Censorship in Colonial Indonesia, 1901–1942

305 Pages·2019·2.629 MB·English

by  Nobuto Yamamoto

Censorship in Colonial Indonesia, 1901–1942
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Library of the Written Word
Editor-in-Chief
Michael B. Winship (The University of Texas at Austin)
Editorial Board
Bill Bell (The Cardiff School of English, Communication & Philosophy)
Lisa Gitelman (New York University)
Lisa Kuitert (University of Amsterdam)
Claire Parfait (University of Paris, 13)
volume 75
The Industrial World
Series Editor
Michael B. Winship (The University of Texas at Austin)
volume 7
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/lww
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Censorship in Colonial
Indonesia, 1901–1942
By
Nobuto Yamamoto
leiden | boston
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Cover illustration: Hoofdbestuur, Poesaka V.S.T.P., Collectie Documentatiebureau voor Overzees Recht.
©Nationaal Archief, Den Haag, The Netherlands. Collectie Documentatiebureau voor Overzees Recht,
1894-1963, nummer toegang 2.20.61, folder: 144.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Yamamoto, Nobuto, 1963- author.
Title: Censorship in colonial Indonesia, 1901-1942 / Nobuto Yamamoto.
Description: Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2019. | Series: Library of the
written word, 18744834 ; volume 75 | Includes bibliographical references
and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019026320 (print) | LCCN 2019026321 (ebook) | ISBN
9789004362543 (hardback) | ISBN 9789004412408 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Freedom of the press--Indonesia--History--20th century. |
Censorship--Indonesia--History--20th century. | Government and the
press--Indonesia--History--20th century.
Classification: LCC Z658.I5 Y36 2019 (print) | LCC Z658.I5 (ebook) | DDC
363.3109598--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019026320
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019026321
Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill-typeface.
issn 1874-4834
isbn 978-90-04-36254-3 (hardback)
isbn 978-90-04-41240-8 (e-book)
Copyright 2019 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi,
Brill Sense, Hotei Publishing, mentis Verlag, Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh and Wilhelm Fink Verlag.
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This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable manner.
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Contents
Acknowledgements  vii
Glossary  ix
Introduction  1
1 Liberal Winds  22
2 Ethical Policy and Patronage  44
3 The Age of Press Monitoring  59
4 Persdelict  92
5 Reactions to Persdelict  114
6 Press Monitoring Reconsidered  153
7 Persbreidel and Containment  176
8 The Japan Factor  205
9 Persbreidel and the Chinese Factor  227
Conclusion  256
Appendix 1  265
Appendix 2  269
Bibliography  274
Index  291
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Acknowledgements
My debts over the years of carrying out research for this book are immense,
too great for the names of all those who helped me to be listed here. Benedict
Anderson—my mentor, my adviser, and my friend—sadly passed away before
this book, originally written as a doctoral thesis under his guidance, was pub-
lished. I owe Ben my most important intellectual debts. His enthusiasm for and
criticism of this book at various stages were more valuable than I can convey
in words.
In the formative stages of this book I became indebted to my teachers and
colleagues in Japan, the United States, the Netherlands, Malaysia, and Indo-
nesia, although some of them are no longer alive to see it published. Shiraishi
Takashi, Peter Katzenstein, James Siegel, John Wolff, Tsuchiya Kenji, Audrey
Kahin, Hendrik Maier, Onghokham, Oshikawa Noriaki, Kato Tsuyoshi, Matsu-
moto Saburo, Murai Yoshinori, Royama Michio, and Kato Takashi have shaped
my thinking about Indonesia and Southeast Asia and broadened it through
comparative perspectives. Eric Tagliacozzo, Thomas Pepinsky, Francis Loh,
Leonard Blussé, and Kaneko Yoshiki afforded critical assistance without which
this book could not have been completed.
A number of friends deserve recognition for their encouragement and all-
around good company in the United States, Indonesia, the Netherlands, and
Japan. These include Ben Abel, Eveline Ferretti, Made Supriatma, Kazuko
and Gunarso Budiman, the late Jeffrey Hadler, Anne-Mette and Louis Han-
sells and their family, Rob Manning, Caroline S. Hau, Douglas Kammen, Peter
Keppy, Norbertus Nuranto, Sarah Maxim, Peter Post, and in particular Joss Wi-
bisono and Hans Weening, who patiently answered questions regarding the
Dutch translations.
Support for my research and writing was made possible by grants from
the Ishizaka Foundation; the Southeast Asia Program and the Government
Department at Cornell University; the Carnegie Mellon Foundation; the Min-
istry of Education, Culture and Science of the Netherlands Government; the
Ohira Memorial Foundation; the Murata Foundation; the Sakurada-kai Foun-
dation; the International House of Japan; and Keio Gijuku Academic Develop-
ment Funds.
Several institutions provided affiliations for me to conduct research: the
former Institute of History of European Expansion at Leiden University, the
Indonesian Institute of Sciences in Jakarta, the Department of Social Science
at the Science University of Malaysia in Penang, the Department of Languag-
es and Cultures of Southeast Asia and Oceania at Leiden University, and the
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viii Acknowledgements
Southeast Asia Program at Cornell University. Imperative archival and library
facilities for my research include the Kroch Library’s Echols Collection at Cor-
nell University, the former Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian
and Caribbean Studies (KITLV) library in Leiden, the central library of Leiden
University, the National Archives of the Netherlands in The Hague, the Royal
Tropical Institute (KIT) library in Amsterdam, and the Indonesian National Ar-
chives and National Library in Jakarta.
Parts of earlier versions of this book were presented at various conferences
and published on other occasions, although they have been considerably re-
vised since. I am indebted to those—too numerous to mention—who gave
constructive inputs at various stages. In particular I am grateful for the invalu-
able comments and suggestions to the manuscript from Brill’s editors and
anonymous reviewers. At different stages Sunandini Arora Lal and Eveline Fer-
retti did superb work copy-editing the manuscript. All errors, however, remain
mine.
Finally, I am indebted to my parents, Reiko and Benso, for their love and
support. I also thank my sister Seiko and her family in Japan as well as my
families-in-law in Indonesia. My greatest thanks are reserved for my wife, Betty
Chandra, without whom this book would not have been completed. An insig-
nificant gesture to be sure—given her contribution, humor, patience, and en-
couragement—this book is nonetheless dedicated to her.
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Glossary
adat tradition, custom
Balai Poestaka state publishing house and bureau
for popular literature
Boedi Oetomo Noble Endeavour
boepati indigenous regent
haatzaai-artikelen hate-sowing articles
Indische Partij Indies Party
Indische Vereeniging Indies Students Association
indo Eurasian
kapitan Tjina a civil official appointed by the colo-
nial authorities to oversee the local
Chinese community
Kuomintang Chinese Nationalist Party
Kweekschool Teachers’ Training School
Landraad District Court
peranakan Chinese local-born mixed-blood Chinese,
generally Malay- or Javanese-
speaking; creolized Chinese
persbreidel press curbing ordinance
persdelict press offence
Raad van Justitie Court of Justice
Raad van Nederlandsch-Indië Council of the Netherlands Indies
Rechtshoogeschool Law College
Sarekat Islam Islamic Association
Sarekat Prijaji Aristocrats Association
spreekdelict speech offence
totok Chinese full-blooded, more recent Chinese
immigrants, whose mother tongues
were various Chinese dialects
Volksraad People’s Council in the Indies, estab-
lished in 1918
Volkslectuur the Dutch name of Balai Poestaka
wedono middle-ranking official of the native
territorial bureaucracy
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