“THE
REAL ME” IN ARCHIVES:
Unraveling
What is inside Personal Archives: to Preserve the Past for the Future
Rini
Rusyeni
ABSTRACT
Godard Aren
Johannes Hazeu (Advisor of Office of Native Affairs) was one of the most
important advisors in the colonial government of the Netherlands East Indies
(Indonesia in the period of 1811-1942). He was also well known as the most
controversial advisor because many of his advices were considered as being too
subjective and to be in favor with the natives. One of the most controversial
cases of Hazeu was the Garut affairs (one of the region in West Java,
Indonesia). When Garut was in tension in 1919, he was assigned to investigate
the affairs by the government. However, his report of investigation was banned
because the government concluded that it was too subjective. All of his
reports, correspondences to the high officers and notes were completely
recorded in the personal archives of Hazeu. How did Hazeu record, keep and picture
the Garut affairs in his personal archives? Can we use his archives as a main
source of research? These are the research questions which are going to be
discussed in the paper. The paper unravels Garut affairs based on the records
which are kept in the personal archives of Godard Aren Johannes Hazeu. This is
a qualitative research by using literature and archival reviews which is based
on the argument of Catherine Hobbs that personal archives do not only record the
personal, private, inner life of the creator as an individual, but also there
is a construction of perceptions and thoughts of the creators towards others.
(Hobbs, 2001: 128-129). The result of
this research shows that the personal archives of Hazeu keep not only the
records and detail information on Garut affairs, but also show his personal
point of view and his perceptions on Garut affairs. In reading personal
archives as a source of research, these kinds of matters play as both biases
and reflections of the personal archives.
Keyword:
Garut incident, Hazeu, personal archives, adviser, Office of Native Affairs
INTRODUCTION
Background
Archives
are the memories of the past. Through archives we could share good and bad
memories as a part of our history. In this paper I would like to discuss on Godard
Aren Johannes Hazeu (Hazeu) and his memories which had been kept in his
personal archives.
Archives are still holding its
‘traditional’ function to preserve information. But they are also sites of
imagination, creativity, and production which provide various knowledge on how
individuals and societies think about themselves, give a place where identities
may be formed, technologies of rule perfected, and pasts convincingly
revisited.(Blouin and Rosenberg (eds.), 2005:vii-viii).
As
a site of information, personality and imagination of its creators, personal
archives preserve a huge volume of individual point of view, thinking, and
imagination. However, there is still few research that focuses on personal
archives. Thus, based on this argument, I would like to investigate on the personal
archives on how they were created, formed and produced.
For many experts and researchers,
personal archives still become a secondary choice for any research and studies.
The trio Dutch (Muller, Feith and Fruin, 1968:15) stated
that official records are documents which are received or produced by
administrative bodies or officials in their official capacity, documents
received and produced by the members of the administrative bodies and private
letters to the officials. It means that only the archives that were created by
administrative bodies or officials that are eligible to be official archives.
For the archives that are kept under the personal authorities are not
considered as formal and official archives. Can we still use the personal
archives as a source for a research? This is going to be elaborated in this
research.
Godard
Aren Johannes Hazeu was the second advisor for the Office of Native Affairs in
the Nederlands East Indies for period 1906-1911 and 1916-1920. He was the
successor of Snouck Hurgronje after he gave up his position in the Netherlands East
Indies and returned to Netherlands in 1906. Among all of the advisors of the
office of native affairs, Hazeu was the one who had to deal with the biggest
challenges on Islamic affairs and at the height of ethical period (1901-1920). The
office of native affairs under Hazeu was administratively transferred from Algemeene
Secretarie (Ministry of State Secretariat during Indonesia still became a
colony under Netherlands) to the Ministry of Education and Religion. (Regeringsalmanak
van Nederlandsch Indie,1907). After the transfer, Hazeu gained unusual
position within the colonial administration. On the one hand he exercised a
direct influence on the highest authority in the colony, and on the other hand as
the adviser of the office of native affairs, he had to stand outside the
official hierarchy of the regional and local administration, and established a
direct contact between the natives and central government in Batavia (L. de
Hoop, 1992:6). This made him become the most important figure in the colonial
government at that time.
The
personal archives of archives of Hazeu contain the most complete activities and
information on the colonial government in the period of twentieth century. It
is very important for researchers and experts to know what really happened in
the Netherlands East Indies (Indonesia) in the period of Twentieth Century. It
was the period when Netherlands East Indies started to use “Bahasa Indonesia”
(Indonesian language) as its language for communication. Moreover, it was the
moment when the Indonesians started to form a political organization as a
vehicle for them to fight against the colonialism. Therefore, the period of the
Twentieth Century played the most important timeline to the road of
independency of Indonesia as a nation. By understanding the personal archives
of Hazeu, we can read the context and content of valuable information that might
be useful in searching the path of the Independent of Indonesia.
Almost
everyone, including an organization, a small and big one, keeps archives as a
part of their life. The archives contain documentations from the past as a
memory, proof and accountability of a person as a part of society and an
organization’s existence. However, there is a big difference of the obligation
in creating archives between a person and an organization. There is no direct
obligation for a person to create and keep his/her archives as his/her personal
collection. As for an organization, creating, keeping and preserving archives
are a mandatory (Cox, Richard J, 2014:138). Due to the mandatory, the practice
of archive creation, preservation and storage are mostly done in a very careful
and standard manner. For the personal archives, however, there is no such standard
on how the archives are kept and preserved. They exist only because the creator
wants them to be there. The emotional and sentimental reasons usually the main
point kept in personal archives (Cox, Richard J, 2014:143).
In
the colonial period of the Netherlands East Indies, many of the high officials
kept their own archives in their personal archives. These archives were kept by
themselves without the authorization of the colonial government. The personal
archive of Hazeu is one of the big collections of the personal archives which were
created in the period of 20th centuries in the Netherlands East
Indies.
The archives contain all records, reports and
clippings of newspapers regarding all cases that were dealt by Hazeu. Every
case was recorded in detail in the Archief Godard Arend Johannes Hazeu. There are 80 numbers of items of archives in
the guide. Most of the archives are related to the roles of Hazeu as the advisor
of the office of native affairs. The archives consist of copies of government
documents with stamps and signatures from Hazeu himself and various officers
vice versa when Hazeu served the Netherlands East Indies. There is no clear
division on how the items in the guide were classified, but one thing which is
obvious is that the items are the general themes of Hazeu’s works in period of
1899-1920.
Although
Hazeu’s archives are kept under the personal records, the items of archives are
mostly copies of the official records with stamps and signatures from the
senders. The types of documents kept in the archives are geheim
(confidential) and zeer geheim (extremely confidential). Most
of the archives are letters of advices and recommendations. They served as
secret documents of Hazeu in executing his tasks as the adviser of the office
of native affairs.
Most of the archives contain
surveillance reports, data, even sometimes insulting recommendations about the
natives and the officers who involved in certain cases. These letters were functioned
as official documents with numbers and dates. The reports and opinions are part
of the advice from Hazeu and functioned as the attachments. These bundles are
kept in an item list in the guide under the name of a case and the year when it
occurred. The information, which was reported by Hazeu, was the personal
information on certain names. These names were suspected to involve in certain
crucial cases, including their families and relatives as well as their
activities. Through the surveillance reports, the advisor recommended some
actions for the governor general or for certain high-ranked officials. Many of
surveillance documents are also the collections of news and articles from press
which were published at that time.
During his
carrier, Hazeu had important positions as the Adviseur
van Inlandsche en Arabische Zaken (also known as the Inlandsche
Zaken from 1907-1916), as Direkteur van het Departement voor
Onderwijs en Eredienst (1912-1915),
and lastly as Adviseur voor Inlandsche Zaken (also known as the office
of native affairs) again (1916-1920) (Hoop, 1992:3). Thus, the archives in the
collection are divided on these positions.
The personal archives of Hazeu are kept
in the Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde (KITLV) in Leiden,
Netherlands. We can see the list of the collection from the online guide which
is published by the library of the University of Leiden. In the guide, there
are small descriptions of the archives which are divided into several numbers
of items. For the archives related to Hazeu’s position as Direkteur van het Departement voor Onderwijs en Eredienst, the inventory numbers are H1083 26, 40, 49, 55, and 7 whereas the rest
of the other items are on related to the
function as the advisor of the Inlandsche Zaken (office of native
affairs).
Each of the
items and sub items in the Hazeu’s archive is similar to what is presented in
picture 2. They are divided into the general theme of Hazeu’s works and
subdivided into several specific sub items that relate to the general theme
with the details of page numbers on every page of documents.
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Picture 2. The list of sub items
of the personal archives of Hazeu
(KITLV, Invt Num. H.1083.59)
In
this article, in order to see intensely of what have been kept by Hazeu in his
personal archives, the archives on Garut affairs are used as the object of
research. These personal archives of Hazeu are used as the primary sources in
order to see and analyze how Hazeu recorded his archives on the conflict. Hazeu
was a high officer of the colonial government who involved in many political
and cultural policies. It would be very useful to analyze his archives in order
to see his perspective on the works that he did. The Garut affair is chosen in
this research because it was a catastrophe incident that happened in the early
20th century. It attracted many researchers to discuss more on what
really happened at that time. However, none of them used the personal archives
of Hazeu as the main sources. Therefore, this research by using the personal
archives of Hazeu, is expected to give different point of view on the case.
The
archival approach is applied in order to analyze how the personal archives, as the
source, record the incident. The theoretical framework that is used in this
research:
Archives
as “A Site of Personality”
Hazeu
collected all his works and documents regarding his tasks and responsibilities
as the government officers in his personal archives. Garut affair is one of the
documents kept at his personal files. Catherine Hobbs argued that personal archives
contain the documentation of individual lives and human personality (Hobbs,
2001:126). In his personal archives, Hazeu put his works, experiences, feelings
to show the readers his personality, his attitudes and characteristic. In this
regards, his archives are “the sites of personality”. These archives, for
Hazeu, are the representative of Hazeu himself to the public, apart from his
position which was under the colonial government. Through archives, he wanted
to give his evidences to convince the archives’ users on his actions.
Personal
archives mainly record the roles and activities of their creators when they
were still alive and active in certain position in an organization. Usually
these people, like Hazeu, were important figures who held prominent positions
in the government. These archives collections are kept under fonds and certainly
often reflect the recorded evidence of the functions of the creator (Hobbs,
2001:126). Thus, the archives reflect the personality and depend on the
personal feelings of the creators. Catherine Hobbs explains that reading
personal archive is not like doing a formal investigation from a witness
(Hobbs, 2001:132). It is not like questioning the witness in a court, where
he/she will tell the story in a formal way. It is more like a hearing his/her
stories as a psychiatrist from a patient (Hobbs, 2001: 132). Readers are not
expected to look for evidence of actions or facts in an historical sense. In
reading the archives, readers need to pay attention to three aspects of
personality of the creator, namely, a sense of feelings, of relationships, and
of character (Hobbs, 2001:133). These three aspects of the personal archives
are used as the framework of research for this paper.
In
this paper, I would like identify how Hazeu recorded Garut Affairs by analyzing
the aspect of a sense of feelings, of relationships and of character of Hazeu
in the affairs.
The
big question that is going to be answered in this article is:
How
did Hazeu record, keep and picture the Garut affairs in his personal archives?
Can
we use Hazeu record as the main source for a research?
Based
on the questions, I would like to focus on archival research in order to answer
the question. This paper will try to answer the questions based on the archives
and literatures. The paper is divided into three sections. The first section
conveys the introduction which contains the information of the personal archives
of Hazeu, theoretical frameworks, methodology, research questions and
literature reviews. The second section describes the content of research and
analysis which is done through archival and literature analysis. The last
section describes the research conclusion.
In
this research, I will investigate and analyze the
documents and archives written and collected by Hazeu which are kept in the
collection of Hazeu in the KITLV, Leiden, and inventory number H 1083.36, in
order to answer the research question. The archives collection of Hazeu
regarding Garut affairs consist of reports of Hazeu (including his research, analysis
and conclusion) to Governor General, reports of Director of Binnenlandsch
Bestuur, reports of Volksraad meeting regarding Garut incident, a report
from Regent Garut and Wedono, and hundreds of clippings of articles from
various newspapers (mostly from local newspapers). Since the clippings of
articles in the archives are only from local newspapers, I also analyze the
articles from newspapers which were not kept in the personal archives of Hazeu in
order to see the different perspectives of the case. These information and
evidences are analyzed carefully in order to investigate the case and then they
are compared with the secondary literatures to obtain an accurate assessment of
relationships, patterns, symbols, and possible contradictions of the case.
Garut
affairs related to the role of Hazeu as the advisor of the Office of Native
Affairs and the Sarekat Islam organization in the Netherlands East Indies.
However, there have been very limited researches on Godard Aren Johannes Hazeu
and his roles as the advisor of the Native Affairs; especially that focuses on his
personal archives. It would be useful to understand Hazeu’s view and his
position in Garut affairs in his personal archives to build historical
narratives on the conflict inside the colonial administration and how it was
represented in the archives.
One
of the researches on Hazeu was done by L. de Hoop, titled “DR. GAJ Hazeu,
Ethicist and Educational Reformer: A Case Study of Educational Politics in the
Netherlands East Indies (1906-1920). It discussed on the role of Hazeu as the
advisor of the Office of Native Affairs and Directeur Onderwijs en
Eerediensten te Batavia (Hoop, 1992:2). This research discussed on Hazeu
and his roles and policies, including his relations with other officials in the
government from early period of his service in 1906 until 1920. Although this
research mostly focused on Hazeu’s roles as the advisor of the Native Affairs,
but it did not discuss intensively on the personal archives of Hazeu.
A book, entitled Politik Islam Hindia
Belanda: Het Kantoor voor Inlandsche Zaken, by Aqib Suminto, 1985,
described the organization as Kantor Agama (Religious Office) and it
conducted colonial Islamic policy in the Netherlands East Indies from period
1899 until 1940s (Kumar, 1990:178-180). This book described the role of the
Office of Native Affairs and its advisors; one of them was Hazeu. This book
discussed Hazeu’s role as the second advisor of the Office of Native Affairs,
but it does not focus on the personal archives of Hazeu. Although the book uses
some of the sources from Hazeu’s personal archives, but it does not explicitly
analyze the content and information kept in the archives.
In
order to develop a good research on Hazeu and Garut affairs, these literatures will
be the general foundations. The combination of these literatures forms the
framework of my research to unravel the personal archives of Hazeu.
RESEARCH
AND ANALYSIS
Garut
Affairs, 1919
Garut
Affairs, 1919 was one of the biggest cases that Hazeu had to deal with as the
advisor of the Office of Native Affairs. The personal archives of Hazeu
preserve huge amount of documents that relate to the affairs. In order to
unravel what is inside the archives, the affairs is taken as the background subject
of this paper.
During
Hazeu’s last year as the advisor, there was an awful violent on July 7, 1919 in
Garut. This occurred when the police killed a number of people (Hajji Hasan and
his followers) in Garut who had barricaded themselves in a house after refusing
to sell rice in cheaper price to the government. The incident had killed four
men and nineteen people were wounded and taken to a hospital (Steenbrink,
1993:95). However, Hazeu as the person who was in charge to do the
investigation by the Governor General condemned the action of the police as
wrong (Guide and Concordance to Papers of Colonial Advisers on Politics,
Culture and Religion in the Netherlands Indies, 2009:5). In his report he
concluded that it was the police and the officers from Binnenlandsch Bestuur
who were responsible for the violent.
The
report triggered the commotion among the natives. Most of them were angry to
the government and urged the government to apologize. The commotion then became the topic that was
discussed in the meeting of Volksraad (a parliament which consisted of
38 representatives of the people in the Netherlands East Indies) on July 14,
1919 (Handelingen van den Volksraad, 1919:542). The report from Hazeu, the
Police and the Binnenlandsch Bestuur were openly discussed with the
witnesses (including the police who shot the natives in Garut). The meeting
resulted in a disappointment for the most natives and Hazeu. The commission
decided that Hazeu’s report did not attach much value to the members of the
commission and that Hajji Hasan was a threat for the colonial government (Het
Nieuws van Den Dag, 1919). Thus, the police action was considered as a relevant
action. Having deeply disappointed by the result, Hazeu chose to retire from
his position as an adviser and departed to Leiden with broken heart
(Steenbrink, 1993: 95-96).
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Picture
3. Report from Hazeu on Garut Case (Hazeu Colletie, H1083: 36 Hazeu
letter to Governor General, 29 August 1919)
In
his report Hazeu argued that:
“Hajji Hasan had merely been trying
to defend his land from being expropriated by the Wedono (the local
ruler in Garut), who was supported by the Regent. It is recommended that the
native officials involved in the attack be discharged and that their European
supervisors, particularly J.L.Kal, the Assistant Resident who had given an
order that caused the accident of killing the villagers, to be dismissed for
their improper orders” (Hazeu Collectie, H1083, Inv. Nr. 36, Hazeu letter to
Governor General, 29 August 1919).
The
report from Hazeu was sent to the Governor General Van Limburg as a part of his
completion task as the advisor of the Native Affairs. The report shows the
relationship between Hazeu and other colonial officers who dealt with the
affairs. It seems from the report that Hazeu had disagreement with other
colonial officers in the affairs.
Hazeu’s
report on August 29, 1919, was encountered by a report that came from the
Director of Binnenlandsch Bestuur, F.L. Broekveldt:
“Hazeu
only summarized the opinions of “a few journalist”. I refused the idea of
giving sanctions to the Wedono and Regents and it was ultimately decided to
save face by reserving punishment for the surviving followers of Hajji Hasan” (Hazeu
Collectie, H1083, Inv. Nr. 36, Hazeu, Letter of Director of Binnenlandsch
Bestuur to Governor General on November 10, 1919).
Broekveldt
refused Hazeu’s report by accusing him as an adviser that took conclusions
based on the articles of newspapers that support him. Based on the accusation,
I tried to check carefully on the achives. In the archives, I found out that there
are huge amount of articles of newspapers, however, none of these articles
blamed Hazeu and his report. On the contrary, I found some articles in the
newspapers regarding Garut affairs which supported the Wedana and the Police.
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Picture
4. Article on Garut Affairs and Hazeu’s report (De Preangrbode, 1919).
Picture
4 is one of the examples of an article that explicitly blamed Hazeu and
supported the actions conducted by the Wedana in dealing with Hajji Hassan and
his people. In the article, the journalist wrote that if the police and Wedana
would not have killed Hajji Hassan and his people, they would have been
murdered by Hajji Hassan and his people because they found many guns in their
houses.
In
response to Broekveldt, in his archives, Hazeu reported that he tried to gather
the evidences by doing a research directly in Garut but failed to ask the testimonies
from the witnesses because they were threatened by the Police.
“I
stayed a few days in Garut and I found out that all witnesses had reported to
me were being investigated and threatened by the Police. As a result no one was
willing to give me any single information” (Hazeu Collectie, H1083, Inv. Nr.
36, Hazeu, Report of Hazeu to Governor General: 71-72).
This
report of Hazeu was conveyed directly to the Governor General. Unfortunately,
nobody at that time was allowed to see the report because Hazeu was the high
official who was directly under the Governor General. All reports and
correspondences between him and the Governor General were confidential. There
is no other letter or report that responded Hazeu’s letter. I might conclude
that Hazeu’s report on the witness was true. However, the problem that appeared
was that there was no outsider, including the public that knew about this.
Although Hazeu did not make full mistake on his report, still, most colonial
officers considered him making false accusations.
In
his report Hazeu concluded that according to his trusted sources (from farmers
and religious leaders in Garut) the whole affair was a proof of the corruption
and abuse of power by both European and native officials (Steenbrink,
1993:95-96).
In
the meantime, the regent of Garut gave a solid proof regarding this by showing
the facts that Garut affairs was related to Afdeeling B which was
related to Sarekat Islam. From the report, which was also in Hazeu’s archives,
he showed some statement letters from the leaders of Sarekat Islam in
Ciawi, Bandung, Cianjur and Sumedang were under coordination of Afdeeling B
(Hazeu Collectie H1083, Inv. Nr. 36, De Locomotief, 30 July 1919).
The
evidence of the relation between Sarekat Islam and Afdeeling B,
however, was encountered by the letter from a secretary of Sarekat Islam
Tarogong to Hazeu. In the letter, he admitted that he was forced to sign the
letter because he was under threatened by the police to put in a prison if he
did not sign it (Hazeu Collectie H1083, Inv. Nr. 36, Letter Wignyadisastra to
Hazeu on August 18, 1919). Besides that, in the file documents of Hazeu (it
seems that Hazeu collected all these news by himself), there are extensive
clippings from newspapers such as De Soerabajaasch Handelsblad, Bataviaasch
Nieuwsblad, Neratja, etc. The news was on the testimonies from one of the families
of Hajji Hasan that said the Lurah van Tjikendal (head of village) was
lying by saying that inside the house of Hajji Hasan there were many weapons
and white cloaks-the clothes for the men to do a war with the Dutch (Hazeu
Collectie H1083, Inv. Nr. 36, Soerabaasch Handelsblad 27 January 1920).
The
next occurrences that happened were that the situation became worse for both
Hazeu and Sarekat Islam. There were more evidences; all were recorded in the
archives that accused Hazeu and Sarekat Islam. Realizing his position, Hazeu
retired from the office of Native Affairs and the drama of Garut Affairs ended in
1920.
How
to capture “personality” is the key in analyzing the personal archives as the
source of research (Hobbs, 2001:134). The personality is another form to
reflect the character which led him or her to be driven to make the choices when
creating the archives. How was the personal archives of Hazeu recorded Garut
Incident? The personal documents of Hazeu give the readers some detail
information regarding the case of Garut in a chronological order. The
chronological order pictures the character of Hazeu as the creator of the
archives. As the important figure in both natives and colonial government, he
had to be the connector of the natives and colonial government. As the
connector, he tried to build good relationship with the natives. He made his
focus to mainly gain trust from them. By having their trusts, these natives
could be controlled by the colonial government. However, his efforts were not
supported by European officers in the government. It seems for me that Hazeu
only tried hard to develop good relationship only with the natives, whereas for
the government, he even accused the officers from Binnenlandsch Bestuur
for the Garut affairs.
There
are copies of reports from Hazeu to the Governor General regarding the case and
also the recommendations from Hazeu for the regent of Garut to be dismissed from
his position. These documents are geheim (confidential) and nobody
including other officials in the government could see the report. This shows
Hazeu’s efforts in keeping these documents as one of his best efforts to give
evidences to the readers that he was not guilty. At that time, there was no
other way to convince public that he was not guilty. Keeping these documents as
long as possible was the only efforts that he could do to prove that he did not
make huge mistakes to the government.
From
the clippings of newspapers, it was obvious that he gained big support from the
natives in the incident. In his archives, Hazeu only kept the articles which
supported him and his reports. On the one hands, the government also tried to
use their power to cover everything, by using their power to cover every
aspects from his reports in confidential manner. Thus, Hazeu’s position in the
government was more critical. Everybody in the government, especially the
European officers blamed him for being too subjective to the natives. Based on
the archives, it can be seen that neither the authorities nor the governor
general Van Limburg Stirum accepted the results of Hazeu’s investigation. Hazeu
did not like this situation, so he tried to collect all of the details of his
reports only for the articles that support him.
Through
his personal archives, Hazeu wanted to show the arrogance of the European
officers in the government who always considered all natives as criminals
without exceptions and at the same time to obtain support from the readers on
his position in Garut case. He wanted to tell the readers that he was actually
revealing the truth and he was supported by the natives through the clippings
of articles in his files. As Catherine Hobbs argued that the fonds of an
individual archive is a site where personality and the events of life interact
in documentary form (Hobbs, 2001:126). The extensive clipping of news from
various newspapers that criticized Hazeu and his point of view on Garut are the
documentaries of his situation in which he was alone against those Europeans.
He was disgraced not only by the governor general Van Limburg, but also from
the witnesses at the Volksraad meeting. He did not have a chance to
prove himself that what he reported was the facts that he found in Garut.
Through his personal archives he wanted to share his feelings, attitudes, and
regrets on the case. He expected that the readers would have the same feeling
him.
CONCLUSION
The
drama of Garut was mainly connected with the personal experience of Hazeu. The
experience was then transcribed in his personal archives together with his
personal feelings, thoughts and touches. The archives then do not only contain
single information but also they were mixed with what Verne Harris argued as
“indelible metaphor”(personal touches of the creators). In Garut case, the
readers have to put themselves as the objective viewers. They have to see not
only from the perspective of Hazeu but from other perspectives such as the
perspective of the colonial government or the related European officers.
From
the archives, we can see that there were some internal disagreements in the
organizational body of the colonial government. The archives depict the ways the
higher ups dealt with this disagreement, and described why many disagreements
took place inside. Besides that, Hazeu’s archives preserve, catalogue, record
and present slivers of information on the relationship between the natives and
the colonial government. All these slivers of information need to be analyzed,
evaluated and studied carefully in order to be used as the source of research.
They needed to be analyzed and evaluated because they contain biases and many
interpretations. It is the task for us as the readers to select the biases by
analyzing the character and personality of Hazeu as the creator, use his
interpretation carefully in order to build historical narratives on this event.
It is from the finding, as a researcher we need to be careful in using the
personal archives as our sources. Personal archives are indeed important
sources but we have to be carefully on the information written inside.
Archives
preserve different kinds of perspectives of the creators. This we can see from
the personal archives of Hazeu. Although these archives mostly contain the
perspective of Hazeu to defend himself that he was not guilty on the Garut
case, but they also keep the perspectives of the colonial officers that were
against Hazeu. Through these different perspectives, as a reader, a researcher,
we can dig up more deeply on the situation that happened at that time. We can
picture what happened inside the body of the mighty colonial government of the
Netherlands at that time. Through archives, we can find that there were so many
disagreements. What we can take from the situation is that even a mighty
colonial government, like Netherlands East Indies, had so many disputes in
governing the country. The politicians, researchers, and authorities might take
these disputes and how they were solved as samples in managing their own
countries. This is what is called preserving the past for the future. By
preserving the archives, we can grab the information from the past in the
archives, learn the information and use them for the future.
Although
these personal archives contain personal perspective of Hazeu, we may be able
to see the system of bureaucracy in the colonial government and also the link
of communication between Hazeu and other officers in different agencies. From
the documents of reports, for example, there was a link of bureaucracy that was
shown from the reports which were passed through from the witness to Hazeu and
then it ended in the Governor General. It was a real picture of the web of
bureaucracy in the Netherlands East Indies in the early of the 20th
century. Thus, these personal archives might be used as the alternative sources
of research regarding the system of bureaucracy of Indonesia in the early
period of 20th century.
When
reading personal archives as the reliable sources of research, we have to bear
in mind on their reflections. There is an intimacy in the personal archives not
present in the collective, corporate archives which are formalized in the
record-keeping system. These intimate elements are reflected not only in the
content and organization of personal records, but come into play in the
archivist’s direct interaction with the creator/donor during appraisal,
acquisition, and subsequent management of personal archives. (Hobbs, 2001: 127)
In the case of the personal
collection of Hazeu, the experiences recorded in the archival material include
not just the acts and facts about his activities, but also his views, opinions,
prejudices and emotional reactions concerning the publications of their works
in media, opinions from their counterparts and the amount of work that they did
are the intimacy points in their personal archives. Catherine
Hobbs (2001: 127) argued that the fonds of an individual archive is a
site where personality and the events of life interact in documentary form. These matters uncover much about the evolving
personality and character traits of the advisors. Thus, as researchers, we have
to pay attention on those points. They might play as the biases in the archives
which could distort our perception. Nevertheless, besides serving as biases,
these points also might reflect the psychological situation at that time. By
reading these personal archives, we can feel the nuances of the time period in
which the archives were created. This might be useful for developing our
perspectives in building historical narratives.
In
conclusion I find it very interesting to analyze what Hazeu kept in his
archives. He kept all his pain and sorrow in his own personal files with the
hope that someday in the future other people will read them and share similar
feelings with him. Through his personal archives, Hazeu showed himself as “the
real me”. These archives seem to say “it is me who is in sorrow; let me share
you my sadness so that you can feel what I feel.” I would like to conclude this
article by using the
quote:
“Never
underestimate the pain of a person because in all honesty, everyone hurts, some
people just hide it better than others”(https://www.pinterest.com/pin/244038873530457517/)
REFERENCES
Primary Sources
De Sumatra Post, “Het Gebeurde te Leles”, no. 68,
July 16, 1919
Handelingen van den Volksraad, 1919, Ie GZ
Hazeu Collectie H1083. Inv. Nr. 36:
Soerabajaasch Handelsblad, July
28, 1919
Bataviaasch Nieuwsblad, August 5,
1919
Soerabaasch Handelsblad, January
27, 1920
Letter Wignyadisastra to Hazeu on
August 18, 1919
De Locomotief, July 30, 1919
Hazeu
letter to Governor General, August 29, 1919
Letter of Director of Binnenlandsch
Bestuur to Governor General on November 10, 1919
Neratja
July 9, July 14, August 11, 1919
Het Nieuws van Den Dag. “Derde Blad and Vierde
Blad, Najaarszitting van den Volksraad”, 25 November 1919 no. 275
Preanger Bode, “Het Rapport Hazeu”, 18 November
1919, no. 317
Regeringsalmanak van Nederlandsch Indie,1907
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Blouin, Francis Jr. and
William Rosenberg (eds.), Archives,
Documentation and Institutions of Social Memory, Essays from the Sawyer Seminar,
Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 2005
Cox, Richard J, 2014, Personal Archives and a New
Archival Calling, Readings, Reflections and Ruminations, Duluth: Litwins
Books
Guide and Concordance to Papers of Colonial Advisers on
Politics, Culture and Religion in the Netherlands Indies, c. 1895-1949 Part 1,
2009, Papers of Godard Arend Johannes Hazeu (1870-1929), period 1895-1929,
Leiden: KITLV
Harris, Verne, 2002, “The Archival Sliver: Power, Memory, and Archives
in South Africa”, Archival Science 2
Hobbs, Chaterine, 2001, “Personal Archives the Character of Personal
Archives: Reflections on the Value of the Records of Individuals”, Journal of
Archivaria, no. 1 (52)
de Hoop, L, 1992, “DR. GAJ Hazeu, Ethicist and
Educational Reformer: A Case Study of Educational Politics in the Netherlands
East Indies (1906-1920)”, PhD Thesis, Leiden University
Ketelaar, Eric, 2005, “Recordkeeping and Societal power” in Sue
McKemmish et al. (eds) Archives, recordkeeping in Society, Wagga-Wagga
Kumar, Ann, 1990, “Book Review on Politik Islam Hindia Belanda:
Het Kantoor voor Inlandsche Zaken, By Aqib Suminto, Jakarta: LP3ES. 1985”, In Journal of Southeast
Asian Studies XXI, I
Laffan, Michael, 2011, The Making of Indonesian Islam: Orientalism
and the Narration of A Sufi Past, New Jersey: Princeton University Press
Muller, Feith and Fruin, Manual
for the Arrangement and Description of Archives, translated by Arthur H.
Leavit, New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1968
Steenbrink, Karel, 1993, Dutch Colonialism and Indonesian Islam:
Contact and Conflicts 1596-1950, translated by Jan Steenbrink and Henry
Jansen, Amsterdam-Atlanta:Rodopi B.V
Suminto, Aqib, 1985. Politik Islam Hindia Belanda: Het Kantoor voor
Inlansche Zaken, Jakarta: LP3S
Online Sources
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