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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 August 2009
Globalization, the worldwide web of economic and cultural communications with its unifying and integrative tendencies, has done more than deeply affect the political economy (liberal markets) and the cultural patterns (mass consumption) of our time. It has also internationalized the debate on moral principles and ethical practices concerning human behaviour. Already the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the first statement on the issue by the United Nations, has claimed universal validity as a “common standard of achievement”.
1 Noordervliet, Nelleke, De naam van de vader (Amsterdam: Meulenhoff, 1993), p. 288Google Scholar.
2 Baehr, P.R., Mensenrechten. Bestanddeel van het buitenlands beleid (Amsterdam: Boom Meppel, 1989), p. 14Google Scholar. Lubis, Todung Mulya, In Search of Human Rights. Legal-Political Dilemmas of Indonesia's New Order, 1966–1990 (Jakarta: Gramedia/SPES Foundation, 1993), p. 33Google Scholar.
3 Donelly, J., “Human Rights and Human Dignity: an Analytic Critique of Non-Western Conceptions of Human Rights”, American Political Science Review 76 (1982): 202Google Scholar.
4 Text in UN General Assembly, 7–4–1993, A/Conf.157ASRM/8 — GE. 93–12595.
5 Ignas Kleden, “Identity on the Make, Locality on the Move”, contribution to the Seminar on Identity, Locality and Globalization: The Experience of India and Indonesia (New Delhi/Sariska, February 1998); Baehr, , Mensenrechten, p. 132Google Scholar.
6 Geschiedenis van de mensenrechten. Bouwstenen voor een interdisciplinaire benadering, ed. Kuitenbrouwer, M. and Leenders, M. (Hilversum: Verloren, 1996), p. 5Google Scholar.
7 We can also consider the nationalist movement's struggle for political freedom in terms of human rights.
8 See, for instance, Mitchell, Neil J. and McCormick, James M., “Economic and Political Explanations of Human Rights Violations”, World Politics 15 (1988): 476–98CrossRefGoogle Scholar. In 1990 Utrecht University set up a research project on (the history of) human rights, including the colonies. See Maters, M., “Persvrijheid en persbreidel in Nederlands-Indië 1906–1942: een onontkoombaar dilemma?”, in Geschiedenis, ed. Kuitenbrouwer, M. and Leenders, M., pp. 202–226Google Scholar; also Maters, Mirjam, Van zachte wenk tot harde hand. Persvrijheid en persbreidel in Nederlands-Indië1906—1942 (Amsterdam: Verloren, 1998)Google Scholar.
9 Among others Lubis, In Search of Human Rights; Setiardja, A.G., “De Indonesische visie op de mensenrechten, gebaseerd op de ideologie Pancasila” (Ph.D. dissertation, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, 1991)Google Scholar.
10 Lubis, , In Search of Human Rights, p. 48Google Scholar.
11 Tomasevski, Katarina, Women and Human Rights, 2nd ed. (London: Zed Books, 1995), pp. ix–xviGoogle Scholar.
12 Kerr, Joanna, Ours by Right. Women's Rights as Human Rights (London: Zed Books, 1993)Google Scholar. Stivens, Maila, “Theorising Gender, Power and Modernity in Affluent Asia”, in Gender and Power in Affluent Society, ed. Sen, Krishna and Stivens, Maila (London/New York: Routledge, 1998), p. 21Google Scholar.
13 Lubis, , In Search of Human Rights, p. 1Google Scholar.
14 The Indonesian government has also signed the UN Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment of 1984 (1985); the UN Convention against Apartheid in Sports (1986); and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. In June 1990 it joined the UN Commission on Human Rights. There are many more conventions which the Indonesian government did not ratify (for instance the Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and Registration of Marriage; and the Convention on the Nationality of Married Women); Lubis, , In Search of Human Rights, pp. 2, 154Google Scholar; Tomasevski, , Women and Human Rights, pp. 35–36Google Scholar.
15 Given the subject, I will focus more on laws and political debates than on (non-) implementation, more on opinions, attitudes and discourse than on the practice or violations of human rights, whether during the colonial period or in independent Indonesia.
16 Fasseur, Cornelis, “Hoeksteen en struikelblok. Rassenonderscheid en overheidsbeleid in Nederlands-Indië”, in the collection of his essays entitled De weg naar het paradijs en andere Indische geschiedenissen (Amsterdam: Bert Bakker, 1995), pp. 139–71Google Scholar.
17 Lubis, , In Search of Human Rights, p. 43Google Scholar.
18 Maters, “Persvrijheid”.
19 De ontwikkeling van de nationalistische beweging in Nederlandsch-Indië. Bronnenpublikatie, ed. Kwantes, R.C. (4 vols.; Groningen 1975–1982), vol. IV, pp. 285–89Google Scholar. The attorney-general could still prohibit specific individuals from attending political meetings.
20 Locher-Scholten, E.B, Ethiek in fragmenten, Vijf studies over koloniaal denken en doen van Nederlanders in de Indonesische archipel (1877–1942) (Utrecht: Hes, 1981), pp. 89–94Google Scholar; Maters, “Persvrijheid”.
21 De opkomst van de nationalistische beweging in Nederlands-Indië. Een bronnenpublikatie, ed. van der Wal, S.L. (Groningen: Wolters Noordhof, 1967), p. 498Google Scholar.
22 Kwantes, , Ontwikkeling, vol. II, pp. 680–81Google Scholar.
23 Ibid., vol.III, pp. 61–62.
24 Of the nearly 1300 internees in Upper Dicul after the Communist revolt of 1926/27 only fifteen were female; Schoonheyt, L.J.A., Boven-Digoel (Batavia: de Unie, 1936), p. 186Google Scholar.
25 The colonial government issued only a few regulations for women in the social field. It promoted female education, restricted female night labour and vainly tried to introduce monogamy. Also, stimulated by the International Labour Office, it was active in the struggle against the trade in women and girls.
26 One M.A. thesis and three conference papers have been devoted to this subject, but none of them has been published. See Berger, Carla, “…Een vrouwenstemmetje… De vrouwenkiesrechtstrijd in Nederlands-Indië 1908–1942” (M.A. thesis, Department of History, Leiden University, 1990)Google Scholar; Locher-Scholten, Elsbeth, “Late Colonial Perceptions of Indonesian Women: Voting Rights — Labour — the Nyai” (Paper presented at the Conference on Perspectives on Gender in Indonesia,Seattle,1991)Google Scholar; Blackburn, Susan, “Political Relations among Women in a Multi-Racial City: Colonial Batavia in the Twentieth Century” (Paper presented to the CNWS Workshop on The History and Identity of Jakarta,Leiden1995)Google Scholar and “Winning the Vote for Women in Indonesia” (Paper presented at the International Interdisciplinary Congress on Women,Adelaide1996)Google Scholar.
27 This was not really late: New Zealand and Australia were the first (1893 and 1901 respectively) to give the vote to women; the Scandinavian countries except for Sweden followed between 1906 and 1915; the great wave came at the end of World War I (United Kingdom, Ireland, Austria, Poland Sweden; the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemburg, Czechoslovakia, USA); Women in most Southern European countries had to wait until after World War II: France (1944), Italy (1945), Greece (1952). Tomasevski, , Women and Human Rights, p. 9Google Scholar.
28 Forbes, G., “Votes for Women: the Demand for Women's Franchise in India, 1917–1937”, in Symbols of Power: Studies in the Political Status of Women in India, ed. Mazumdar, Vina (Bombay: Allied Publishers, 1979), pp. 3–23Google Scholar; Liddle, Joanna and Joshi, Rama, Daughters of Independence: Gender, Caste and Class in India (London: Zed Books, 1986), pp. 33–38Google Scholar.
29 Verslag van de commissie tot bestudeering van staatsrechtelijke hervormingen, ingesteld bij GB van 14 September 1940, no. 1x/Kab (Commissie-Visman) (Batavia: Landsdrukkerij, 1941), p. 143Google Scholar. The minimum annual taxable income was fl. 300.
30 In 1939 colonial Indonesia had 106 councils with 2,228 members representing the nearly 70 million inhabitants of the archipelago. These councils elected 37 members of the People's Council, who were joined by 23 members nominated by the government. See Handelingen Volksraad 1941–1942, Bijlagen 22.4. (Batavia: Landsdrukkerij, 1941–1942)Google Scholar; Verslag van de commissie tot bestudeering van staatsrechtelijke hervormingen [Verslag Commissie Visman] (2 vols.; Batavia: Landsrukkerij, 1941–1942), vol. 1, p. 92Google Scholar.
31 Handelingen der Staten Generaal. Tweede Kamer 1914–1915 (The Hague: Staatsdrukkerij, 1914–1915)Google Scholar. Bijlagen 365.3. Also Handelingen Tweede Kamer 1916–1917, p. 22 (28 09 1916)Google Scholar.
32 Ibid., p. 28.
33 Berger, “Vrouwenstemmetje”; Blackburn, Susan, “Western Feminists Observe Asian Women: An Example from the Dutch East Indies”, in Women Creating Indonesia. The First Fifty Years, ed. Taylor, Jean Gelman (Clayton: Monash Asia Institute, 1997), pp. 1–21Google Scholar. van der Heijden, Juliette, “‘Het licht schijnt overal’. De visie van de Vereeniging voor Vrouwenkiesrecht op kleur en beschaving, 1894–1919” (M.A. thesis, Catholic University Nijmegen, 1998)Google Scholar.
34 During the Parliamentary debates Indonesian women figured more prominently than European women. See Handelingen Tweede Kamer 1916–1917, pp. 22–39, 55–57, 84–96Google Scholar.
35 Brown, Colin, “Sukarno on the Role of Women in the Nationalist Movement”, Review of Indonesian and Malayan Affairs 15 (1981): 69Google Scholar. For an illustration of these goals, see the reactions of Javanese elite women in the government report Onderzoek naar de Mindere Welvaart der Inlandsche bevolking op Java en Madoera. IX b3. Verheffing van de Inlandsche Vrouw (Batavia: Papyrus, 1914)Google Scholar.
36 For a history of the Indies branch in Batavia see Blackburn, “Political Relations”, and Elsbeth Locher-Scholten, “Colonial Feminism, Citizenship and the Vote in the Netherlands-Indies”, forthcoming.
37 Verslag van de kiesrecht-commissie. Ingesteld bij gouvernementsbesluit van 16 november 1921 no 1x (Weltvreden, 1927), p. 57Google Scholar. Handelingen Tweede Kamer 1924–1925, pp. 1586–88.
38 Discussing the Minahasa council in 1919, indigenous and European members of the Peoples' Council had expressed their regret that women were excluded from this council, since as of old Minahasa had known great parity between men and women. All members (except a Calvinist) agreed to support a request of the Association for the Vote for Women in the Indies to the government to grant this civil right. Since the government had already announced that it would consider this subject, the People's Council left it at that. Handelingen Volksraad 1919, pp. 310–16.
39 Handeingen Volksraad 1925, vol. II, p. 242.
40 Handelingen Volksraad 1925, 2e gewone zitting, ond. 6, stuk 1.
41 The Semarang city council, moreover, had expressed its opposition: the vote for women would conflict with Islam and adat. No mention was made of the family, except briefly by the champions of the women's vote. Women were considered representatives of the family and as such they belonged in the councils. Handelingen Volksraad 1925, pp. 79–92, 193–95, 234–42.
42 See Blackburn, , “Winning the Vote”, p. 10Google Scholar.
43 Vreede-de Stuers, C., L'émancipation de la femme indonesienne (Paris and The Hague: Mouton, 1959), pp. 63–67Google Scholar.
44 Brown, “Sukarno”, pp. 71–73.
45 Blackburn, “Political Relations”.
46 van der Wal, S.L., De Volksraad en de staatkundige ontwikkeling van Nederlands-lndië. Een bronnenpublikatie (2 vols.; Groningen: Wolters, 1964–1965), vol. II, pp. 89–93Google Scholar.
47 Ibid., p. 267. He preferred her to the representative of the women's movement, Mrs C.H.C. Gunning, as suggested by a civil servant, or to having no woman at all, as suggested by the Council of the Indies.
48 About Razoux Schultz see Locher-Scholten, Elsbeth, “Cor Metzer”, Nieuw Biografisch Woordenboek (The Hague: ING, 1997)Google Scholar, http://www.konbib.nl/infolev/ingrgp/werkbest/bwn/lemmata/metzer.html. The faint criticism of the Association for Women's Rights in 1935 was reason enough for Razoux Schultz to withdraw from this association.
49 Handelingen Volksraad 1937–1938, Bijlagen 55.5.
50 Handelingen Volksraad 1937–1938, p. 1223Google Scholar.
51 Handelingen Volksraad 1937–1938, ond. 55; pp. 1223–44, 1271–1313.
52 Vreede-de, Stuers, L'émancipation, pp. 66–68Google Scholar; Handelingen Volksraad 1941–1942, p. 1215.
53 Request 1–9–1937 in verbaal (vb.) 14–1–1940, no. 7. Ministry of the Colonies (Col), General State Archive, The Hague, file 3749.
54 Handelingen Volksraad 1937–1938, p. 1313Google Scholar.
55 Although with numerical differences for the different population groups. The vote for European women received an overwhelming majority of 36–37, the vote for indigenous women 23–17, and the vote for women of the Foreign Orientals a 24–17 proportion. Ibid., p. 1314.
56 Ibid., ond. 122; pp. 1604–1616.
57 Indonesian council members were Mrs. Soedirman (Surabaja), Mrs. Soenarjo Mangoenpoespito (Semarang), Mrs. Emma Poeradiredja (Bandung); Mrs. Sri Umiati (Cheribon). Stuers, Vreede-de, L'émancipation, p. 68Google Scholar. Women appeared on the lists of European parties of different political colours: the Indo-Europeesch Verbond, Vaderlandsche Club, Indische Katholieke Partij and Democratische Groep. See Berger, , “Vrouwenstemmetje”, p. 72Google Scholar.
58 See letters in vb. 15–1–1940, no. 7, Col, ARA.
59 Handelingen Volksraad 1941–1942, ond. 22.
60 Ibid., p. 1216.
61 Ibid., pp. 1214–33, 1286–1319. Government Decision (GB) 20–9–1941, no. lx, mr. 45x/1941, Col., file 1112. The conclusion in Kwantes, , Ontwikkeling (vol. IV, p. 724)Google Scholar that the issue had not yet been decided in October 1941, is incomprehensible in view of the decision in the same archival file, published in his book.
62 de Graaff, Bob, “Kalm temidden van woedende golven”, Het ministerie van Koloniën en zijn taakomgeving, 1912–1940 (Den Haag: Sdu Uitgevers, 1997)Google Scholar.
63 Abeyasekere, Susan, One Hand Clapping: Indonesian Nationalism and the Dutch 1939–1942 (Clayton: Monash University, 1976)Google Scholar.
64 Kwantes, , Ontwikkeling, vol. IV, p. 724Google Scholar.
65 See Locher-Scholten, Elsbeth, “…And they lived happily ever after? Christian state policies and Islamic attitudes towards the issue of marriage in pre-war colonial Indonesia”. (Unpublished paper for the International Conference on Religious Transformations: Colonial and Post-Colonial Encounters,Rutgers Center for Historical Analysis,New Brunswick, NJ1996.)Google Scholar Forthcoming as “Marriage, Morality and Modernity. The Debate on Monogamy in a Colonial Context”.
66 Kwantes, , Ontwikkeling, vol. IV, p. 724Google Scholar.
67 See conclusions of the report by the Commissie Visman.
68 This does not imply that Indonesian women have acquired full equality in all legal issues or that women are equally present in different representative bodies. For instance, in 1955 at the first elections, 7 per cent of the Indonesian Parliament and 5 per cent of the Constituent Assembly were women. At the second elections in 1971, numbers were the same: 7 per cent and 5 per cent. See Soewondo, Nani, “Law and the Status of Women in Indonesia”, in Law and the Status of Women (New York: United Nations, Centre for Social Development and Humanitarian Affairs, 1977), p. 127Google Scholar.
69 Brown, “Sukarno”.
70 Jayawardena, K., Feminism and Nationalism in the Third World (London: Zed Press 1986), p. 2Google Scholar.
71 Sen, Krishna, “Indonesian Women at Work. Refraining the Subject”, in Sen, and Stivens, , Gender and Power, p. 42Google Scholar.
72 Setiardja, , “Indonesische visie”, pp. 67–73Google Scholar. At first glance, Pancasila, the official state ideology (belief in one God, humanitarianism, Indonesian unity, democracy, social justice) formulated in the preamble of that Constitution, seems to incorporate many elements of human rights. The work of Setiardja and Lubis shows its limitations, however.
73 Lubis, , In Search of Human Rights, pp. 127–39Google Scholar.
74 In a recent dissertation, the lawyer A.G. Setiardja has again argued that human rights should be restricted on the basis of the Pancasila: one should be accountable for human rights before God (Pancasila, art. 1); they should promote national unity (art. 3); they should remain within the democratic sphere (art. 4); they should serve the general well-being (art. 5); and they can be restricted by the aims of the state. Setiardja, “Indonesische visie”, p. 32.
75 Murtopo, Ali, Strategi Pembangunan Nasional (Jakarta: CSIS, 1984) p. 368Google Scholar, quoted in Lubis, , In Search of Human Rights, p. 152Google Scholar.
