Issues in Urban Development: Case Studies from Indonesia (CNWS Publications, Vol. 33) [33] 9073782384, 9789073782389

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Issues 1n Urban Development .

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Case Studies from Indonesia edited by Peter J M Nas .

.

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·

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ISSUES IN URBAN DEVELOPMENT

ISSUES IN URBAN DEVELOPMENT CASE STUDIES FROM INDONESIA

edited by

Peter 1M. Nas

Research School CNWS Leiden, The Netherlands 1995

CNWS PUBLICATIONS VOL. 33

CNWS PUBLICATIONS is produced by the Research School CNWS, Leiden University, The Netherlands. Editorial board: R. T. J. Buve; M. Forrer; K. Jongeling; R. Kruk; G. J. M. van Loon; W. van der Molen; J. de Moor; F. E. Tjon Sie Fat (chief-editor); W. J. Vogelsang; W. van Zanten. All correspondence should be addressed to: Dr. F. E. Tjon Sie Fat, chief-editor CNWS Publications, c/o Research School CNWS, Leiden University, PO Box

9515,

2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands.

CIP-DATA, KONINKLIJKE BIBLIOTHEEK, DEN HAAG Issues Issues in urban development: case studies from Indonesia I ed. by Peter J.M. Nas. - Leiden: CNWS, School of Asian, African, and Amerindian Studies. - (CNWS Publications, ISSN

0925-3084; vol. 33)

With ref. ISBN

90-73782-38-4

Subject headings: urban sociology; Indonesia

Front cover design: Nelleke Oosten. The cover shows the Catur Muka, the main statue in Denpasar (Daerah Propinsi Bali

1973:2).

Printing: Ridderprint, Ridderkerk

C1:J

Copyright

1995 Research School CNWS, Leiden University, The Netherlands

Copyright reserved. Subject to the exceptions provided for by law, no part of this publication may be reproduced and/or published in print, by photocopying, on microfilm or in any other way without the written consent of the copyright-holder(s); the same applies to whole or partial adaptations. The publisher retains the sole right to collect from third parties fees in respect of copying and/or take legal or other action for this purpose.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This volume is the outcome of a workshop on ''The Indonesian City Revisited" orga­ nized by the Research Association Urban Development in Developing Countries (WUOO) and hold in 1993 in Leiden under the auspices of the CNWS, the Leiden School for Asian, African and Amerindian Studies. I thank both these organizations for their support. I am also most grateful to Dr. Freek Colombijn and the staff of Excerpta Indonesica of the Royal Institute of Linguistics and Anthropology (KITLV) for the help rendered in compiling the bibliography which is included in this volume and especially to Mrs. Rosemary Robson and Dr. Willem Vogelsang for their kind advise on matters of translation and publication. The editor.

CONTENTS

Peter J.M. Nas Introduction

1

Luc Nagtegaal Urban pollution in Java, 1 600- 1 850

9

Freek Colombijn The plague year: Copra-beetles and environmental management in colonial P�g

31

Cor Passchier Medan: Urban development by planters and entrepreneurs, 1870- 1940

47

Ronald Gill Jakarta's urban heritage: Restoration of the urban memory of Kota

65

Marrik Bell en Cultural institutions in Batavia, 1 900 - 1 942

98

Nicole Niessen Indonesian municipalities under Japanese rules

1 15

Peter J.M. Nas Palembang: The Venice of the East

132

Jeroen Peeters Space, religion, and conflict: The urban ecology of Islamic institutions in Palembang

143

Peter J.M. Nas The image of Denpasar: About urban symbolism between tradition and tourism

164

Nico Schulte Nordholt New forms of infrastructural development policy in Indonesia: A critical look at public-private partnership

193

Fons Rietmeijer Urban housing production in an institutional development perspective

209

Wim Stolte From JABOTABEK to PANTIJRA

228

Peter J.M. Nas Indonesian cities, 1 985- 1 995: A bibliography

246

INTRODUCTION

Peter J.M. Nas

This volume is the outcome of the workshop ''The Indonesian City Revisited" orga­ nized by the Research Association on Urban Development in Developing Countries (WUOO) and the CNWS (School for Asian, African and Amerindian Studies) held in Leiden, December 1993. It can be considered the third in a "series" of books on In­ donesian urban society, namely ''The Indonesian Town: Studies in Urban Sociology" edited by W.F. Wertheim et al . in 1958, and ''The Indonesian City: Studies in Urban Development and Planning" edited by P.J.M. Nas in 1986. The first of these volumes (Wertheim et al. 1 958) comprises translations of Dutch works published before Indonesian Independence. It presents a thorough anal­ ysis of the urbanization process and related planning problems in Indonesia by the well-known urbanist, Thomas Karsten. It also addresses the living conditions in Indonesian towns by examining a budget study of coolies in Batavia and making an analysis of differences in mortality characteristics of ethnic groups in Bandung. The dynamics of local administration are exemplified by a study on the typically Javanese town of Kuta Gede. The second volume (Nas 1986) reveals one major change in focus. Although large part of the book is dedicated to such matters as an overview of the urban development process in general, exemplified by case studies of Makassar and Semarang, a com­ parison of budget studies over time, ethnic groups like Minangkabau and Chinese, and urban and regional planning, a clear shift

can

be discerned to informal sector

activities. The studies on planni ng refer to the Greater Jakarta Region (JABO­ TABEK), kampung improvement, and the introduction of sanitary facilities for the urban poor. The research on the informal sector is concerned with the production and selling of tahu and tempe in the Greater Jakarta Region, scavengers and construction workers in Bandung, small enterprises in Salatiga, and small urban centres in the Serayu Valley Region. The present, third, volume in the series indicates further shifts in focus of research on the Indonesian city,

as

articles are included dealing with urban ecology, architec-

2

Peter J.M. Nas

tural heritage, urban cultural institutions, and urban symbolism. Continuities are present in the study on local governments, though dealing with relatively unexplored phenomena such as the municipalities during the Japanese occupation and the newly encouraged public-private partnership in infrastructure development. Planning and housing are taken up by further explorations on the role of NGOs in housing produc­ tion and changes in planni ng concepts for Jakarta. General treatises on the develop­ ment of the Indonesian city through history1 and the rapidity of the urbanization process 2 with related problems are not included in this volume, while the lack of attention paid to the informal sector activities seems to be more significant for the changes in the research climate, than for the improvements in the urban living condi­ tions of the poor. In this present volume both, Luc Nagtegaal and Freek Colombijn, venture into the fairly unexplored field of historical urban pollution. Luc Nagtegaal identifies three types of pollution - microbial, artisanal, and industrial - and presents ample data on their importance between 1 600 and 1 850 in the largest Javanese towns , such as Surabaya, Surakarta, Batavia, and Semarang. Microbial pollution is related to faeces and garbage disposal, and to dust; artisanal pollution to activities such as gunpowder and sugar mills, arak distilleries, lime-kilns and tanneries ; and industrial pollution to engineering and machinery works with coal driven steam-engines that caused high levels of smog. As to the factors determining microbial pollution, Nagtegaal points to the number of inhabitants, the average amount of domestic waste per inhabitant, the capacity of the water to dissolve waste, the amount of surface water, and the force of the current of the river in which the waste is dumped. Javanese urban pollution seems to have been quite comparable to the pollution in contemporary European cities. The cities on Java were of medium size in comparison to those in Holland at that time, only the number of inhabitants of Amsterdam being substantially higher. Javanese cities probably had lower absolute levels of pollution than those in Europe, but the more intensive use of surface water for drinking and bathing must have had more severe consequences. As to artisanal pollution Nagtegaal draws the conclusion that the conditions in Java and Europe must have been more or less comparable. This conclusion also fi ts the mortality figures. These were about the same for Batavia and Amsterdam at the beginning of the nineteenth century. In the beginning of the twentieth century the Batavia figures were even better. The article of Nagtegaal includes all sorts of interesting ways pollution problems are solved: regulations (for faeces disposal in the canals), fines (on pressed cane disposal in the river), technical

1 . See "Introduction: A general v iew on the Indonesian town" in Nas ( 1 986). 2. See Franck (1988).

3

Introduction

improvements (such as water works, artesian wells), pollution management (such as garbage collection, street sprinkling), pulling out of town to less polluted areas (suburbanization), and closing down or displacement of polluting activities (respec­ tively powder mills, and lime-kilns and tanneries). Freek Colombijn adds two other ways of "problem solving" to this list, namely denial of the consequences of polluting behaviour and the attempt to shift these consequences to other interest groups. In his article on several beetle plagues in Padang in the beginning of the twentieth century, caused by the rhinoceros and the copra beetles infecting coconut and nipah palm trees, he uses a constructivist approach in distinguishing five phases in the process that people follow in defining this natural problem as a social problem, namely awareness, definition of the situation as problematic, development of strategies to solve the problem, selection of one strategy, and implementation. The oldest case of beetle plague was solved by removing the symptoms, i.e. the cutting of the infected trees. The

d case led to

secon

the exploration of several solutions , such as throwing the infected rubbish that formed the breeding ground for the beetles in the sea, use of an incinerator, and disposal of the rubbish in dumps covered with a layer of sand. The last of these solutions, i .e. dumps covered with sand, was adopted and is still in use. The third case implied ample discourse on the questionable priority of the economic function and resulted in a municipal policy to define and restrict the area in which the storage of copra was allowed. These cases

can

only be fully understood, as is made clear by

Colombijn, when they are analysed against the background of colonial plural society and its distinct interest groups. Cor Passchier and Ronald Gill direct our attention to the morphological and archi­ tectural dimensions of the city in their respective studies on the development of old

Medan and the survivals of old Batavia in present-day Jakarta. Medan was the centre of the Deli plantation economy and its urban structure was developed mainly by private initiative. Passchier describes the first phase of the town during the last decennia of the nineteenth century, when the planters still lived in wooden houses and the town-grid basically took shape. He focuses strongly on the central part of the city when discussing the buildings around the main square which was later called Esplanade. Mter the turn of the century Western influences were heightened con­ siderably by architects who set up firms in the Netherlands East Indies. But each ethnic group made its own typical contributions to the townscape consisting of indigenous kampung, Chinese shophouses, the Arab quarter, and British cottage-style dwellings. The city was greatly expanded in the twenties when the municipality acquired land from the sultan and the Deli Maatschappij . This area became the Polonia extension, a typical European neighbourhood. Basically the historic urban

4

Peter J.M. Nas

scenery still functions in present-day Medan, though under considerable pressure because of the enormous expansion of the population. According to Passchier, this leads to loss of open space, traffic congestion and architectural degradation. That is why he holds a plea for the preservation of old monuments, which are characteristic for the image and historic character of the city. The preservation and revitalization of the old townscape is also the explicit incentive behind the research of Ronald Gill in downtown Jakarta, called Kota, which covers the area of the old town of Batavia. He divides this historic town area in blocks and very systematically discusses the historic features of their lay-out and architecture as well as their present conditions, which he surveyed in the field in 199 1 . This finally leads to the identification of specific characteristics as a basis for preservation and revitalization and an evaluation of the renovation and re-utilization potential of urban space and buildings in the various blocks. According to Gill , three urban axes constitute the core of the lay-out and cultural map of Kota. The first historical axis connects the old townhall I Taman Fatahillah with the Kasteel I Benteng site and strongly determined the urban structure of early seventeenth century Batavia when it was still concentrated east of the river. After the completion of the western part of old Batavia in the mid-seventeenth century, the second historical axis was made up by the central river, Kali Besar. The third axis can be identified from the beginning of the nineteenth century when the suburbanization of old Batavia further inland took place. It reaches from Kota via Molenvliet I Jalan Gajah Mada to Koningsplein I Medan Merdeka I Monas and can easily be extended to the palace in the city of Bogor. This axis Kota-Monas-Depok-Bogor can be considered the modern axis of the Greater Jakarta area and, Gill believes it should be used as the basis of the cultural map of JABOTABEK, which besides JAkarta also covers the cities of BOgor, TAngerang and BEKasi. Both, Marri k Bellen and Nicole Niessen, focus on the development of a particular part of the urban organization in Indonesian history. Bellen describes the Batavian cultural societies, especially the Theatre (Bataviasche Schouwburg) and the Art Circle (Bataviasche Kunstkring), in the late colonial period which were mainly a European affair, and Niessen the Javanese urban municipalities in the 1942- 1945 period when they were put under Japanese rule. Batavian cultural life was clearly an expression of status and prestige within the context of the European community and functioned as a marker for European values. At the end of the nineteenth century the growing number of Europeans formed an impetus for the professionalization and institutionalization of the cultural organizations and activities. The increase in the number of European women particularly contributed to ethnic segregation in the colonial society which, Bellen argues was also expressed in cultural life. During this late colonial period

Introduction

5

public participation in urban life was strengthened not only in the cultural sector, but also in the municipal organization. Niessen reconstructs the developments in the local administrative regulations in the following period when the Japanese set the rules . Notwithstanding the general lack of materials, because the Japanese destroyed most of the records before their surrender, she shows that the process of public participation through local councils as it had developed after decentralization at the beginning of the twentieth century was stopped by the Japanese who re-hierarchized the local administration. The general policy of the local authorities in the Japanese period was determined by military interests at the cost of neglecting other aspects of urban development. This article covers an era in Indonesian history which has scarcely been dealt with in urban studies. The subject of urban symbolism is elaborated in the next three articles. Peter Nas presents a general overview of the development of the city of Palembang in Sumatra, the Venice of the East, and shows the ups and downs it has gone through schematized in a number of metamorphoses from capital city of the ancient realm of Sriwijaya, via the Chinese pirate lair of Kien Kiang, to the dynamic harbour city of today. This article refutes the prevailing western feeling that cities are always growing and sketches the morphological image of this multi-ethnic industrial metropolis. It also serves as a background for the contribution of Jeroen Peeters who zooms in on one quite neglected group in Indonesian urban studies, the Arabs, and their religious institutions and symbols. In Palembang during the second half of the nineteenth century, the Arabs gained considerable wealth and prestige which was based on their success in commerce and trade. They monopolized religious institutions which led to conflict over the use of space at the end of the nineteenth century. Peeters describes several such disputes related to burial grounds and mosques. These are clear examples of conflicts about religious symbols and their spatial distribution in the city, and specifications of the importance of urban symbolism in relation to the social stratification and power structure in the city. Urban symbolism is further elaborated in the case study of Denpasar presented by Peter Nas, who analyses the concepts of spatial classification with regard to city, desa and house, the distribution and meaning of statues and monuments over the urban area, and the image of the city as exemplified in travel guides. The symbolic dimen­ sion of Denpasar appears to mirror the existing tensions between tradition and mod­ ernization represented by tourism in Denpasar society, and differs from that of other cities , such as Jakarta and Padang. Jakarta symbolism expresses the assimilation of the colonial trauma, the continuities of lndonesian culture and society, and the foun-

6

Peter J.M. Nas

dation of successive regimes. In Padang urban symbolism is dominated by ethnic strivings. These articles on Palembang and Denpasar pursue the fairly recent interest in the field of urban symbolism3 and as such they are distinct from the last three contributions on planni ng issues which depict new developments in a long-standing tradition. Nico Schulte Nordholt critically addresses the recently introduced integrated urban infrastructure development policy, which is recommended by officials of the Depart­ ment of Public Works and foreign consultants such as the World Bank, to tackle some of the problems caused by rapid urbanization. This approach stresses better co­ ordination between government agencies, favours public-private partnership as well as positive attitudes towards participation of the population in urban development, and implies certain measures of decentralization. Schulte Nordholt discusses a variety of actors playing a role in the urban arena, particularly official state agencies, and sets their discourse on the Integrated Urban Infrastructure Development Programme (IUIDP) in its total political and economic framework. He points out that the argu­ ments should not be taken at face value and that IUIDP and decentralization are not necessarily supposed to show positive effects only; they are often accompanied by ulterior motives of fear of the undermining of state authority. Notwithstanding signs of sympathy for existing IUIDP practices, Schulte Nordholt clearly defends full­ fledged decentralization, i.e. more local democracy, so that the urban citizenry would be able to safeguard their own interests. In this context questions are raised about the incorporation of neighbourhood organizations in the planning process. The commu­ nity participation characteristics of Non-Gov ernmental Organizations (NGOs) are also critically examined and this brings us to the next article on the role of NGOs in the housing sector. Fons Rietmeijer explores this role of NGOs in the context of urban housing supply. He divides the housing sector into three parts, namely self-help home­ owners, real-estate developers, and rental units builders. The low-income groups appear to be proportionally represented as home-owners, but their status is weaker because of less security of land-title and poorer house quality. In Indonesia the real­ estate sector is strongly supported by the government, among other ways by facili ­ tating the supply of cheap mortgages, mostly for government officials and the military. However, the self-help sector appears to be the most important for the supply of new houses. NGOs , according to Rietmeijer, only have a very modest role to play in urban development which mainly pertains to the care of the local authorities. In the field of housing, however, they do indeed have a role to play, 3 . See Nas ( 1993).

Introduction

7

notwithstanding problems of creditworthiness and institutional capacity building. That is why development co-operation must support such NGOs. Rietmeijer presents the example of a project set up to guarantee the loans from the bank to an NGO in the field of housing in order to make such loans possible under condition of the absence of a collateral when no land and houses are yet possessed by the NGO. It is generally recognized now that the provision of (low-cost) housing by the government cannot meet the insufficiencies and growth needs of the urban housing market and this particular creative project is a good small-scale example of the experiments required in order to develop an enabling policy for low-cost housing. On the one hand, the final article written by Wim Stolte, widens the scope from the housing sector to urban planni ng in general , but, on the other hand, restricts the focus to the area of Greater Jakarta. It is a description of the planni ng process of the Jakarta metropolis presented as a follow-up to the article published by Giebels in 1986 who covered the period till 1976. Stolte discusses the JABOTABEK Metropoli­ tan Development Plan of 1983 and its review of 1993. It becomes clear that the JABOTABEK planning concept was not fully adopted and led mainly to co-ordinating procedures of the provincial agencies concerned by means of a joint secretariat with­ out complete eradication of potential conflicts especially in the border areas. Though not having achieved complete legal status, nevertheless the concept of JABOTABEK functioned fairly well with regard to larger infrastructure programmes. The review of the period between 1980 and 1990 provides an assessment of the possible develop­ ment alternatives for JABOTABEK like a semi -circle of new towns, a five finger growth model , and the development of the so-called east-west axis. This last alterna­ tive is preferred and the new concept of PANTURA, an abbreviation of Pantai Utara which means Northern Coast, has been launched. The planni ng concept of PAN­ TURA covers an important economic entity with JABOTABEK in the centre, the

new towns and industrial estates of Krawang to the east, and the harbour related activ­ ities of Serang to the west. Besides the east-west extension, it also implies the con­ solidation of growth along the southern axis among other reasons because of ground water conservation. This concept of PANTURA can be considered a m.Yor tool for the development of the region up to 20 10. I regard this article on JABOTABEK and the concept of PANTURA especially fitting to round off this collection of articles on the Indonesian city, because they expose clearly the task of this book and of Indonesian urban studies in general: to elucidate the urban past in order to forge a better city for the future. Moreover, in my opinion this volume as a whole elucidates the cross-fertilization of urban with Indonesian studies by highlighting current and typical Indonesian topics such as Islamization by the Arabs and the influence of the Japanese on the municipality, as

8

well

Peter J.M. Nas

as

distinctive and relatively new urban themes such

as

the ecology, architectural

heritage, and symbolism of the city. To strengthen this cross-fertilization a bibliogra­ phy of publications on the Indonesian city between 1985 and 1995 has been included. BIBUOGRAPHY Franck, M. 1 988 L'urbanisation en Indonesie: Donnees chiffrees. Arch ipel 36: 9-26. Giebel s, L. 1 986 JABOTA BEK: An Indonesian-Dutch concept on metropolitan planning of the Jakarta region. In: Nas P.J . M. (ed. ), The Indonesian City: Studies in Urban Development and Planning, pp. 1 0 1 -ll5. Dordrecht: Foris Publications. Nas P.J.M. (ed.) 1 986 The Indonesian City: Studies in Urban Development and Planning. Dordrecht: Fori s Publications. 1 986 Introduction: A general view on the Indonesian city. In: P. J.M. Nas (ed.), The Indonesian City: Studies in Urban Development and Planning, pp. 1 - 17. Dor­ drecht: Fori s Publications. 1 9 93 Urban symbolism. Leiden: E.J. Brill. Werthein W. F. et al. (eds. ) 1 958 The Indonesian Town: Studies in Urban Sociology . The Hague: Van Hoeve.

URBAN POLLUfiON IN JAVA, 1600-1850

Luc Nagtegaal

Introduction

Urban pollution is one of the gravest problems that faces Indonesia today. The con­ tinual traffic jams in Jakarta cover the city in a dense smog, and the rivers that run through it are so polluted that the consumption of fish from the Bay of Jakarta sometimes causes mercury poisoning. Although the inhabitants of Indonesia's capital produce less garbage per head than modem West European consumers, the collection of this solid waste is extremely inefficient, resulting in heaps of rotting material in the streets. Needless to say that this pollution affects public health negatively (Bauer 1994: 39-62). Urban pollution is not a new phenomenon in Indonesia, however, and today's problems have clear historical roots. The environment is polluted if the pollution causes diseases, or if it bothers people seriously (Faber, Diederiks and Hart 1973: 252), and both elements have already been present in Indonesian towns since the seventeenth century. To some this might seem surprising, because at that time the towns were only a fraction of their current size and did not yet possess modem industries. On the other hand, the pre- and early industrial Indonesian towns were in this respect similar to their counterparts in Western Europe. The latter suffered from "pollution microbienne" (microbial pollution) and "pollution artisanale" (artisanal pollution) as it is called in the French literature on the subject. Pre-industrial European cities had severe hygiene problems, such as piles of garbage in the streets, dirty water and primitive sewage facilities. Added to this was the pollution caused by various artisan enterprises, such as breweries, tanneries and slaughterhouses. When the battle against these forms of pollution was finally won in the nineteenth century, they were promptly replaced by industrial pollution (pollution industrielle) (Van Zan­ den and Verstegen 1993: 1 17- 1 18). In this article I want to assess the amount of pollution in the towns of Java between 1600 and 1850, relative to the pollution in European urban centres of the same period. Existing literature on urban settlements in Java has not specifically

10

Luc Nagtegaal

focused on pollution, and what relevant statements there are tend to contradict each other. On one hand there are descriptions of urban settlements as "semi-rural ": collec­ tions of kampung, in which the houses were surrounded by spacious yards, numerous fruit trees and hedges (Reid 1993: 88-89). The rustic images of the Dutch in tempo dulu ("the good old days") also seem to suggest that pollution was not. a serious problem. On the other hand, several recent studies on Batavia depict this town as "the graveyard of the East" in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Susan Abeyasekere claims that at least in the beginning of the twentieth century Batavia had a mortality rate which was not only much higher than that of European cities at the time, but even exceeded that of notorious places like Calcutta (Abeyasekere 1987: 205-206). Peter Boomgaard has demonstrated the importance of diseases like dysentery, diarrhoea, typhoid and cholera. They struck first and predominantly in the towns, and they were all related to contamination of drinking water (Boomgaard 1987: 52). The focus of this article is on the largest towns in Java, because logically one expect them to have been the most seriously polluted. The census of 1890 showed Surabaya, Surakarta, Batavia and Semarang to be the most populous (Boom­ gaard and Gooszen 199 1: 43). This article will deal with microbial pollution first, in the form of faeces in the drinking water, garbage, corpses and dust. Next, various examples of artisanal and early industrial pollution are discussed, such as that caused by sugar mills, arak distilleries , lime-kilns, tanneries and steam engines . Finally, the level of urban pollution and its impact on human health in Java is compared with that in the Netherlands. can

Microbial Pollution

Water Pollution by Faeces The form of pollution that affected public health most, both in Javanese and European pre-industrial cities, was contamination of drinking water with faeces. This contamination was the main reason for the high casualty rates for gastro-intestinal diseases like dysentery and cholera. The population of all Javanese towns suffered tremendously from this problem, until the Europeans solved it for themselves with the construction of sewerage in the beginning of the twentieth century. Until the second half of the nineteenth century almost all people in the towns took their drinking water from the rivers and some wells. In 1648 the water from the Ciliwung in Batavia was reportedly still very good. At the end of the seventeenth century the more affluent did not drink the water flowing through the town itself anymore, but bought it from the crews of the "waterprauwen" (water prahu). These men collected the water upstream in buckets, and then rowed it into town, where they

Urban Pollution in Java

11

sold it at the so-called "waterplaats " (water place). But as early as 1689 there were complaints that even this water was dirty and sometimes full of mud (De Haan 1922: II, 329). The main form of water pollution was faeces, which almost all ended in the river. In Batavia more affluent households collected theirs in barrels, which slaves emptied in the river every day. At times the smell was terrible, especially during the dry season, when the canals were almost empty, and faeces were exposed to the midday sun (Van der Chijs 1885-1900, II: 185). In the rainy season, however, the Ciliwung river overflowed, flooding the lower stories of many houses, and leaving "slime and filth" behind. Already in 1653 the town government was worried about the health risks: it ordered that the barrels were only to be emptied after nine o'clock in the evening, when the smell would be less disturbing. In those days the belief was common that it were the smells (or so-called miasma) that made people ill. At the beginning of the eighteenth century faeces could also be brought to special barges, run by Chinese, who then dumped them in the mouth of the river. Houses that stood close to canals had open sewers, leading from the house directly to the river. Others had cesspools, but both these and the sewers were often badly maintained, leading to considerable spillage (Van der Chij s 1885- 1900, X: 186). The many cesspools caused considerable pollution of the soil as well . This situation caused major problems in Batavia, with its population of about 35,000 people in the beginning of the eighteenth century. The canals were described

by contemporaries as open sewers which exuded an intolerable stench. Often the water in the canals was not flowing because the sluices were closed to enable irrigation of rice-fields in the vicinity of the town. Every two months the canals were dredged by forced labourers from Cirebon in order to keep them navigable. These Javanese took the black mud from the bottom, and put it on the banks, in the middle of the street. There this mud, mainly consisting of human ordure, had to dry until it could be carried away by boat (Abeyasekere 1989: 39). After 1732 mortality rates in Batavia rose considerably, and drastic measures were called for. In 1743 the gov ernment decided to build water mains: near the water place the water of the river was captured in a reservoir, from where it was pumped through clay pipes into the centre of the town. Several public reservoirs were built, the final one being situated in front of city hall. But almost right from the start serious problems arose. The water of the Ciliwung carried so much silt that the pipes were constantly clogged and especially during the dry season - when the level of the river was low - hardly any water reached the town square. Discussions over how this could be improved carried on throughout the rest of the eighteenth century (Bernelot Moens 1873: 285-294; De Haan 1922: I , 389).

12

Luc Nagtegaal

Gradually the water mains became less relevant to the European elite. From the early eighteenth century onwards the well-to-do escaped the unsanitary town by moving to inland areas like Weltevreden, Rij swijk and Noordwijk. There they lived in big houses with large gardens, and along canals which had flowing water even in the dry monsoon. In the nineteenth century the old town was left to the Chinese and Indonesians, who continued to suffer from pollution of their drinking water. The colonial government did not have the water mains repaired anymore, and between 1830 and 1840 the remaining reservoirs were dismantled (Bemelot Moens 1873: 294).

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the pollution of drinking water in Semarang and Surabaya was somewhat less serious than in Batavia. These towns were smaller in size - 20,000 people at the most - and in Surabaya the river Brantas and two of its branches that ran through the town were larger and flowed more rapidly than the Ciliwuog in Batavia. This relatively favourable situation, however, was not to last. In the first half of the nineteenth century the population of Surabaya grew at an astonishing rate due to the agricultural expansion in East Java, especially that of the sugar cultivation. In size Surabaya surpassed Batavia and all other urban settlements in Java. To make things worse, the Dutch colonial government decided to rebuild Surabaya into a giant fortress, which led to considerable changes in the hydrological situation. After 1835 the course of the river was changed, and one of its branches, the Kali Krambangan, was turned into a stagnant canal within a walled channel. Hageman, a Dutchman living in Surabaya, estimated that 6,400 people had to dispose their garbage and faeces into the Krambangan canal , and that 3,600 people bathed in it daily. He added: "As canal it is simply useless for bathing because those parts of the water which are pure, are not in the majority, but that majority customarily consi sts of stinking mud, or of noxious sea water at high tide" (Hageman 1858: 27 1). Matters were at their worst during the dry monsoon, when the canal was empty. At the same time the river Brantas and the canals were increasingly blocked by sedimentation. As a consequence the water in Surabaya became at least as polluted as in Batavia. In the nineteenth century travellers from the interior could smell the river in down­ town Surabaya as soon as they reached the bridge in Simpang, several miles away. Of all the towns in Java, Surabaya was struck the hardest by cholera, a water-born disease. Especiall y the quarters adjacent to the Krambaogan canal were a constant breeding ground for cholera (Von Faber 193 1: 239). The wealthier Europeans responded in the same fashion as those in Batavia: they increasingly abandoned the polluted town and moved to healthier areas inland.

Urban Pollution in Java

13

Among the large coastal towns, Semarang had the reputation of being the most healthy. This was mainly due to the fact that its surroundings were less swampy and therefore provided fewer breedi ng opportunities for the mosquitoes that spread malaria. But its water pollution also seems to have been somewhat less serious than that of Batavia and Surabaya The little river in Semarang flowed more rapidly, because the vicinity of mountains to the south gave the river a greater gradient. The few canals that had been dug in the early part of the eighteenth century were filled in the beginning of the nineteenth. In 1854 the military doctor Muller reported that the quality of the drinking water in Semarang was relatively good. The word "relatively" should be stressed here, for Muller added: "Although at the slightest precipitation the river contains many particles of clay, and is fouled by the plenteous bathing, nearly the whole day long, in the same by the native population, as well as by the many drains which debouch into it, including latrines, the lower classes use this water without any form of purification, other than to allow it to settle in earthenware pots for one or several days, and without ever suffering harm from it" (Muller 1846: 354). Thi s same doctor reported on the high mortality rates caused by dysentery and other water-born diseases in Semarang, without realising the connection between these afflictions and pollution. In the first half of the nineteenth century the town had 300-400 houses, most of them small and crowded along narrow alleys. On one side of the alley lay the sewer, fed by the kitchens, stables, and toilets. The alleys were not steep enough to keep the sewerage t1owing, however, and the smell of the stagnating fluids in the midday sun was often repulsive. During the wet monsoon, on the other hand, entire areas of the town were Hooded. For days the water stood in the lower floors of the small houses. To quote Dr. Muller again: ''The latrines are usually situated in the furthermost comer of the small backyard, and consist of no more than a deep pit, with no outlet, and in the smaller dwellings, because of the stench thereof, are a great inconvenience. The same must be said for certain small drains, which traverse various yards, in order to debauch in the street drains, which now and then give off an unbearable stench of urine" (Muller 1846: 329-330). The sewers were inhabited by "hordes of big rats ".

14

l.uc Nagtegaal

Of the four major towns in Java, the inland town of Surakarta seems to have been the least polluted. Being adjacent to the mountains, the current of its main river, the Solo, was still strong. Moreover, the town was situated at the junction of that river with three smaller ones, that crossed Surakarta from east to west. The geographical conditions made it possible for almost all Indonesian kampung to be bordered by ditches, which carried the garbage and faeces away (Soerakarta 1843: 458; Bleeker 1 850: 402). Moreover, the lay-out of Surakarta was more spacious than that of the coastal towns. Travellers were pleasantly struck by the many orchards and green compounds that surrounded the houses, which compared favourably to the crowded quarters in the old centres of the coastal towns . This must have meant that Surakarta had a low population density, and therefore less pollution. The physician Bleeker confirmed that Surakarta was exceptionally healthy for a major town. In 1848 only one soldier in the garri son of 442 men died of dysentery, a disease that is usually a sure sign of polluted drinking water. In the garri son of Semarang dysentery was the main cause of death. Only one in 36 soldiers died overall in Surakarta, whereas the figure for the garri son of Semarang was 1 : 15 (Bleeker 1 850: 404). In general , however, microbial pollution was a serious problem in the towns of Java. Before 1850 there were almost no successful attempts to improve the quality of drinking water. Since at least the eighteenth century the wealthier Europeans hal filtered their water with porous stones, but these did not kill bacteria. Only in the second half of the nineteenth century did it become customary for Europeans to boil their drinking water before consumption. A considerable improvement could have been achieved by the sinking of artesian well s. In 1 84 1 such a well was drilled in the centre of Semarang, and it provided a minority of the population with good drinking water. In Surakarta the susuhunan had an artesian well drilled in the royal compound in 1 867, which suggests that drinking water had not been perfect there either. In Batavia artesian wells were sunk only in the late nineteenth century. In Surabaya, the geological conditions made such wells impossible altogether. During the nineteenth century there were occasi onal plans for construction of water mains in the coastal towns which would carry water from wells in the interior of the island. Until the beginning of the twentieth century the colonial govermnent regarded the costs as prohibitive, however.

Garbage Faeces were not the only form of pollution. As early as 1 630 the amounts of garbage in the streets and canals of Batavia had become a problem. This waste consisted mainly of ashes, bricks, lime, palm leaves and other organic material . Added to this was the waste of several fish markets. In 1 748 an inhabitant of Batavia complained:

Urban Pollution in Java

15

"Everywhere one perceives the smell of garbage lying i n the streets and that of the many fish markets, which are full of dead and partly decomposed fish. This makes passers-by almost faint and it causes the air to become unsanitary" (Paravicini , quoted in Semmelink 1 885: 356). Already in 1630 the town of Batavia had to introduce special barges which col­ lected the garbage at certain points along the canals. The garbage-collectors announced their arri val with rattles. In 1 707 the town decided to leave the garbage collection to private contractors. This caused problems of its own, however, because often the crews of the barges were tempted not to bring the garbage all the way to the dump (located outside of the town walls) but to throw it overboard half-way. In 1 778 the number of barges was increased from seventeen to twenty-two (Van der Chij s 1 8851900 , III: 58 1 ). Not everybody took the trouble of bringing the garbage to the barges. Already in 1630 heavy fines were imposed on people who dumped their garbage in the streets or canals. In order to facilitate the collection, in 1 673 public garbage containers were built at many places. Yet this did not solve the problem of littering. The town government had to hire Chinese contractors to clean the streets and canals, and it threatened to tie every slave who was caught littering to a pole next to the public garbage containers for a day (Van der Chij s 1 885- 1 900 , II : 568). Littering became even worse after the town government removed the public garbage containers at the end of the eighteenth century because of their intolerable stench. Large heaps of rotting garbage lay on the streets and beside the bridges of Batavia (Paravicini , quoted in S emmelink 1 885: 356). In Semarang and Surabaya the VOC took another course in dealing with garbage. At the end of the seventeenth century the local Company officials were already demanding corvee labourers from the Javanese bupati to clean the voc compounds. Gradually this was extended to the entire towns. In Semarang in 1 808 the bupati was to send sixty labourers daily. These people received a small payment (Van der Chij s 1885- 1900 , XIV : 829). With the end of the Cultivation System forced labour became out of vogue, however. Around 1 870 a professional refuse collection had been set up in Surabaya as well : it employed 27 coolies, 1 0 carts and 1 6 oxen. According to newspaper reports this was totally insufficient (Von Faber 1 93 1 : 227). From Dust to Dust An almost forgotten form of urban pollution is dust. In the towns of Java most roads and streets were not paved. As a result the wind constantly whipped up large quantities of dust which, as a result of the unsanitary conditions, contained many bacteria. According to the doctors of that time, dust was the main cause of the many

16

Luc Nagtegaal

afflictions of eyes and throat in the towns of Java. In 1 8 1 2 dust was said to be one of the main problems of Semarang: the town government tried to harden the roads with coral stone, but this was pulverised by the many carri ages and turned into fme powder (Lombard 1989: 266). As a result the problem only became worse. In 1829 the inhabitants of Surabaya were obliged by local law to sprinkle the street in front of their houses with water to fight the dust problem. The roads in front of gov ernment buildings were sprinkled by convicts . This did not help much, though, because the water evaporated quickly in the tropical sun (Von Faber 193 1 : 227). A special problem was the burial of corpses. Various Indonesian migrant groups - Makassarese, Malays, and so on - were in the habit of burying their deceased in numerous small yards in their own quarters. Unfortunately these quarters were situated in the lower parts of Batavia, which were frequently flooded. The cathechist Paravicini wrote in 1 748 that he had observed more than once how the water removed the soil on these graves. Because the corpses were not buried deeply the bodies were exposed and caused a terrible smell . Moreover, they contaminated the river (Paravicini , quoted in S emmelink 1885: 357). Dead human and animal bodies frequently floated in the river Ciliwung. Artisanal and Early-Industrial Pollution

Gunpowder Mills Before 1 800 the town with the most severe industrial pollution was Batavia. This was a result of the policy of the VOC which wanted to concentrate all industry there. The Company regarded Batavia and its immediate surroundings as its home base, and it considered the prosperity of the town a core interest. In Batavia the inhabitants were under closer control, and therefore more efficiently taxed, than elsewhere in Java The concentration of industries in Batavia had its negative side as well, however. The pollution industries caused was comparable to that in many European cities, as was the response of the VOC: it banned the most dirty and most dangerous industries to a special quarter outside town. In Batavia this was the suburb of Molenvliet, where the industries were lined up along a canal that had been dug in 1 657. A system with sluices ensured that the water flowed rapidly enough to tum the large wheels of the mills. Among the industries were lime-kilns, sawmills, brickyards and flour mills (De Haan 1922: 390). One of the most polluting and certainly the most dangerous industries was gunpowder manufacture. The number of gunpowder mills rose from one in 1 659 to seven in 1787. For the production of gunpowder there was also a charcoal oven, and sulphur and saltpetre works. The three components of gunpowder - carbon, sulphur

Urban Pollution in Java

17

and saltpetre - were ground separately, and then combined i n the powder mills. Every few years one of the mills exploded. But pollution was also a major problem. Sulphur and saltpetre works were among the most polluting industries of their time. The fumes they exuded were truly poisonous. Daendels and especially Raffles dismantled the gunpowder mills in Batavia, because the product could be bought much more cheaply in Bengal . Around 1 820 the only operating gunpowder mill in Java was located in Semarang. Surabaya had one saltpetre plant at that time (Boomgaard 1989: 1 1 8). Sugar Mills In Java the most important industry was the sugar processing. Sugar factories pressed the sugar cane in a mill , which until the nineteenth century was driven by oxen. Then these animals were increasingly replaced by water power, and later by steam engines. The juice that was extracted from the cane was boiled until it crystallised. Most sugar mills were situated south of Batavia; in 1 7 10, at the peak of a sugar boom, they numbered 13 1. The mills were not located in the town itself because they had to be near the cane fields and the forests that provided them with fuel . This was less necessary for the specialised mills that processed crystal sugar into lump- or candy sugar, but they were not allowed to establish themselves in the inner town because of the fire hazard. The sugar mills caused considerable environmental problems in the countryside around Batavia. To heat their boilers they needed large amounts of firewood. From the end of the seventeenth century onwards they contributed to the serious deforestation and increasing shortages of fuel . But the mills also affected the town of Batavia. In 170 1 the VOC sent a special reconnaissance party upstream to discover the cause of the pollution of the Ciliwung river. They reported that this pollution started at the place where the nearest sugar mills were located. According to Blusse they caused such pollution of the fresh water flowing into Batavia that they brought about an ecological disaster. He regards this pollution as the main reason for the extremely high mortality rates in Batavia in the eighteenth century (Blusse 1 986: 27). A closer look at the report of this reconnaissance party reveals that the "pollution" it spotted was silting. The original forest cover of the surroundings of Batavia was replaced by irrigated rice- and cane-fields in the seventeenth and eigh­ teenth centuries. This deforestation, together with a badly implemented irrigation, caused considerable erosion. As a result the canals of Batavia filled up with mud. This exacerbated the existing problems with drinking water and it also must have given the Anopheles mosquitoes that spread malaria better breedi ng grounds. In modem scientific literature, however, siltation is not normally regarded as pollution anymore.

I..uc Nagtegaal

18

The sugar mills did pollute the Ciliwung and other rivers in West-Java in more direct ways too. They were in the habit of throwing pressed cane into the river. In 1792 these were such large amounts that the cane partly blocked the Ciliwung river and several canals (Van der Chij s 1885- 1900 , XI: 477), and constituted severe organic pollution. The town government decided to fine dumping of pressed cane into the rivers with 200 "rijksdaalders " for each offence. Arak

Arak was the favourite liquor of the Chinese and Europeans living in Java. It was distilled from rice and molasses, a by-product of the sugar mills. The distilleries caused "heavy fumes ", but more important were the fire hazards and the dirty waste water. Especially if the distilleries were located in streets without canals, they caused considerable pollution because they then simply discharged their waste water on the streets. The government complained that they created "noxious pools and nests of foulness " (Van der Chijs 1 885- 1 900 , I : 363). In 1 642 it was therefore forbidden to locate an arak distillery at other places than along a canal. The pollution became so serious that the government gradually pushed the arak distilleries out of town. In 1 627 it had already ordered them to move their locations further away from the castle. In 1 690 a new regulation was enacted that banned the distilleries from the town completely. The majority settled in the Zuidervoorstad, the southern suburb. In 1 7 1 5 Batavia had eighteen arak distilleries, in 1762 twenty, but by 1815 their number had dropped to fifteen. Even from the Zuidervoorstad the "ever grimy vapour and insalubrious stench" reached the town itself (Duurkoop 1780: 505). Suggestions were made to move the distilleries even further inland, but the government was afraid that this would be too costly for an already hard-pressed industry. Semarang and Surabaya never had many arak distilleries, a consequence of the policy of the VOC to concentrate all industry in or near Batavia. Semarang had a short experiment with an arak distillery around 1760, but soon the Company with­ drew the distillery's licence again. Only in the nineteenth century was a small number of distilleries established in Semarang. In 1 858 Surabaya had one arak distillery too. Lime-kilns The heaviest polluting industrial activity was probably that of the lime-kilns. These processed large quantities of coral into mortar. Traditionally the Javanese towns consisted almost exclusively of wooden buildings, but the fire hazards were enor­ mous. Batavia was the first town that had many brick buildings, and in the course of

Urban Pollution in Java

19

the eighteenth century more and more buildings in Semarang and Surabaya were also constructed of brick. The lime-kilns therefore became a vital urban industry in Java. In Batavia, boats returned daily with coral taken from the many atolls and reefs in the bay of Jakarta. This must have damaged the reefs considerably. The kilns also used large quantities of firewood, thereby contributing to the deforestation around Batavia. However, the main worry at the time was the dirty fumes and dust given off by the kilns. A Resident of Batavia complained: "Some of these lime-kilns are located in the middle of built up areas, which means that, when they are in operation, this often causes great inconvenience to those persons who live in their vicinity, not only because of the smoke, which is produced by the burning, but also because of the chalk dust which issues forth from the ovens and at the slightest breeze is wafted to far beyond the lime-kilns" (Van der Chij s 1 86 1 : 130). Until 1667 the lime-kilns were located close to the town, where they created "at times very oppressive fumes, and noisome and filthy, insalubrious air over the same" (Van der Chijs 1 885- 1 900 , II: 433). In that year the kilns were expelled to the mouth of the river Ancol , or other places further from town. But Batavia expanded, and the lime-kilns remained a problem. In the beginning of the eighteenth century many were located south of Batavia, at the edge of the suburbs. When the wind blew from the south the inhabitants of Batavia suffered from "many discommodious and unhealthy fumes" (Van der Chij s 1 885- 1900 , IV: 139). Lighting of the furnaces was therefore restricted to periods when northerly winds blew , and later to three nights a month. In 1805 Batavia had sixteen lime-kilns. They produced more smoke than ever before, because the scarcity of fire-wood caused them to use shrubs and weeds for fuel. In 1 858 the number of kilns had risen to 32, but only 12 had been in operation that year. Some of them were located in the town, however, and they still caused con­ siderable pollution. Semarang had fourteen lime-kilns in 1 820, only one fewer than Batavia. In Surabaya in the nineteenth century several hundred people worked in the lime-kilns. These were probably situated in the suburb of Kaputeran, together with the brick- and tile-industries. Traditionally this industry seems to have been located in higher numbers in neighbouring Gresik. Tanneries Tanning of leather was an important industry in some Javanese towns, just as it was in Western Europe. It involved soaking skins in calcareous water for twenty days,

20

Uu: Nagtegaal

after which they were scraped and treated with tannic acid. Then the skins were painted and dried in the sun. The tanneries not only spread offensive smells, but also discharged considerable quantities of water containing tanni c acid and quicklime. Also the scrapings (hair and parts of the skin) were usually dumped into the water.

Raffles suggested that in the beginning of the nineteenth century the extensive tanning industry was still recent in Java (Raffles 1 978: 1 7 1 ). As Javanese did not wear shoes there was no big demand for leather, and they had perfected their skills only by learning from the Europeans. Tanning was mainly concentrated in Surakarta and to a lesser extent in Semarang. In both towns an entire kampung had specialised in this craft. In 1 86 1 S emarang had approximately forty tanneries (Van Oosterzee 1 86 1 : 3 1 5). In Batavia this industry was less extensive, yet at the end of the eigh­ teenth century there were many complaints about the twenty tanneries, located in the Chinese quarters. An inhabitant of that town wrote that it was impossible to pass the tanneries without holding one's nose (Duurkoop 1 780: .504) . To improve the sanitary conditions in Batavia its remaining five tanneries were banished to the outskirts in the early 1820s. Modern Industrial Pollution

In the nineteenth century the first modern industries appeared, which created modern pollution as well. The centre of industry became Surabaya, where in 1 8 1 0 the gov­ ernment engineering works (Constructie Winkel) was established. This constructed machinery, guns and ships , both for the government and for the private sector. It became a giant company, which right from the start employed 1 ,275 people. In 1 860 one of its two successors, the artillery engineering works (Artillerie Constructie Winkel) employed about 700 people daily (Vreede 1 86 1 : 375-401). It had forges, foundries and turning lathes, all powered by steam engines. Coal from England axi Kalimantan was used as fuel . At that time there was also the "Fabriek voor de Marine en het Stoomwezen" (at least 700 employees) and a number of large-scale private machinery works and shipyards. They all used steam-engines and they all burnt coal. This meant that Surabaya experienced true pollution industrielle, for the use of coal caused serious amounts of smog and soot. Modem times had caught up with Java.

Urban Pollution in Java

21

Javanese Pollution in Context

Microbial Pollution Compared From the above it has become clear that pollution was a serious problem in the towns of Java between 1600 and 1850. How did the levels of pollution compare to those in the towns of Western Europe of that age? The extent of microbial water pollution in urban settlements is determined by the number of inhabitants, the average amount of domestic waste per inhabitant, the capacity of the water to dissolve waste, the amount of surface water and the force of the current (Faber, Diederiks and Hart 1973 : 254). The size of the population is obviously an important element: the more people who produce faeces and garbage, the larger the pollution will probably be. Table 1 gives the estimated sizes of the populations of the four largest towns in Java between approximately 1 6 1 5 and 1 890. Compared to the size of these cities today, they were still tiny towns in the nineteenth century. Jakarta has boomed to a population of 8,259,000 in 1 990, for instance. Yet when compared to towns in Holland at that time, the Javanese towns were of medium size. The census of 1795 showed that the average population of the largest eighteen towns in Holland was about 25,500. Batavia had approximately the size of The Hague and Rotterdam, and Semarang and Surabaya were at a level with Haarlem and Dordrecht. Only Amsterdam was substantially larger (Jansen 1 979: 1 17). Therefore the Javanese towns possessed numbers of "domestic polluting units " that were comparable to Dutch towns. To western people living in today's affluent society, the descriptions of microbial pollution in the towns of Java before 1 850 seem gruesome. Yet almost exactly similar descriptions exist for European cities in that period. Water in the canals of Amsterdam was dirty beyond belief too. When comparing urban pollution in Java and the Netherlands two major differences stand out: the towns in Java probably had lower levels of pollution in an absolute sense, but the impact of pollution was not less serious, because more people depended on surface water for drinking purposes in Java than in Europe. To start with this last difference: indigenous inhabitants of Southeast Asia usually drank nothing else but unboiled water (Reid 1 988: 36-38). Only the Chinese were in the habit of drinking tea. Boiling the water and adding acid tea leaves was an efficient way of coping with polluted drinking water. In Europe, on the other hand, it was common to drink wine, beer, cider or distilled liquor (Brandel 1988: 22524 1). Many Europeans in Java also drank gin or arak daily. Rather than being a main cause for the high mortality among Europeans, as is usually stated, this habit probably saved lives. Dependency on river water was also greater in Java than in

Luc Nagtegaal

22

Table 1 : Number of inhabitants of the four largest towns in Java. Batavia

Semarang

1670

27,0001

8,0002

1705 1815 1850

3 1 ,0003 50,0006 60,0001 0

14,0004 22,0007 70,0001 1

1890

67,659

53 ,974

Surabaya

8,0005 25,0008 85,000 1 2 1 00,482

Surakarta

1 05,0009 40,0001 3 94,665

Europe because of the different bathing habits. A Dutch visitor to Batavia wrote in

1699 that the Asians bathed in the river endlessly, "as if they were ducks" (Geeret Vermeulen, quoted in Semmelink 1885: 334). This too must have aggravated the consequences of polluted water. On the other hand, absolute levels of pollution were probably lower in Java. At the end of the nineteenth century science was sufficiently advanced to make chemical analysis of water possible. In 1 873 the pharmacist Bemelot Moens published the results of his analysis of Batavian drinking water. He discovered that many of the wells produced water that was totally unsuited for drinking purposes because it was badly contaminated with urine. In many cases there were latrines close to the wells. His findings for the river Ciliwung were different, however. The amounts of nitric acid, chlorine and phosphoric acid (indications of pollution by faeces) were consider­ ably smaller in Batavia than they were in the Rhine near Cologne or in the Seine near Paris. The same was true for organic substances: the Ciliwung only contained between 0.08 1 1 -0.0950 grams per litre. The Rhine near Amhem had 0. 1 593 grams, the Seine near Paris 0.23 grams, and the Thames near London even had 0.695.

1 . Abayasekere ( 1 989: 20). 2 . This figure is an estimate, based on the fact that Semarang had approximately 1 , 000 armed men in 1 670 (Nagtegaal 1 988: 50). 3 . B lusse ( 1 986: 84-85). 4. Estimate on the basi s of 1 , 69 1 armed men in 1 704 (Nagtegaal 1 988: 50). 5 . Estimate o n the basis o f ca. 1 , 000 armed men in 1 705 (Nagtegaal 1 988: 50). 6. In 1 8 13 Batavia had 49, 683 inhabi tants (Bleeker 1 846: 447). Accordi ng to Raffles, however, the population of Batavia and its immediate suburbs was 60,000 in 1 8 1 5 (Raffles 1 978: Table III). 7. Semarang had 2 1 . 1 26 inhabitants i n 1 8 1 2 (Lombard 1 989: 264). 8. Abeyesekere ( 1 987: 205). 9 . Raffles ( 1 978: Table II). 1 0. In 1 844 Batavia had 60, 850 inhabitants (Bleeker 1 846: 45 1 ) . 1 1 . In 1 843 Semarang had 68,72 1 inhabi tants (Muller 1 846: 38 1 ). 1 2. Surabaya had 85, 483 i nhabi tan ts in 1 850 (Hageman 1 859: 28). 1 3 . Veth ( 1 882: 659).

Urban Pollution in Java

23

Bemelot's conclusion was that the Ciliwung provided reasonably good drinking water, provided it was filtered and purified (Bemelot Moens 1 873 : 275-488). It should be added, however, that Bemelot only had a supposition about the impact of bacteria. If river water in the Javanese towns was somewhat less polluted than in European cities, this advantage was offset by the fact that in Java people depended on that water more strongly. Artisanal Pollution Compared Artisanal pollution was largely determined by the extent of polluting industry and the average amount of waste per industrial unit. When the artisanal pollution in Java is compared to that in the Netherlands, a case can be made for the argument that the pollution per workshop or factory was somewhat less in Java An element that made the pollution of single industries in Holland generally worse than in Java was the use of different fuel. In Holland this was commonly peat, whereas in Java it was wood. Peat caused much more pollution, although not as much as coal . lbis meant that those industries which consumed large amounts of fuel, like brick yards, lime-kilns and distilleries, were per unit more pollutive in Holland than they were in Java. Some of the dirtiest industries in the Netherlands were absent in Java, such as the

woollen industry, which us� large quantities of urine. Dying of textiles was a major

polluting industry in Holland, but less so in Java. In that island, Surakarta and Semarang were the most important centres for textile production, and there the dyers occupied special quarters. Their numbers were considerable: even Snrabaya had no less than 1 20 indigo dyers in the middle of the nineteenth century. But these craftsmen were not as polluting as those in Holland because until the end of the nineteenth century they only used organic dyes. In Holland chemical dyes were already being used in the seventeenth century. These were produced mainly in Amsterdam and Rotterdam, where white lead, litmus and vermilion mills caused the worst industrial pollution in Holland. The total artisanal pollution is determined by the average pollution per single unit, multiplied by the total number of workshops and factories . Table 2 contains numbers of polluting industries in several Dutch and Javanese towns. It should be noted that Amsterdam was substantially larger than Batavia and Semarang. Popular images often depict Java as an island with a purely agricultural economy, where peasants cnltivated rice or cashcrops for European markets . In reality, the number of small industrial enterprises in its towns was considerable. Indeed, in Holland only Amsterdam and Rotterdam seem to have outdone Batavia in polluting industry. The conclusion has to be that although the pollution per unit was probably

24

Luc Nagtegaal

Table 2: Number of polluting establishments in five towns of the Netherlands and Java around 1 820. ' 4

Popula-

Haarlem

Utrecht

Amsterdam

Batavia

Semarang

2 1 ,227

34,692

1 97,83 1

49,683

2 1 , 1 26

2

9

14

5

40

16

14

tion Tanneries Lime kilns Distiller-

1

10

15

?

2

60

60

3

ies Sugar mills/

re-

fineries Gunpow-

1

der mills Brick-

c. 8

7

1

?

?

yards Chemical

3

4

6

8

4

11

industries Soap works Dye

1

works

1 4. The figures on Amsterdam are for 1 8 1 6, and those on Haarlem and Utrecht for 1 8 1 9. They are based on Brugmans ( 1 956). The figures for Batavia and Semaran g are taken from Boomgaard ( 1 989: 1 1 8) and from Van der Chij s ( 1 885- 1 900).

Urban Pollution in Java

25

less in Java, the total number of industries was relatively high. The degree of arti­ sanal pollution in Javanese towns must therefore have been comparable to that in Dutch towns of similar size. Mortality Compared If the degree of both microbial and artisanal pollution was almost at the same level , it remains a question whether the impact of pollution on the human population was the same as in Western Europe too. Batavia had the reputation of being extremely un­ healthy, and much of the poor health of its inhabitants could be traced to the envi­ ronment (Abeyasekere 1 987: 1 95). Of course pollution was not the only factor here malaria was a major cause of death, for instance. Malaria is not caused by pollution on the contrary: the Anopheles mosquitoes which carry the malaria virus cannot live in highly polluted water, which is the main reason why malaria is no longer a grave problem in contemporary Jakarta (Bauer 1 993 : 52). Nevertheless , from the few available statistics it becomes clear that especially microbial pollution was indirectly responsible for many untimely deaths in urban Java. In 1 843 , for instance, no less than 54% of all soldiers who died in the military hospital of Semarang suffered from gastro-intestinal diseases. Diarrhoea, dysentery and typhoid are all strongly related to polluted drinking water. Only 1 5% of the soldiers died of malaria (Muller 1846: table D). These diseases, including malaria, were common in the Netherlands too. In order to compare the impact of pollution, I have listed statistics on the rates of mortality in Batavia, Semarang and Amsterdam. The reliability of these figures might not be optimal (under-reporting is likely in the case of the Indonesians in the nineteenth century), but they are the only statistics available. These figures suggest that the mortality of Batavia in the beginning of the nineteenth century was comparable to that of Amsterdam. Later in the nineteenth and in the beginning of the twentieth century Batavia was even healthier, and S emarang even more so. The figures for mortality among Indonesians in the nineteenth century are possibly too low , but even in 1 903- 1 9 1 1 their mortality was not exceptional when compared to the poor of Amsterdam. Relative good health among the Javanese is not totally unlikely, if one realises that both in Batavia and S emarang the majority lived on the edge of town in semi-rural (and therefore healthy) conditions. Among the Europeans it was especially the military and the sailors which accounted for the high mortality. Again, this does not mean that pollution in the towns of Java was not serious ; only that its effect on public health was no worse than in the towns of Western Europe.

Luc Nagtegaal

26

Table 3: Mortality in Batavia per 1000 inhabitants . 1 5 European

European

civilians

military

Chinese

Indonesians

1 8 1 9/25

130

1 837

86

141

61

41

143

87

46

45

64

1 838

87

1 860

50

1 903/ 1 1

29

Table 4: Mortality in Semarang per 1 000 inhabitants. 1 6

1 839/43

European

European

civilians

military

61

2 13

Chinese

Javanese

44

36

Table 5: Mortality in Amsterdam per 1 000 inhabitants. 1 7 1 68 1 /85

1 78

1 726/30

212

1 776/80

1 56

1 82 1 /25

161

1 83 1 /35

1 76

1 886/90

1 24

1 9 1 6/20

66

1 5. Fi gures for 1 8 1 9, 1 837 and 1 83 8 are based on B leeker ( 1 846: 450-485) ; figures for 1 860 and 1 903/ 1 1 are based on Abeyasekere ( 1 987: 1 92- 1 94, 206) . 1 6. Based on Muller ( 1 846: tables A. B and F). 1 7. Calculated from V an Leeuwen and Oeppen ( 1 993 : 70-7 1 , 87).

Urban Pollution in Java

27

According to the statistics, the presumed extremely high mortality of Batavia seems a myth. The outcry of European writers against the pollution in Batavia does not necessarily prove that pollution was indeed more serious than it was in Europe. The Europeans in Batavia were obsessed with their own mortality rate, which was indeed high for an elite group. They were a small minority in the towns of Java, however, and no conclusions about the mortality of the total population can be drawn from them. It should not be forgotten that mortality among the Europeans in Batavia was strongly affected by the fact that Batavia was the final destination for the East India men on their journey from the Netherlands. Those who came fresh from the boat were often ill and weak already. Batavia, and to a lesser degree the other Javanese towns too, had large garrisons as well , and, as is obvious from the statistics, these contributed greatly to the high mortality rate among the Europeans too. Moreover, the complaints of the Europeans about the pollution in Batavia should probably be seen against the background of the general European image of the tropics. That climatic zone of the world was increasingly described as extremely hot, unhealthy, and unfit for Europeans. A class factor can also be discerned: wealthy Europeans, passing by on horseback and in fine clothes, objected to the activities of Chinese and Indonesian workers at the fish markets and tanneries. It is doubtful whether the Chinese and Indonesians themselves considered the results of their activities as serious pollution too .

Conclusion Pollution seems to be an almost unavoidable outcome of urban life as such, no matter in which culture or climate the towns and cities are situated. To some extent this conclusion supports Brandel's contested remark that "a city is always a city, regardless of location and time" (Brandel 1 988: 47 1 ) . On the other hand, the example of Surakarta proves that if a town was endowed with several fast flowing rivers, a low population density and few substantial industries, pollution could be considerably less , although not unimportant. These three local geographical factors were probably more important than climate or culture. At the end of the nineteenth century, however, the similarity in pollution char­ acteristics between the towns of Java and Europe disappeared. In Western Europe the battle against microbial pollution was won as a result of large-scale measures undertaken by the state to improve public hygiene: the construction of water mains and sewerage, coupled to the institution of organised waste disposal and street cleaning. The tragedy in Europe was that microbial pollution was replaced by a modem industrial pollution, with which we are still trying to cope today.

28

Luc Nagtegaal

In Java, however, microbial pollution has continued to be a serious concem. The European elite "solved" the sanitation problems for themselves by escaping to inland quarters, but failed to solve the problems of the old inner towns to the same extent as in Europe. Even today public health is a major problem in the slums of modem Jakarta, Semarang and Surabaya. Faeces are still the major source of water pollution. The tragedy of the Indonesian cities is that they have been caught up by modem industrial pollution before they have learned to cope with the "old" pollution. Now they have both mercury ani shit in their water. That is the worst of both worlds. BIBUOGRAPHY Soerakarta 1 843 Soerakarta in eenige bijzonderheden geschetst. Tijdschrift voor Nederlandsch Jndiii 2: 453 -482. Abeyasekere, S. 1 9 87 Death and di sease in nineteenth century Batavia. In: N. Owen (ed.), Death and disease in Southeast Asia; Explorations in social, medical and demographic h istory, pp. 1 89-209. Singapore: Oxford Universi ty Press. Abeyasekere, S. Jakarta: A history. Singapore: Oxford University Press. (Revi sed edition) 1 989 Bauer, E. 1 9 93 Umweltprobleme in Jndonesien mit besonderer Beriicksichtigung der urbanen Regio n en. University of Passau. (Unpublished thesis) B ernelot Moens, J.C. 1 873 Het drinkwater te B atavia. Geneeskundig Tijdschrift voor Nederlandsch-Jndiii 1 5: 275-488. Bleeker, P. 1 843 -46 Bijdrage tot de medische topographie van Batavia. Tijdschrift voor Neder­ landsch Indiii 5(2) ( 1 843) : 28 1 -332, 640-658 ; 6( 1 ) ( 1 844): 45 1 -478; 6(2) ( 1 844) : 97- 1 40 ; 7(3 ) ( 1 845) : 3 8 1 -41 8; 8(2) ( 1 846): 445-506. Fragmenten eener rei s over Java; Reis door d e binnenlanden v an Midden-Java. 1 85 0 Tijdschrift voor Nederlandsch Indie 1 2( 1 ): 3 97-41 5. B l usse, L. 1 986 Strange company. Chinese settlers, mestizo women and the Dutch in VOC Batavia. V erhandelingen KITLV 1 22. Dordrecht/Riverton: Fori s. Boomgaard, P. 1 987 Morbidity and mortal ity i n Java, 1 820- 1 880: Chan ging patterns of di sease and death. In: N. Owen (ed. ) , Death and disease in Southeast Asia; Explorations in social, medical and demographic history, pp. 48-69. Singapore: Oxford Uni­ vers i ty Press. 1 989 Children of the colonial state; Population growth and economic de ve lopment in Java, 1 795- 1880. Amsterdam: Free University Press . Boomgaard, P . and A .J. Gooszen Changing economy in Indonesia. Volume 1 1 . Population trends 1 795-1 942. 1 99 1 Amsterdam: KIT. Braude!, F. 1 988 Beschaving, economie en kapitalisme (15de-1 8de eeuw). Dee/ I. De structuur van het dagelijks Ieven. Amsterdam: Contact.

Urban Pollution in Java

29

B rugmans, I . J. 1 9 56 Statistieken van de Nederlandse nijverheid u it de eerste helft der 1 9e eeuw. Dee) I. RGP 98. 's-Gravenhage: Nijhoff. Chijs, J.A. van der Nij verheid i n Nederlandsch-Indie i n het jaar 1 858 volgens de administratieve 1861 verslagen der verschillende gewesten. Tijdschrift voor Nijverheid en Landbouw in Nederlandsch Jndie' 7(2): 1 25- 1 67. Chijs, J.A. v an der (ed . ) 1 885- 1 900Nederlandsch-Jndisch plakaatboek, 1 602 - 1 8 1 1 . 1 7 V o ls. Batavia/Den Haag: Landsdrukkerij Nijhoff. Duurkoop, A. Bekroond antwoord der vij fde algemeene prysvrage. Welke zyn de oorzaken, of 1 7 80 gewoone ziektens van Batavia, inzonderheid van de Rotkoortsze, etc. Verhan­ delingen van her Bataviaasch Genootschap der Kunsten en Wetenschappen 2 : 49 1 - 5 1 2 . Faber, G. H. von 1 93 1 Oud-Soerabaia. Soerabaia: Kolff. Faber, J.A. , H. A. Diederiks and S. Hart Urbani sering, industrialisering en milieuaantasting in Nederland in de periode 1 973 van 1 500 tot 1 800. A.A.G. Bijdragen 1 8: 25 1 - 27 1 . Haan, F. de 1 9 22 Oud Batavia. 3 Vols. Batav ia: Kol fC Hageman J. Cz. 1 858-60 Bijdragen tot de kennis van de residentie Soerabaja. Tijdschrift voor Neder­ landsch Indie' 20(2) ( 1 858): 85- 1 04; 2 1 ( 1 ) ( 1 859): 1 7-34; 22( 1 ) ( 1 860): 267277. Jansen, P. C. Nijverheid i n de noordelijke Nederlanden, 1 650- 1 780. In: P. C. Jansen, A lge­ 1 979 mene geschiedenis der Nederlanden, Deel 8, pp. 1 02- 1 23 . Haarlem: Fibula/ Van Di shoeck. Leeuwen, M. van, and J. E. Oeppen Reconstructing the demographic regime of Amsterdam 1 68 1 - 1 920. Economic 1 993 and Social History in the Netherlands 5: 6 1 - 1 02. Lombard, D. 1 989 Une description de Ia ville de Semarang vers 1 8 1 2 (d'apres un manuscri t de !'In­ dia Office). Archipel 37: 263-277. Muller, M.J. E. 1 845-46 Geneeskundi ge topographie van Samarang. Tijdschrift voor Nederlandsch Jndie' 7(3 ) ( 1 845): 3 14-380; 8( 1 ) ( 1 846): 327-347 ; 8(2) ( 1 846): 507-533. Nagtegaal , L. Rijden op een Hollandse tijger; De noordkust van Java en de VOC 1 680-1 743. 1 988 Universi ty of Utrecht. (Unpubli shed Ph. D. thesis) Oosterzee, P.C. van 1 86 1 Nota over de bereiding van huiden te Samarang. Tijdschrift voor Nijverheid en Landbouw in Nederlandsch-Jndie' 7(2): 3 1 5-3 1 6 . Raffles, T . S . 1 978 [ 1 8 1 7]The history of Java. Volume I . Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press. Reid, A. 1 988 Southeast Asia in the age of commerce, 1 450- 1 680. Volume 1. The lands below the winds. New Haven: Yale University Press. 1 993 Southeast Asia in the age of commerce 1450- 1 680. Volume 2 . Expansion and crisis. New Haven: Yale Uni versity Press.

30

Luc Nagtegaal

Semmelink, J. 1 8 85 Geschiedenis der cholera in Oost-lndiif v66r 181 7. Utrecht Breijer. V eth, P.J. 1 882 Java, geografisch, ethnologisch, historisch. Dee! 3 . Haarlem: De Erven F. Bohn. Vreede, W.G. 1861 Verslag der arti llerie konstruktie-winkel over het jaar 1 860. Tijdschrift voor Nijverheid en Landbouw in Nederlandsch lndiii 7(2): 375-40 1 . Zanden, J.L. van, and S.W. Verstegen 1 993 Groene geschiedenis van Nederland. Utrecht Spectrum.

THE PLAGUE Y EAR

Copra Beetles and Environmental Management in Colonial Padang Freek Colombijn

Introduction In this article I analyse the way the citizens of colonial Padang discussed an environ­ mental problem, namely a plague of rhinoceros beetles and copra beetles. Less than a decade ago the volume ''The Indonesian city" (Nas 1 986) paid no explicit attention to environmental problems, 1 and environmental concerns seem to be just a recent, trendy subject of research. However, this is not so. On the contrary, the environment deserves the continuous attention, not only of physical scientists but also of historians and other social scientists. Although by now everybody should be aware of the environmental sword of Damocles that is hanging over our heads, few people are prepared to make any serious changes in their polluting and consuming behaviour. Clive Ponting tells a very disquieting story about Easter Island in this respect. The different clans of this once advanced society competed in erecting the famous stone statues. To transport the massive statues the population used tree trunks as rollers. As competition between the clans mounted, more trees needed to be felled until the island was totally deforested and erosion could take its course. By 1 600 the society was deprived of its natural resources and collapsed. When Roggeveen, the first European visitor, reached the island he found the people living in squalid conditions and many statues were left stranded near the quarri es. Ponting concludes: ''The Easter Islanders, aware that they were almost completely isolated from the rest of the world, must surely have realised that their very existence depended

on

the limited resources

of a small island. After all it was small enough for them to walk round the entire island in a day or so and see for themselves what was happening to the forests. Yet they were unable to devise a system that allowed them to find the right balance with their environment. " (Ponting 1 99 1 : 1 -7).

1 . The env ironment formed the background, however, for articles about sanitary facilities (MCK) and scavengers on rubbish-dumps.

32

Freek Colombijn

Social scientists should study the conditions for environmental awareness, or the lack of it, and the process of how awareness develops into management of the envi­ ronment. Comparison of present and past cases can lead to a theory of environmental action (Galjart 1988: 88). I do not attempt to present such a theory here, and the aim of this article is merely to compare three cases from colonial Padang as a contribution to developing such a theory. The cases involve the same technical problem, namely the nuisance caused by the rhinoceros beetle and the copra beetle in various locations, to wit coconut palms, rubbish dumps, and copra stocks. These three situations are not only different biotopes of the beetles, but also places with a social value. The occurrence of large numbers of rhinoceros and copra beetles is a typical urban phe­ nomenon. The excessive growth of the beetle population, which disturbs the ecologi­ cal "equilibrium", is caused by man-made, exceptionally large rubbish dumps and co­ pra stocks that are usually found in cities only. The peak nuisance caused by the two kinds of beetles coincided in 1 9 1 8, the plague year. 2 Galjart ( 1 988: 85) states that there are always several interest groups involved in the creation and the solution of environmental problems . In line with this proposi­ tion, my basic assumption in this article is that interest groups try to shift the polluting consequences of their behaviour off onto other groups, or to deny any consequences. This attitude was particularly likely to occur in colonial Indonesia, which can be characterized as a plural society. A plural society can be defined as a society comprising two or more ethnic groups, which live side by side, yet without mingling, in one political unit. The only thing they have in common is the economic motive, and ethnic competition is not restrained by norms shared by all (Bruner 1 974; Furnivall 1 944). The well-known Memorandum for a bill on town planning, mainly the work of Thomas Karsten, is an application before its time of the concept of the plural society to the urban society. Different ethnic groups try to conquer and defend space for their activities such as housing, shops, and cemeteries (Toelichting 1938). Karsten could have added that the groups try to keep polluting and otherwise disturbing activities outside their territories. In short, as far as environmental problems are concerned, we can expect that in a plural society, even more than in homogeneous societies, ethnic groups tend to pass the buck to other groups. The excitement about the beetles may seem a trivial matter, but this is certainly not the case. The tiny creatures could be the starting point for a "situational analysis" 2 . The coincidence of the two plagues seems to be i ncidental . There is no symbiosis be­ tween the two kinds of beetles. The relationship between the biotopes of copra stores (fi lled with copra from the whole west coast of Sumatra and the islands off the coast) and the palm gardens in Padang is weak.

33

The Plague Year

(Van Velsen 1 967) which ends at the world market prices for copra and the war in Europe. However, the aim of this article is not to show once more how the distur­ bance of the ecological equilibrium in developing countries has its roots in the west (McNeely 1 992: 39-40), but, as I have said, to compare processes of environmental awareness and action. In this respect it is worth remarking that at Taman Mini in Jakarta the "awareness of the ecology of Indonesia" is symbolized by a new statue of a huge, marble beetle (Museums 1 993).

Rhirwceros Beetles in the Coconut Gardens In colonial times Padang was a very green place even by Indonesian standards. Travellers were unanimously struck by the appearance of one extended park.3 In the early nineteenth century the tree most often encountered in Padang was the nipah palm (Nipa fructicans). The leaves of this semi-wild marsh-palm were used for thatched roofs, but also as wrappers for roll-your-own cigarettes (so-called strootjes).4 Later the coconut palm (Cocos nucifera) also became common. The most valuable part of this tree is the fruit, the "nut", which is used for cords, mats, spoons, and mugs . Copra is the dried pulp and forms the basis for margarine (Encyclopaedie II, 1 9 1 8: 255-257; III, 1 9 1 9: 36; Mogea 1 99 1 ). The

uts were plucked by Niasans,

cocon

who were specialized in this activity, or by trained monkeys. The rhinoceros beetles are among the worst pests affecting coconut palms and perhaps also nipah palms. The rhinoceros beetl e (Oryctes rhinoceros, in Dutch: klappertor, or "coconut-beetle") is a member of the family of scarabs. The males have sometimes a hom on their head, which gives them a remote resemblance to rhinoceros. The adults, which are about four centimetres long, bore into the palm leaves to feed on the sap and cause much damage. When they have eaten the apical bud of the palm, the tree dies off. The beetles lay eggs in putrid vegetable waste, like refuse dumps, remains of nipah wrappers, and decaying trunks . The putrid material provides nutrients for the larvae after these have hatched from the eggs. After two to four months the larvae, which are harmless, become pupas and then adult beetles. The beetles move between the palms to feed and the places to breed. At dusk, between six and seven o'clock, they fly around (Leefmans n.y.5; Weng-Yew Tung 1 983 : 57, 66).

3. For example Fogg ( 1 924); Hoevenaars ( 190 1 : 63) ; Maass ( 1 9 1 0: 34). For pictures, see Amran ( 1 988: 93-95). 4. In 1 83 1 the administration attempted to have the nipah palms, that hindered the drainage, cut to improve the sani tary situation (Kiel stra 1 888: 335). Thi s early example of environmental policy had no enduring s uccess, because the trees were too valuable to the peop l e . 5. As we shal l see, the report o f Leefmans was based on research in Padang.

34

Freek Colombijn

In 1 905 the governor of West Swnatra issued a by-law for the protection of coconut gardens. 6 The by-law obliged cultivators of coconut trees to clear dead trees or trees infested with rhinoceros beetles. Owners of nipah trees were required to cut remaining trees down to the ground and burn all waste material . Offenders could be punished with fines of ten to twenty-five guilders for Europeans, and one to ten guilders for autochthonous residents. In 1 9 1 1 , after the term of the by-law of the governor had expired, the municipal administration of Padang proposed that the council reissue the same by-law , which by then was deemed even more necessary than it had been six years before (Sumatra Bode 1 1 - 1 1 - 1 9 1 1 ) . In the discussion in the council one autochthonous member, Datuk Sutan Maharadja, argued that infected trees should not be cut down immediately, because of the financial loss to the cultivator. A cultivator should have three months' grace to fight the beetles, otherwi se the by-law might become a bigger plague than the beetles. The European councillors, who had an assured majority and who were perhaps annoyed by the swarms of beetles infesting the evening air, rejected his plea (Sumatra Bode 22- 1 1 - 1 9 1 1 ) . The discussion between Dt. St. Maharadja and his European colleagues gives the impression that the dividing line between interest groups ran along ethnic lines. Indeed, the owners of coconut gardens were to be found among the Minangkabau residents and also among Indo-Europeans and the autochthonous group of Niasans ; Chinese, who lived in densely built shophouses, and Europeans, who usually remained temporarily in Padang, did not own yards with coconut trees. Dt. St. Maharadja received unsolicited help from Batavia. The Director of the Department of Justice, after having consulted the Director of the Department for Trade, Agriculture, and Industries, recommended deleting the provision that not only deal but also infected trees should be cut down. Both Directors were of the opinion that diseased trees could be treated and it would be an unnecessary loss to destroy them. The council then adjusted the by-law in line with this recommendation (Sumatra Bode 1 2-6- 1 9 1 2). There is no detailed information about the implementation of the by-law , but from 1 907 comes the report that the by-law was "very poorl y" observed (Swnatra Bode 9- 1 - 1 907). In any case, the measures taken could not exterminate the beetles and the damage done to coconut trees grew so severe that the central government had to provide help. This time the refuse dwnp seemed to be one of the main causes.

6. Verordening ter bescherming van de ter hoofdplaats Padang aanwezige klapperaan­ planti n gen.

The Plague Year

35

Experimental Solutions for the Refuse Dump In 1 9 1 7 the Department for Trade, Agriculture and Industries, sent an entomologist, S . Leefmans, to study why so many coconut trees in Padang were damaged by the beetle. Leefmans found that the infected trees all grew near the refuse dump, which was mainly made up of leaves from yards and vegetable rubbish from the market, in short an excellent incubator for the larvae. Three-quarters of the trees in the vicinity of the refuse dump were damaged or dead. He advised either burning the rubbish more efficiently than before, or setting up a rubbish dump away from coconut trees (Verslag Padang 1 9 1 9: 77-80). After Leefmans had made his first report he started experimenting with other ways of disposing of the rubbish. Refuse collection and processing became a political issue in Padang in 1 9 1 8 . The discussion was initiated by stories of outbreaks of the bubonic plague in Medan, but soon centred on the beetles. The threat of plague urged the administration to start to collect rubbish in the kampung, where up to that time no dust-carts had ever pene­ trated. The residents in the kampung usually disposed of their rubbish by burning it. Now the administration foresaw a big increase in the refuse collected and looked for new ways to dispose of it. The director of municipal works proposed a new, bigger incinerator, but the council deemed the expenditure required for an untested incinerator unjustified. Instead, the council decided to experiment with the dumping of the rubbish in the sea at such a distance that there was little chance of the waste being washed back on the shore again (Sumatra Bode 1 6-5- 1 9 1 8). Two weeks later the council held a closed session, the outcome of which became known later. The above-mentioned consultant, Leefmans, advised against the disposal of the rubbish in the sea, because the rubbish might damage the fisheries? Leefmans had been experimenting with the use of the waste material as landfill to build up the marsh-land in Padang. When the newspaper Sumatra Bode gave misinformed reports , Leefmans disclosed prematurely the state of affairs o f his experiments (Sumatra Bode 29-5- 1 9 18, 13-6- 1 9 1 8). Leefmans proposed to cover the refuse dump with a layer of 30 to 50 centimetres of sand.8 The sand would prevent the beetles from laying their eggs in the decomposing material (Sumatra Bode 1 5-6- 1 9 1 8 ; see further Leefmans n.y. ) . The municipal council , and i n particular the council's committee on health affairs, was not wholly convinced by Leefmans. Two months after the secret meeting, the council decided: firstly, to abandon the idea of throwing the rubbish into the sea; secondly, for the time being to dispose of the rubbish in dumps covered with a layer 7. Dead leaves and branches clogged up the nets (Verslag Padang 1 9 1 9: 80). 8. Later, when Leefmans had completely concluded his tests, he would think 20 centime­ tres sufficient.

36

Freek Colombijn

of sand; thirdly, to make further study of an incinerator. It was thought that in the long run , the use of rubbish as landfill would pollute the underground water. Later the director of municipal works gave a favourable report on an incinerator in Bandung, and an entry to build one was put pro memoria on the annual budget (Sumatra Bode 3 1 -7- 1 9 18, 6-9- 1 9 1 8 ; Verslag Padang 1 9 1 9: 8 1 -83). The "temporary" solution of

dumping rubbish, whether or not covered with sand, was, however, used until at least 1 930 (Sumatra Bode 3 - 1 - 1 930) and is still used today. In 1 9 1 8 Padang was troubled by yet another beetle, the copra beetle, that swarmed through the town. An irritated resident wrote a mocking poem in the Suma­ tra Bode, of which the first lines ran as follows: Sweet, little blue beetles Swarming through the whole of Padang And, one cannot but admit, That they go too far In the soup and in your ears, In your shirt, and wherever­ Everywhere those musty beetles They are a nuisance to one and all 9 The Copra Stocks as Breeding-ground for Political Cleavages The copra beetle (Necrobia rufipes), in Dutch called copra-torretje, is only 5 mm in length. The beetles are harmless to human beings but a nuisance when they fly in dense sw arms (Gressitt and Hornabrook 1 977: 44; Sumatra Bode 2- 1 0- 1 9 18). The

larvae feed on the copra stores, and these stores became a topic of heated debate in Padang. Padang copra was notorious for its bad quality, moist and mixed with sand, so that European firms sometimes expressly asked for "Netherlands Indies Mixed [copra] no Padang". Nevertheless, copra was one of the main export products, which made up 28 percent of total exports from Padang between 1 906 and 1 940. During the First World War the unrestricted German submarine warfare and other risks drove up insur­ ance premiums, so that the shipping of cheap bulk goods, including copra, became impossible (fable 1 ; Colombijn 1 99 1 : 1 6 1 - 1 64). Trading firms , which speculated 9. "Lieve, kleine, blauwe torretjes ; Vliegen door heel Padang rond; En, je moet 't wei erkennen ; Maken 't wat al te bont. In je soep en in je oren; In je hemd en waar al niet-; Overal die vunze torreties; 't Is een algemeen verdriet. " The poem was signed with the name Frederic ( S umatra B ode 25-5- 1 9 1 8).

37

The Plague Year

Table 1 : The export of copra, 1 906- 1 923 .

va l u e

vo l u m e

30

12 10

25

8

20 6 15 4

10

2

5 0

1 9 06

1910

1914

1918

1923

Ye a r

Bars:

Volume i n metri c tons.

Line:

Val ue in thousands of gui lders, current prices.

Source:

Statistiek van den handel ( 1 907- 1 925).

that pent-up demand could be satisfied at great profit once the war was over, continued to buy up copra. At the same time two oil factories , the N.Y. Oliefabrieken Insulinde and the N.Y. Nederlandsch Indische Oliefabrieken (a daughter-company of the firm Jurgens), were being built in Padang, and were already forming stock-piles of the raw material. Together the factories had a capacity to process bigger quantities of copra than were available in all of West Sumatra and the prospect of factories outbidding each other was a second stimulus for speculators to hoard copra. The year after the war, 1 9 19, was indeed a boom year for exports of copra. Both the copra-oil factories were, however, closed in 1 92 1 because of global overcapacity of production. The developments in Padang were not isolated, but closely followed the global trend (Karnerling 1 982: 38-50, 1 02 ; Yerslag Kamer van Koophandel 1 9 17- 1 924). The

0

Freek Colombijn

38

hoarding of copra led to enormous stocks in Padang. These stocks lay in the godowns on the quayside of the River Arau, in a cinema and shophouses in the Chinese Kamp (Chinese quarter), around the factory of the Nederlandsch Indische Oliefabrieken near the railway station, around the factory of Insulinde in Emmahaven harbour, and in a new godown of Insulinde between the beach and the centre of Padang (Map 1 ) . The stocks not only caused a stench, but were also the cause, at least according to public opinion, for the infestation of copra beetles. The last year of the war, 1 9 1 8, thus became the plague year. Anger steadily mounted and in May 1 9 1 8 there were calls to forbid the storage of copra (Sumatra Bode 2 1 -5- 1 9 18, 22-5- 1 9 1 8). In June the municipal council discussed the matter and decided to hand it over to the new committee on health affairs (Sumatra Bode 26-6- 1 9 1 8) . The plague year coincided with a fundamental change i n the local politics. Before 1 9 1 8 councillors were elected as individuals on the basis of their personal prestige. In practice this meant that the council was dominated by representatives of the big European trading firms. These representatives were so-called "trekkers", who came to Padang for a short period and were then transferred to another post. Most of the trekkers were "totok" Europeans, born and raised in Europe and of purely European descent. An example was the councillor A.E. Simon Thomas, director of the Padangsche Handel Maatschappij (Pahamij) and chairman of the Chamber of Commerce and of the Trade Association (Handelsvereeniging). The decision to estab­ lish a national advisory parliament, the V olksraad, which was expected to be more politicized, encouraged the founding of electoral associations in Padang. In 1 9 1 8 the Padangsche K.iesvereeniging was founded to defend the interests of the permanent residents, the so-called ''blij vers ", who were generally Indo-European (Sumatra Bode 26-4- 1 9 1 8) . The electoral association enjoyed an instant success: in a by-election in May 1 9 1 8 its candidate W. van Daalen was elected, together with a man called J.P.H. Lindner, while A. Winkelman, the candidate of the trading firms was defeated (Sumatra Bode 6-5- 1 9 18). The Padangsche K.iesvereeniging formed a challenge to the dominance of the trading firms, and the storage of copra was the first issue on which the two sides clashed. In August 1 9 1 8 the council's committee on health affairs proposed a by-law about the storage of copra in response to complaints by citizens . The committee was composed of the above-mentioned Van Daalen and Lindner, and a third man. The essence of the by-law was a map of Padang\vith a red line demarcating in which part

of the town copra storage was allowed. The suggested zone was restricted to the quayside, along the railway, and at the northern outskirts ; the rest of the town was off-limits (Map 1 ) .

39

The Plague Year

-

· ·-· · - · ·1

I I I I I

Map 1 : Padang in 19 18. Proposed area prohibited for copra storage, August 19 1 8 Proposed area prohibited for copra storage, September 19 18 \ \

Quayside with trading firms Chinese quarter

*

Godown NV Oliefabrieken Insulinde

+

Factory NV Nederlandsch Indische Oliefabrieken

Source: Sumatra Bode ( 19-8- 19 1 8, 10- 10- 19 18).

40

Freek Colombijn

However, and this was a moderate clause, as far as there were already stores within the prohibited zone, these were allowed to remain there (Sumatra Bode 19-81 9 1 8). The Oliefabrieken Insulinde felt disadvantaged by the draft, because it had just bought a godown for copra which lay within the prohibited zone, between the beach and the centre, and which would consequently become useless . Insulinde wrote a rude letter to the council asking it to reject the idea of a prohibited zone. The Trade Association in Padang did not oppose the by-law on principle but submitted another map that suggested a much wider area in which storage would be allowed. In September of that year the committee

on

health affairs made a new draft which met

the wishes of the Trade Association half-way , but still excluded the godown of Insulinde. The head of the municipal administration, Assistent-Resident P.C. Arends, now suggested the municipal council first discuss the principle of zoning, instead of continuing to haggle about the borderline. At the meeting of the council of 8 October 1 9 1 8, Arends defended the standpoint of Insulinde. The council, however, unani ­ mously backed1 0 the committee on health affairs in its attempt to make a by-law and even ordered Arends to protest to Insulinde about the rude tone of the latter's letter (Sumatra Bode 1 0- 10- 1 9 18; Verslag Padang 1 9 19: 95-96). The real debate took place after the council meeting in letters to the editor of the Sumatra Bode. Winkelman opened the paper war. He first remarked that copra prices were slumping, because traders were afraid to buy up copra in view of the prospect that their place of storage might be declared off-limits. One firm had felt compelled to build a new godown at Emmahaven harbour, beyond the municipal jurisdiction, and was now the only firm on the market. The small men - petty traders, and producers would suffer most of all from this by-law , which was not in the public interest. Then he went on to point out that the committee had done a bad job. It was ridiculous that the factory of the Nederlandsch Indische Oliefabrieken, which was being built under the auspices of the Pahamij , should lie in the prohibited zone (Sumatra Bode 1 1 - 101 9 18). The next day Simon Thomas added to the letter of Winkelman that the public interest was best served by promoting trade and making Padang a competitive trading place, and not by curbing the economy because of some temporary nuisance by beetles, of which the deleterious effect on human beings still had to be proved. He denied that the oil-factory, being constructed by his own firm Pahamij , lay in the prohibited zone. He concluded that the council was incompetent, which the voters should bear in mind at the next election (Sumatra Bode 1 2- 1 0- 1 9 1 8).

1 0. Simon Thomas was away o n a business trip.

The Plague Year

41

On 14 October 1 9 1 8, the irritated Van Daalen and Lindner hit back. Replying to Winkelman they first pointed out that there were many causes for the price-slump and it was not right to blame the proposed by-law . The fact that the petty traders and pro­ ducers would not suffer by the by-law was shown by the absence of any complaints by them. It was the big trading firms that were making a fuss (Sumatra Bode 1 4- 1 01 9 1 8). The fury of an anonymous letter-writer was less restrained. He or she replied to Simon Thomas that the latter wanted to turn Padang into one big trade and indus­ trial zone ( "eene groote handels- en fabriekswijk"), whereas the citizens could move to the fringes. ''What a splendid egoism -oh ! Sorry ! I mean private initiative for the public good" of Simon Thomas ! The anonymous writer accused the big trading firms of misusing the by-law to force down prices (Sumatra Bode 1 5- 1 0- 1 9 1 8). After this exchange of salvos, more letters appeared in which Winkelman, Simon Thomas, and the anonymous writer merely repeated old arguments (Sumatra Bode 1 510- 19 1 8, 17- 1 0- 1 9 1 8). The quarrel about the by-law was then interrupted by general elections for half of the seats in the council. In fact, it is possible that several letter­ writers had seized the issue as an opportunity to put themselves forward in the election campaign. In this election Simon Thomas lost his seat and Winkelman was also beaten (Sumatra Bode 22- 1 0- 1 9 1 8). On 26 November 1 9 1 8, the council formally approved the by-law on copra-storage with a slight modification in order to completely include the factory of Nederlandsch Indische Oliefabrieken. However, the godown of Insulinde remained excluded (Sumatra Bode 28- 1 1 - 1 9 1 8). The by-law