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FOCUS: Starting
From Kilometre Zero
by Andreas Harsono, The Star Newspaper
The Indonesian government’s declaration of martial
law and military offensive against Acehnese separatists
recently drew international attention to the troubled
province on the western tip of Sumatra. ANDREAS HARSONO
explains in a carefully researched and thoughtful essay
why many Acehnese are fighting for independence from
Jakarta.
IN 1926 an Indonesian journalist who lived in Batavia,
then the colonial name of Jakarta, wrote a book about
his cruise from Batavia to Amsterdam. inAdi Negoro described
in his two-series travelogue Melawat ke Barat (“Traveling
to the West”) his stopovers in more than two dozens
international cities such as Singapore, Medan, Colombo,
Aden, Port Said, Marseille, Lisbon, Algiers, Gibraltar
and Southampton. It was an eye-opening book of the early
20th century Dutch Indies –the colonial name of
this vast archipelago. Adi Negoro mixed day-to-day stories
with references to classical books, ranging from anthropology,
to theology, from history to philosophy.
One of his interesting pauses was the seaport of Sabang
on Weh Island in northern Sumatra where the Tambora had
stopped to load up coal. Adi Negoro took a car ride around
Sabang and compared the Sabang harbour with the more
modern British-controlled Singapore where his ship had
stopped earlier.
“If we compare only the ports, Sabang is obviously better than Singapore.
But Sabang’s location is not that strategic. Although the Dutch government
had made Sabang into a freeport, but it is not as busy as Singapore.” (Both
seaports are located on the Straits of Malacca.)
He also wrote a little history. The Dutch built the Sabang
harbour in 1887. Sabang Maatschappij, a private company
commissioned by the Dutch government to manage the freeport,
further developed the harbour between 1896 and 1911.
It was equipped with a 2,600-ton ship repair dock. It
also had four giant cranes that busily loaded up coal
into ships entering Sabang from Europe, China, Japan,
Singapore, Batavia and other places. In 1924 the company
built another dock, 5,000 tons, to increase its repairing
capacity.
“The livelihood of most people in Sabang depends on this seaport. There
was a Kampoeng Tionghoa (Chinatown) near the harbour which was packed with stores
and restaurants. Behind the harbour were the workers’ lodgings. On the
seaside were offices of shipping companies such as Rotterdamsche Llyod Lloyd
and Maatschappy Nederland,” Adi Negoro wrote.
What Adi Negoro he did not write was that Sabang was
a part of Aceh –the stubborn territory that had
fought against the Dutch colonialism between 1876 and
1904. The Dutch built Sabang not only to get for economic
gain but also to help pacify the Acehnese.
Last June, I spent one hour in a speedboat to reach Sabang
from Banda Aceh, the provincial capital of Aceh. with
a speed boat. The Sabang harbour was picturesque with
small fishing boats and tin-roofed warehouses. Outside
the harbour was a small street and 300m meters away was
the Chinatown named Jalan Perdagangan where Chinatown
was located.
Outside the harbour, A pedicab driver, whose motorcycle
was outfitted with a locally-made sidecar, approached
me and offered a ride.
Note : Reprinted from Star Magazine, 14 September 2003
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