, the Dutch combined with local forces to complete colonial rule.
(Dutch colonists)
It was not easy to unite with the local powers, and if too much power was given to them, the interests of the Netherlands would be lost. Therefore, in order to prevent the local forces from becoming bigger and stronger, the Dutch tried their best to create internal contradictions among the local forces in Indonesia, and weakened their power by constantly causing the local forces in Indonesia to fight among themselves, so that they would not threaten their masters.
The Dutch called this strategy of domination divide and rule. As a result of divide and rule, Indonesia has not been Westernized after 300 years of colonization. In the case of religion, the spread of Christianity was an important sign of Westernization, and although the Dutch made efforts to spread Christianity in Indonesia, they had little effect.
Indonesia is an Islamic country with mostly Muslim residents, and although the Netherlands vigorously promoted Christianity, during its colonial period, Muslims developed rapidly, and the momentum of development was stronger than that of Christianity.
(Mosques in Indonesia)
2. Language policy and language education during the Dutch colonial period in Indonesia
The Spaniards came to Indonesia and began to spread Christianity in Spanish. Indonesians were preconceived, and when the Dutch spread Christianity in Dutch, Indonesians received very little Dutch.
The Netherlands is a little weak in its desire to promote the Dutch language in Indonesia, but it also has a fear that the results of the promotion of the Dutch language will help Indonesia and make Indonesia a unified country.
(Books in Dutch)
Because Indonesia has more than 17,000 islands, the inhabitants are very scattered, and Indonesia is a multi-ethnic country, with more than 300 languages spoken throughout Indonesia. The advantage of having too many languages was that the Indonesians were separated by language, and it was difficult to form a unified force.
If the Dutch promoted the Dutch language, it would be very terrible for the colonists to unite the Indonesians with the Dutch language.
The Netherlands ruled the big country with a small country, and the big with the small, adopting a divide-and-rule strategy. That is, to isolate the various ethnic groups and parts of Indonesia from each other, preferably without contact with each other, so that the Dutch can manage and rule them separately.
In order to achieve the goal of divide and rule, the Dutch did not promote the Dutch language, but set up various language schools in Indonesia for the younger generation of Indonesians to learn Javanese, Malay, etc., and in doing so, the Dutch wanted to strengthen the linguistic separation in Indonesia and thus cause its political separation.
(Indonesian children)
In the early 19th century, the colonial government even stipulated that Indonesian schools were not allowed to set up Dutch courses and not use Dutch as the medium of instruction, because they feared that if Indonesians mastered Dutch, they would use it to master the advanced science and culture of the West, and Indonesia would be difficult to control. However, the colonial government wanted to highlight Dutch rule over Indonesia, so it made Dutch the official language.
In the late 19th century, the Dutch found that there was a lack of local Dutch talent, so they had to open Dutch language schools to educate some Indonesians in Dutch. Of course, the number of such schools is limited, and the number of students trained is also very small, and they can only meet the needs of their colonial rule.
Here I have to mention the Chinese language education of Indonesian Chinese. Indonesia has long had Chinese people who have crossed the sea to come here, and many of them have accumulated considerable family business in Indonesia, and the Chinese have always had a tradition of paying attention to education, and the Chinese who have made a fortune pay more attention to the education of their children.
(Indonesian Chinese at the time)
Therefore, from the end of the 17th century, the Chinese began to set up private schools, and in some places set up voluntary schools, of course, Chinese language education mainly taught the Four Books and the Five Classics. At that time, there was a Mingcheng Academy, which was a model of Chinese education. The opening of this academy was allowed by the colonial authorities to start and lead the trend of establishing Chinese language schools in the region.
The opening of the Chinese language school illustrates the current situation of Indonesian language education at that time, and shows that the Dutch colonists were still relatively free in language education.
However, in the thirties of the 20th century, the Dutch found that the despisance of Dutch language education was very detrimental to their colonial rule, so they hurriedly adjusted their language policy, began to offer Dutch courses in local schools, began to educate local children in Dutch, and opened special Dutch source schools.
But soon after the Dutch pursued such a policy, World War II broke out. In 1942, Japan seized Indonesia from the Netherlands, and Indonesia became a Japanese colony. During the Japanese occupation, the Japanese colonial authorities first changed the language policy of the Netherlands, treating Dutch as an enemy Chinese language and suppressing it, so they closed the Dutch source school and transferred the students to the Indonesian language school.
(Japanese troops enter and occupy Indonesia)
The long-term concern of the Japanese is to promote the Japanese language in Indonesia, and for this reason, the Japanese have stipulated that Indonesians who can master the Japanese language can enjoy higher wages. However, in the past, there was no basic knowledge of Japanese in Indonesia, and Japanese people knew that it would be difficult to spread the Japanese language in a short period of time.
And in order to better educate Indonesians about enslavement, a language that was most accessible to the locals was needed, and in this case, the Japanese chose Indonesian. Because the Indonesian language has a fairly basic foundation in the local area, it does not take much effort to promote it throughout Indonesia.
The Japanese vigorously promoted the local Indonesian language, of course, not for the sake of the Indonesian people, but for the sake of the Japanese, which could quickly crowd out the Dutch language, and on the other hand, it was also conducive to the Japanese to implement their own colonial rule.
But in any case, Japan's promotion of the Indonesian language in Indonesia has objectively helped Indonesians. Later, Indonesia became independent and made Bahasa Indonesia the official language, which is deeply related to this. However, in 1945, World War II ended, Japan surrendered, Indonesia gained independence, and Japan's colonial policy, including language policy, came to an end.
(Japanese surrender)
The Dutch colonized Indonesia for 300 years, but they did not promote the Dutch language in Indonesia, which is an exception in the history of world colonization. However, Japan occupied Indonesia for three years, but objectively helped Indonesia promote the Indonesian language, and made a "contribution" to Indonesia after independence.
3. Indonesia's language policy and language education after independence
After the surrender of Japan, Sukarno declared Indonesia's independence. However, the Dutch were unwilling to give up their colonial rule over Indonesia, and even made a comeback, and the Indonesian people finally defeated the Dutch army through bloodshed and sacrifice, and completely liberated in 1949.
After independence, Indonesian was declared the official language, and Indonesian language courses were started in schools at all levels, using Indonesian as the medium of instruction, and Indonesian became Indonesia's Chinese language.
Indonesia also stipulates that English is the first foreign language, and Dutch, which has a certain social base in Indonesia, is largely excluded from education.
Indonesia did this because Sukarno, as the first leader of the country after independence, was a pro-British and American politician, so he chose English as his first foreign language. In Indonesia, English is taught in primary schools and some courses are allowed to be taught in English.
(Soekarno)
Indonesians promote English in this way, and there is another consideration, that is, based on Indonesia's backwardness and poverty, they hope that the younger generation in Indonesia will master the advanced science and culture of the West by mastering English.
As for the exclusion of the Dutch language, it shows the hatred of the people of Sukarno and Indonesia towards the Dutch. The Dutch ruled Indonesia for more than 300 years, plundered and enslaved Indonesia for a long time, and after World War II, the Dutch also dreamed of restoring their colonial rule in Indonesia.
Since the establishment of Indonesian as the Chinese language, Indonesia has vigorously promoted the Indonesian language. Indonesia has also cracked down on other language schools, requiring them to offer Bahasa Indonesia and to allow students to learn Indonesian history and culture.
Indonesia also stipulates that publications, with the exception of books in specialized foreign languages, must be in Bahasa Indonesia as the main language, and radio and television stations must also be in Bahasa Indonesia as the main language.
(Indonesia Mido TV)
Through the efforts of the Indonesian government and education department, Indonesian has firmly established its status as its Chinese language in Indonesia, and of course, the promotion of Indonesian during the Japanese colonization period has objectively helped Indonesia. The Dutch language, on the other hand, has been suppressed and excluded everywhere, and since then the Dutch language has no place in Indonesia, and now the Dutch language has basically disappeared in Indonesia.
Looking at the history of Dutch colonization of Indonesia, it can be seen that although the Dutch have reaped all the benefits in Indonesia, they have made a mistake in terms of language, and the Dutch have ruled Indonesia for 300 years, and they have not allowed the Dutch language to take root in Indonesia, which is of course caused by the language policy of the Dutch.
A series of language policies implemented by Indonesia after independence have succeeded in erasing the Dutch language. This was not only a victory for Indonesia's language policy, but also a complete victory for the Indonesian people in their anti-colonial struggle.
Resources:
The development of language education policy in Indonesia after independence[J].Research in Language Planning,2019,(02):85-97.)
The evolution of the Dutch colonial policy in Indonesia and its causes[J].Journal of Changsha Institute of Hydropower (Social Sciences),1992,(01):94-98.)