Footsteps (54 page)

Princess groaned in protest.

“What’s the matter with you?” she protested. “Let me go. There is a letter for you, for you especially.”

“Who cares about any letter!”

“Listen to me,” she said, still trying to get loose from my grip. “We had guests earlier. Three Indos. They were looking for you. They didn’t give their names. They made threats. They called themselves De Knijpers.”

“Who cares about the Knijpers?” I answered. “Listen!”

“What, Mas?” she answered, as I covered her with kisses.

“Give me a child, Princess,” and then I embraced her.

“Who have you just met to make you like this?”

“Give me a child,” and I dragged her inside.

B
ranches of the Islamic Traders Union mushroomed in all the coastal towns outside Java. Its membership grew to over five thousand. We received several journalists in the office who wanted to discuss this development. Then reports started appearing in the press of the European capitals about how a new bourgeois organization was emerging in the Indies that was the precursor to a future Indies nationalist movement—a movement that wouldn’t be long in developing.

Marko had brought in several people from his village to help him with his work. There was no other way. I received more threats as soon as SDI began to get international press coverage.

On the other hand, the rich merchants in Solo and Jogja brought more and more contributions of money to the national headquarters for use by the Leadership Council.

I bought a two-story timber building, made from teak, in Kramat Street in Betawi. I turned it into a hotel, called
Medan
, which was used by people staying over in Betawi on their way to making the pilgrimage to the Holy Land. We used the ground floor as a shop to sell office and school supplies and as the central distribution point in Betawi for all the
Medan
publications.

During certain hours Thamrin Mohammed Thabrie would be there to look after SDI business. After only two weeks, he received an order from his superiors to withdraw from all involvement with the SDI. He was faced with a choice—his job or the organization. He had served the government now for twenty-five years. Almost overcome with emotion, he said he was sorry but he would have to resign from his positions to become an ordinary, nonactive member. It was a real loss for us. But what can be done? The organization should not be dependent on just one or two people.

The Leadership Council decided to buy or rent some ships. But the government quickly indicated that such a thing would not be allowed. Even the shipping companies owned by the Arabs and Chinese, which had once transported the soldiers of the Colonial Army on their way to war, were now being closed down by the very same colonial power. They had to sell their ships in Hong Kong and Singapore at very low prices. Meanwhile, the Royal Shipping Company, known as the KPM, step by step consolidated its monopoly over interisland shipping in the Indies.

Others urged us to buy a printing press, but I knew better than anyone that most of the printing presses in the Indies stood idle for much of the time. The market for reading material in the Indies was now almost saturated.

Our plans to set up schools also faced difficulties. Half of the members wanted to set up religious-based schools, the other half wanted schools that provided a general education, and the two points of view just didn’t seem to be able to reach a compromise. What was the use of calling the organization Islamic if we didn’t educate our children in Islam? But a general education was no less important, in fact it might be more important, not just in terms of meeting the higher standards of today’s world but also so that we could understand Islam better.

There was no agreement, so we used the contributions that came in to fund some of the other nongovernment schools that had been set up by Natives and were already running. These included the school founded by Nyi Raden Dewi Sartika in Cicalengka, Bandung, as well as the Boedi Oetomo schools, and those too of the Jamiatul Khair. And we also used some of the money to fund our legal aid work.

Still the SDI was unable to set up its own schools.

Meanwhile fighting had broken out in several towns between gangs of Indo youths, under the banner of the Knijpers, and SDI youth, mostly Marko’s people. Marko himself had been involved in one fight. The Knijpers had attacked an SDI group with brass knuckles. One of Marko’s youths suffered a broken rib. Meanwhile the Knijpers disappeared without a trace.

None of the papers, including
Medan
, reported these incidents, hoping that the fighting might not spread. In a report issued by the SDI leadership, we argued that the Indos weren’t simply motivated by prejudice but were fighting to prevent any real advance in the position of the Natives.

I received a visit from Douwager, who expressed his concern and regret that this fighting—which he referred to as ridiculous and indefensible—should be occurring.

“It’s a fact of life now, Mr. Douwager,” I answered. “If the Indos had been united in the way that you hoped for, then I think the first thing they would have done is to act to oppress the Natives, just as they have done in the Transvaal Republic and the Orange Free State in South Africa—oppression for oppression’s sake. It reflects their psychology—they hate having Native blood flow within them, something that happened to them that no one ever consulted them about. It’s a part of their mentality that is affected by their frustrated desire to be Pure-Bloods.”

“That’s a bit extreme,” he answered unhappily. “The world is not heaven and there will always be evil people, from all races. Not just from among the Indos. Anyway, we should be using the term Indisch, not Indo. I thought we had agreed to use the term Indisch for all the people of the Indies.…”

“I was talking about the Indos in particular.”

We found no way out of our disagreements.

I was worried that I had become blind to what was going on in the government. What was being discussed in the governor
general’s circles? The officials of the State Secretariat never visited me anymore. Idenburg himself never summoned me.

I could not afford to let this ignorance continue any longer.

When Sandiman arrived back in Bandung, I ordered him to find work as a waiter or gardener at the palace. He had no success. Marko also failed. Then the Patih of Meester Cornelis offered his nephew for the work. He worked there for three months and was then caught looking through some papers. They found out he understood Dutch. He was dismissed. The Patih was also pensioned off and he returned to his village.

Through Wardi I asked Douwager to act as intermediary with the Knijpers to see if he could cool things down a bit. It turned out that he had already tried. And from him I found out that their leader was Robert Suurhof. And it was also confirmed for us that the group wasn’t motivated just by racial hatred. It was receiving funds from some mysterious organization about which we couldn’t find out anything, except that its task was to ensure that no one except Europeans would have any success in establishing major businesses. So it became clear why it was only the Natives who were arrested whenever there were fights.

The Knijpers were active throughout West Java wherever there were active SDI branches. The smaller the town, the more afraid people were of the Knijpers, who were brought in from Bandung and Betawi armed with knives and sickles. Among them were also to be found Ambonese, Menadonese, and even Javanese.

There were no signs yet of the problem spreading to East and Central Java. The Solo SDI branch announced that if the Knijpers turned up in Solo, the Mangkunegaran Legion would act against them without mercy. They were prepared to move to wipe out the Knijpers, whatever loss of life was involved. They sent a group of Legion soldiers to me in Bandung, offering to start a campaign to get rid of the Knijpers. There were more and more fights, but still there were no reports in the papers. No matter how many they mobilized, the Knijpers were always outnumbered. Then soldiers in civvies started to help out their fellow Indos.

I had no choice but to seek an audience with the assistant resident about these developments. I gave him a list of the incidents, the dates, and places.

“The SDI, Your Excellency, in accord with its Constitution, has never intended to contravene the law or cause trouble. We only aimed to raise the welfare and prosperity of the Natives,
thereby assisting the government in raising revenue. So we hope that Your Excellency will be prepared to intervene to bring to a halt the activities of the Knijpers. We promise not to start any fight, and indeed we never have started any of the fights. We have only been defending ourselves!”

The assistant resident for Priangan region just nodded and listened. He never said a word. He just shook my hand when I arrived and shook my hand again when I departed.

We had to find our own answer to this problem. Wherever there were SDI branches we began self-defense classes. Silat classes sprang up everywhere, but with the proviso that no weapons were used.

The government did not move to help us. We had to help ourselves.

There was one big battle near the Bandung railway station one day. I had just arrived on the train. Marko was there to meet me and ordered me to move away behind the train and to leave the station by some other exit. The Knijpers were waiting at the exit gate, shouting as if they were insane: “Where’s Minke! Where’s his snout! Drag him out!”

The Knijpers didn’t understand the situation they were in. They didn’t realize that I had good relations with the rail workers because of the magazine we published for them. The rail workers moved to disperse the Knijpers, who then went on the attack. A huge fight ensued. Using all sorts of railway equipment and tools, the rail workers defended themselves and soon were also on the attack. Blood was flowing everywhere. Some police arrived but just stood there openmouthed, not knowing whom to act against. They weren’t going to attack the Knijpers, but neither could they move against the workers who were only defending their workplace.

So the fighting continued. One by one the Knijpers were put out of action as they came into contact with a wrench or a crowbar. The fighting ended as the Knijpers started grabbing up their fallen comrades.

This incident wasn’t reported in the press either, but it did bring an end to the activities of the Knijpers.

The SDI could breathe easily again. Except that we never came forward with any further proposals, like the one to buy ships, that could threaten European control over big business.

Whenever I had the chance, when things were quiet, I would try to understand why Mama’s businesses never suffered this kind of harassment. Perhaps because the SDI was a big movement while Mama just worked quietly away without frightening the Europeans?

Frischboten couldn’t answer this question either.

“This is a new phenomenon,” he said. “There’s nothing like this discussed in any book. We have to study it more closely, and we must study it carefully. If we come to the wrong conclusions we could end up in big trouble.”

He had asked me several times to come and visit them at their home. Mir missed me, he said. And it was true. I hadn’t been to see them for quite some time. Mir’s greetings were always like a spear that pierced through my heart. I knew she didn’t mean any harm. But it was a torture I could hardly bear: “Is the Princess pregnant?”

My wife still showed no signs of being with child. And so I now faced a personal problem of my own: Was I a failure as a man, despite being a lover of women—a true philogynist?

It was only the huge amount of work I had to deal with that made me forget these personal problems. The SDI was another new child that I had to look after. It needed never-ending care and attention and protection.

There were no more reports in the international press about SDI, but it kept on growing and growing, turning into a giant tree with fifty thousand members. No European organization had ever grown to that size in the Indies.

The art of self-defense flourished throughout West Java, just in case it should become necessary once again to confront the Knijpers. We continued to assist some of the nongovernment schools. Requests for legal assistance in overcoming cases of injustice flooded onto Frischboten’s desk.
Medan’s
circulation continued to increase, not by leaps and bounds but steadily. A comradeship started to develop among the membership. Native commerce blossomed wherever there were SDI branches. Rivalry among Native traders was replaced with cooperation.

And the activities of the Knijpers had stopped as if whisked suddenly away by a whirlwind. That meant that they would reemerge later in some new form.

In any case, the organization had passed its second test without injury.