6.7 Red, White and Blue? (interview)
Description
The dividing lines in the colonial hierarchy were based not just on ethnicity, class, gender and rank but also religion. Like the Moluccas, Papua and the Sunda Islands, North Sulawesi had been converted to Christianity in the nineteenth century as part of the civilizing offensive. Thanks to the work of the missionaries, a relatively large proportion of the population in Manado in North Sulawesi felt an affinity with the Netherlands. The mother of Mrs Fransz-Rompis, from Manado, secretly kept the Dutch tricolour during the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies. Like her mother, Mrs Fransz-Rompis felt no bond with the Indonesian fight for freedom that flared up after the occupation. Her father, on the other hand, was a convinced nationalist. During the war of independence, she worked as a nurse in a military hospital near Manado. That was where she met her husband, an Indisch-European man serving as a conscript in the Dutch army. She talks about their wedding day, which was during the final phase in the decolonization of Indonesia.
Interview with Mrs F.D. Fransz-Rompis. SMGI 1139.2 (15). Arnhem, 1997.
Transcription
F-R: “We defended our tricolour so hard when the Japs were there during the Second World War; we shed tears when we heard the Wilhelmus [Dutch national anthem]. We would only bow to that [Dutch] flag.”
I: “Did you feel an affinity with that?”
F-R: “Involved, yes. Yes. I had and I’m sorry to my Indonesian family to have to say this I didn’t have any nationalistic feelings. No merah-putih [red and white] feeling.
When we got married, our tent was pelted by merah-putih fanatics. They didn’t want that Indo, that Belanda in their village. They were basically rabble-rousers. They wanted nothing to do with my husband. Could that be why he became an even more enthusiastic supporter of the Dutch regime? It’s possible. I just want to mention that it was still so heated then. It was 1948. If the Indonesian national anthem was played, he would shut himself away. It meant nothing to me. But it didn’t affect me either. Dutch? Yes, he was an Indisch Dutchman. But so loyal to the flag. That’s why we opted for repatriation. If you can call it that. It was repatriation for him, even if we didn’t know the country [the Netherlands].”
Interview with Mrs F.D. Fransz-Rompis. SMGI 1139.2 (15). Arnhem, 1997.
Transcription
F-R: “We defended our tricolour so hard when the Japs were there during the Second World War; we shed tears when we heard the Wilhelmus [Dutch national anthem]. We would only bow to that [Dutch] flag.”
I: “Did you feel an affinity with that?”
F-R: “Involved, yes. Yes. I had and I’m sorry to my Indonesian family to have to say this I didn’t have any nationalistic feelings. No merah-putih [red and white] feeling.
When we got married, our tent was pelted by merah-putih fanatics. They didn’t want that Indo, that Belanda in their village. They were basically rabble-rousers. They wanted nothing to do with my husband. Could that be why he became an even more enthusiastic supporter of the Dutch regime? It’s possible. I just want to mention that it was still so heated then. It was 1948. If the Indonesian national anthem was played, he would shut himself away. It meant nothing to me. But it didn’t affect me either. Dutch? Yes, he was an Indisch Dutchman. But so loyal to the flag. That’s why we opted for repatriation. If you can call it that. It was repatriation for him, even if we didn’t know the country [the Netherlands].”