The Eurasians of Indonesia: Castaways of Colonialism

THE PRESENT-DAY problem of the Eurasians of Indonesia became acute soon after the transfer of sovereignty from the Dutch colonial administration to the new State of Indonesia in Ig49. The problem had been smoldering, however, for a considerable period of time, having developed from the existence of a colonial society and of an official Dutch policy with regard to the offspring of Europeans and members of the indigenous population. The primary social division in Indonesia during the first centuries of Dutch rule was a religious onebetween and Non-Christians. The racial division was secondary.' A code for the registration of vital statistics was established in I828 for all Christians and Jews. It made the registration of births, marriages and deaths compulsory and Article 69 of the code stipulated that the registration of a child by an unmarried had to be accepted.2 This registration in the minds of many people became synonymous with belonging to the group. A significant fact was that not only were the legal children of fathers and Indonesian mothers included in the statistics, but also the children born out of concubinage, provided the father them as his children. Without this recognition by the father, the child was Indonesian; with it, the child had the legal of the father.3 Later, the law of i892 on Dutch Nationality stipulated that anyone who was the legal, legalized or paternally recognized child of a father who possessed Dutch citizenship at the time of the child's birth was a Dutch citizen by right of birth.4 Since concubinage was widespread among soldiers and other Europeans and many were not willing to recognize their offspring, the number of children who did not qualify for European status far