Mary Somers Heidhues, Golddiggers, Farmers, and Traders in the "Chinese Districts" of West Kalimantan, Indonesia.

Mary Somers Heidhues, Golddiggers, Farmers, and Traders in the "Chinese Districts" of West Kalimantan, Indonesia. Studies on Southeast Asia No 34. Ithaca, New York: Southeast Asia Program, Cornell University, pbk, 2003. ISBN 0-87727-733-8. 316 pp. Maps, plates, graphs, tables, glossary, bibliography, index.

The publisher does not offer the reader the usual courtesy of providing biographical data about the author. Judging from the text, however, Mary F. Heidhues (nee Somers) first visited her corner of Borneo as long ago as 1963 and her doctoral thesis, "Peranakan Chinese Policies in Indonesia," was presented to Cornell University two years later. Since then Dr. Heidhues has established an extensive catalogue of her own publications upon which to draw. The intellectual influence of Emeritus Professor Bernhard Dahm (University of Passau) is acknowledged. The author is fluent in Dutch and Indonesian but modestly concedes a degree of limitation in Chinese.

Dubbed "Little China in the Tropics" by Dr. Heidhues herself in a 1996 article, the Chinese community in West Kalimantan, based particularly in the Pontianak-Sambas region, forms a powerful minority, accounting for well over ten percent of the population. Most of them are Hakkas, although Teochius dominate the urban community of Pontianak, and there are some Cantonese and Hokkien inhabitants as well. Unlike the peranakan (locally-rooted) Chinese of Java, who adopted Malay culture, the Hakkas of Kalimantan Barat retained their own language and identity. The author notes idiosyncratic features of the West Borneo Chinese. First, they arrived there of their own agency; in other words, they were not brought in by the colonial power or by Western enterprises. Secondly, most of them are not towkays, but small traders, shop owners, farmers, and fishermen, many poor, some even living at subsistence level. Their cultural and political focus was South China, whilst their commercial hub after 1819 was Singapore. It is noted that the Chinese were almost never administered by people who spoke their language or made an effort to understand their traditions; but, in the post-Reformasi era, possibilities for displaying elements of Chinese culture have been restored; indeed, they are now recognized as one of the tiga suku asli, the three indigenous ethnic groups or pillars of the province.

II

What is the purpose of the monograph? The goal, the author affirms, is "a history of a single province of Indonesia, West Kalimantan, and within the history of that huge territory, [the book] concentrates on what was once called the 'Chinese Districts' and the town of Pontianak. The high proportion of the inhabitants who were ethnic Chinese imprinted a special cultural stamp upon these districts, giving them their name. By concentrating on the Chinese minority in that area during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, this study aims to remedy a lack of information--and some misinformation--about an important minority concentration in Indonesia, retrieving where possible a record that is fast disappearing" (p. 11). The author is particularly keen to engage in the "no simple task" of reconstructing what happened after the "protected struggles" by the Dutch colonial authorities to suppress the kongsis in the nineteenth century.

What are the themes of the book? There are four. First, the history of the region essentially concerns attempts by indigenous and colonial polities to exercise control over the Chinese. Secondly, strong community organization helped the Chinese to counteract external threats. Thirdly, the nature of Chinese economic activity is analyzed. Fourthly, the book seeks to place the ethnic Chinese in the context of the past of the entire province and its people.

What is the thesis of the book.'? The study shows "how ineffectually Malay rulers tried to extend their authority over the Chinese [gold-]miners. When the Dutch colonial power arrived, it needed several decades before it finally dissolved the kongsis and integrated the Chinese into its structure. However, the communities, although in theory directly ruled by the Dutch under Chinese officers, in fact remained largely autonomous, thanks to their own family and community structures. Finally, the Indonesian government, several years after independence, intervened to weaken and dissolve most elements of community organization, including the schools, the press, the chambers of commerce, and other influential institutions" (pp. 269-70). All three political units (pre-colonial Malay rulers, the Dutch, and post-independence Indonesians) "resorted to using Dayak violence to force the Chinese into submission" (p. 270).

Chapter Four looks at demographic and economic changes between 1860 and 1940 when the basis of the community changed from the "gold miners" of the book's title to the "settlers and traders."

III

The main body of the book comprises seven extremely detailed chapters, prolifically footnoted and liberally illustrated with maps and plates. An epilogue (pp. 273-77) is devoted to the terror of 1997, when Dayak bands killed many Madurese and drove others from their homes.

In Chapter Two (pp. 47-84), the author paints a picture of Chinese society from its origins down to the early 1820s. They had been well-settled in West Borneo long before the Dutch established a permanent station at Pontianak in 1818. The Chinese settlements comprised three groups: first, the gold-miners themselves; secondly, persons associated with kongsis, notably farmers and petty traders; and, thirdly, urban dwellers, such as craftsmen. Data are lacking about the actual quantity and value of annual gold production, although it is known that most of it was being exported to China by 1822 (pp. 48, 50). At around that time, if I understand correctly, gold was not West Borneo's major export (pp. 50-51). There were three principal kongsis: Fosjoen/Thaikong in Monterado (1776-1854), Lanfang in Mandor (1777-1884), and Samtiaokioe, which separated from Fosjoen in either 1819 (p. 55) or 1822 (p. 81) and then fled in 1850 into Sarawak territory (p. 89), with disastrous results for the Brooke regime seven years later.

Two key points might be extracted from this section. First, whereas Malay sultanates were not territorial, the kongsis were; and "neither the native principalities nor the Dutch had comparable organizations, infrastructures, or power" (p. 55). Secondly, from the Dutch perspective, "the Malay principalities could be tolerated, more because of their weakness than their virtues; Chinese organizations, whatever their virtues, were intolerable because of their strength" (p. 61).

There were three kongsi wars (1822-1824, 1850-1854, 1884-1885), with a spillover in the Chinese uprising of 1857 in Sarawak. The first conflict comprised an attempt by the new Dutch regime to control the kongsis. This enterprise was aborted by the outbreak of the Java War in 1825, which diverted the attention of the colonial power away from Borneo. An uneasy peace prevailed in the Chinese Districts until mid-century. Meanwhile, the situation had been complicated by the advent of James Brooke in Sarawak (1839); it was feared that the Sultan of Sambas might have been tempted to turn to him for support.

Chapter Three deals with the period from 1850 to 1884/1885, when the last of the kongsis (Lanfang) ceased to exist. The point to be highlighted here, perhaps, is that the kongsi wars were not simply an outcome of Chinese resistance against the Dutch. On the contrary, there were complex ethnic and political alliances. After the demise of the kongsis, depopulation and impoverishment followed; it was only at the end of the century that Chinese again began coming in significant numbers to West Borneo, and what drew them this time was not gold but new agricultural opportunities (p. 125).

In Chapter Four, on economic and demographic changes, it is noted that, since gold deposits were widespread but not rich, the need to open new sites had drawn Chinese miners further inland. Other Chinese moved into the interior to trade, particularly in forest products (jelutung, gutta-percha, rattan, illipe nuts, and lumber), which were West Borneo's most important exports, next to gold, in the mid-nineteenth century (p. 143). The main cash crops grown by Chinese smallholders were coconuts (with associated copra production), pepper, gambier, sago, and rubber. The Dutch authorities, fearful that the Chinese might deprive the indigenous population of their land, sought (somewhat ineffectually) to restrict Chinese access to land or to require them to reside in urban areas (pp. 158-60).

Chapter Five, which deals with community and political life, includes a section on the Chinese rebellion of 1912-1914 (pp. 176-83), which was provoked, not by nationalist activity in the wake of contemporary events in China, but by tax increases, corvee demands, and strict implementation of the requirement for Chinese to carry passes (p. 177).

Chapter Six looks at World War II and Indonesian independence. Following the "Pontianak Affair" of 23 October 1943, the Japanese engaged in a vicious reign of terror. A "massive, treasonous conspiracy" against the occupying power had been uncovered (p. 204), although the Allies themselves knew nothing of their supposed undercover contacts in West Borneo. The local Malay elite was wiped out. Other people were tortured and executed. The Chinese were "scapegoated" for wartime economic devastation, when in fact (the author says) it had been caused by the policies of the occupiers themselves. After the war seven Japanese were sentenced to death and five others to terms of imprisonment for their part in the massacre. When a memorial was dedicated in 1947, the estimated death toll was 1,500.

There was no enthusiasm for the Dutch restoration in 1945. The Chinese would "wait and see" and cooperate with whichever side, Dutch or Indonesian, was winning. Even after merdeka, the Chinese of West Kalimantan continued to regard China as their country; "it commanded all their allegiance" (p. 228). The economic base of the province changed very little; Chinese farmers maintained widespread control of productive land (p. 231).

Chapter Seven looks at a "community under duress." Beginning in the 1950s, the author states, "measures from Jakarta upset the economic life and cultural institutions of the Chinese in West Kalimantan, as the new Indonesian state extended its authority throughout the region. Apart from limitations on various economic activities by non-citizens, the most far-reaching measures affected Chinese schools" (p. 236). The chapter also includes an analysis of the "Dayak raids" of 1967, which resulted in the expulsion of Chinese from rural areas (pp. 246-55).

Finally, perhaps the reviewer might be permitted to mention that, contrary to the assertion made on p. 243, the outbreak of the Brunei rebellion in 1962 did not cause the sultanate to withdraw from the Malaysia project. On the contrary, shaken by the uprising, Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin III "saw in Malaysia the best hope for his and Brunei's future security." At the end of December 1962 "he accepted the concept of Malaysia in principle," negotiations continued for several months, and right until the last minute hope was not extinguished that Brunei would sign up (Graham Saunders, A History of Brunei, 1994:153-56).

To conclude, Dr. Heidhues's splendid book, intended as a contribution to the social and economic history of West Kalimantan since the mid-eighteenth century, is the culmination of a lifetime's research on the province. Golddiggers, Farmers, and Traders, which deals with one of only four major concentrations of ethnic Chinese in Indonesia outside Java, is based largely on primary sources, although data deficiencies are frankly acknowledged; indeed, many aspects of the drama remain to be recounted. Nevertheless, this is not a volume which will be left to gather dust, but one to which readers will wish to return time and again. (A. V. M. Horton, Bordesley, Worcestershire, England)