Tag: Indonesia stamp

Categories
Uncategorized

Indonesia 1992, Its time to party with the functional groups, to make this country function

Indonesia has not been a huge success as an independent country despite ample resources and a large population. Some feel it is because the country traded one colonial master for another. If only power could be shifted to institutions controlled by natives. That would get the party started, the Golkar party. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

Here we have a topical bird stamp meant for world collectors from a poorer post colonial nation. There are two signs on it of a greater ambition. One is that they at least show you a bird from Java. The other is the poor, dated, local printing. They were at least doing for themselves, a functioning group necessary to get the party started.

Todays stamp is issue A403, a 200 Rupiah stamp issued by Indonesia on July 1st, 1992. It was a four stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

Indonesia has a population that is about 2 percent people of Chinese heritage. This was true in the Dutch conducted census of 1930 and continues today. That may be a surprise to people outside as the majority of immigrant Indonesian communities in the USA and Australia are Chinese. At the time of being the Dutch East Indies, the Chinese were counted as a separate class and kept out of pieces of the economy. That changed with independence. The Chinese quickly took a leading role in the economy and were a powerful force for secularism and communism in politics. Ties to mainland China were close.

Well how did that work out for the native population? Not very well. The wealth that used to head for Holland now went to the Chinese and there was much resentment of flashy Chinese wealth in Indonesia. Wasn’t that supposed to be over after the Dutch left. In the late 1960s, Indonesia got a new leader President Suharto. He tried to purge the leading Chinese and reorganize Society. He thought instead of political parties there should be a leadership of functional, ethnic Indonesian groups. The A group was the armed forces, the B group was the Bureaucrats and the big G group which was everybody else. There is much talk of cruelty and repression of the Chinese but I would point out the continuity of the Chinese population despite their lower birth rate.

The problems got a little better but not entirely. Obviously in a country like Indonesia the people of the G group just don’t matter. The people of the A and B group can be often bought off by the rich Chinese. Over 30 years after the reorganization of society under Suharto’s Golkar system, the 2 percent of the people that are of Chinese heritage control 73% of the financial assets of the country.

After Suharto the Golkar movement was forced to become just a political party. They have been in and out of power. There platform currently is a program to lift the average Indonesian to the wealth of the member of a first tier nation. They hope to achieve this by 2045 when by their measure, there are others see https://the-philatelist.com/2017/11/24/well-we-think-we-are-independant-we-have-a-constitution-a-flag-and-austrian-stamps/   , Indonesia will have been independent from the Dutch for 100 years. You could argue that the Chinese rose based on merit and Indonesia is not just a colonial outpost of China as it was for the also few in number Dutch. Can a minority of 2 percent really be allowed to control three quarters of the economy Eventually the writing on the wall in southern Africa said no whatever the consequence. So far Golkar in Indonesia is just a party and the Chinese are still dancing.

Well my drink is empty and being stuck at home I may have another and rewatch “Crazy Rich Asians”. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

Categories
Uncategorized

Maluku Selatan after 1955, Fake stamp but interesting story

As might be expected after a long Dutch colonial period, not all Indonesians were Muslims. Some were Dutch Protestants and so perhaps understandably were nervous about independence from Holland. Being in the majority in a few islands in the South Moluccas, and feeling the Indonesians had reneged on the promise of a federal state with some autonomy, rebellious veterans of the Dutch colonial army declared the Republic of Maluku Selatan. Declaration does not make reality but soon enough an enterprising stamp dealer came calling. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

No post office, no legitimate stamp is an understandable philately rule. The first stamps of Maluku Selatan have the best arguments for legitimacy. They were just overprints of Dutch colonial issues from the brief period that the islands were not in Indonesian control. Being overprints proved the rebels were in the old Dutch colonial post offices. Were they still delivering mail?

There is not value or issue date for this stamp. Stamp dealer Henry Stolow had printed in Vienna circa 150 stamp issues under the name Maluku Selatan between 1955 and 1971.

There had been some Christian missionary work in the Dutch Indies. Many Christians were from the island of Ambon which was where the Dutch first landed in 1605. A good percentage of the males went on to serve in the Dutch colonial army. Being dark skinned, they were not held as POWs as ethnic Dutch were during the World War II Japanese occupation. The Indonesian independence movement received much of their organization during the Japanese occupation. Post war, the Maluku soldiers did not desire disbanding or transfer  to the new Indonesian Army. Claiming truthfully that the post independence Indonesian government was more centralized than what they had agreed to, several south Malluccan islands declared independence under President Christiian Soumokil. The capital was Ambon. 5 months after the declaration in 1950 the Indonesian army landed in Ambon. Guerilla resistance on the islands lasted till 1963. After fighting started the Dutch changed their tune and started offering transport to Holland for Christian Mallucans. A government of Maluku Selatan in exile set up in Holland that still exists. Christiian Sourmokil had remained behind to lead the guerilla fighters. He was eventually captured by Indonesia and executed in 1966.

From 1950, the government in exile issued a few new design postage stamps that were not recognized. In 1955 stamp dealer Henrey Stolow contracted with Vienna printers for printing stamps in the name of the Republic of Maluku Selatan. He was also working with several newly independent African nations and his authority was not questioned. Stolow was a Jew born in Riga, Latvia who started as a stamp dealer in Berlin in 1919. The Nazi regime of 1933 saw him move on to Brussels and then on to New York. In New York he bought the collections of several prominent philatelists for well publicized auctions. Among the prominent collections were Franklin Roosevelt, Cardinal Spellman, and deposed Kings Carol II of Romania and Farouk of Egypt. Normally the dealing in fake stamps is considered not reputable but it did not seem to effect Stolow’s career. He later returned to Germany and his operation continues still using his name 49 years after his death. It is currently  based in Munich. A nephew of Stolow is still active in New York.

Well my drink is empty and I will salute the Christian Missionary. When one sees the trouble caused for the small percentage of converts, one can understand why modern Christian organizations seem to concentrate solely on charity. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. I will have a legitimate stamp for you.

Categories
Uncategorized

Netherland Indies 1903, Dutch leadership of Indonesia goes from a cultivation system to an ethical policy to a communist mutiny

After the Napoleonic Wars, the Netherlands needed the Indies to transform into a cash cow. The extent that it did so meant that Liberals could then afford to reevaluate their position regarding natives. What about the natives themselves? Well, it was a different world then. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

Todays stamp is a bulk mail issue featuring then Queen Wilhelmina. There is no effort to display the colony on any Netherland Indies stamp prior to 1938. This is perhaps a consequence of decisions for the place being a conversation between Dutchmen alone.

Todays stamp is issue A9, a 10 Cent stamp issued by the Netherland Indies colony of Holland in modern day Indonesia starting in 1903. It was a 10 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

Indonesia had been under Dutch control for hundreds of years, first as a for profit company and then as a colony. It had been a consistent money loser. After the Napoleonic Wars and with continued troubles in Belgium it became critical the colony begin to turn a profit. A cultivation system was put in place that required either 20 % of a villages land or 2 months of labor on the part of peasants go toward crops for export. In reality this moved the vast bulk of land from food production for locals or non use to export crops. Large, efficient rubber plantations began to generate much revenue both in the Indies and for the Netherlands. The Dutch did a slightly better job than the British in Ireland preventing such an economy leading to famines.

With the financial crisis past, the Dutch began to wonder if enough was being done for natives. In 1903, Queen Wilhelmina announced a new “ethical policy” that intended to open up more educational opportunities at local Dutch schools for natives and much spending on irrigation, roads, and water systems to deal with the rapidly growing population. All this was done very paternalistically but when a nationalistic organization was formed by newly educated natives, the Budi Utomo, it was welcomed by the Dutch.

It was also the Dutch that began the more threatening moves against the colony. Dutch communist activist Henk Sneevliet spent much time in the Indies forming a local communist party open to both left leaning Dutch and natives. It’s goal was Indonesian independence under communism. Sneevliet had much success among seaman and many ships were manned by mixed crews. His work culminated in the mutiny of the Heavy Cruiser HNLMS De Zeven Provincien in 1933. The Dutch naval ship with a mutinous crew of 450 was then bombed by the Dutch air force killing 23. This was quite a story and the ship was renamed to improve its reputation. Still in the Far East, Snievliet worked toward the forming of the mainland Chinese communist party. Later back in Holland, he was arrested during the German occupation. He walked to his 1942 execution singing “The Internationale”.

Henk Sneevliet
HNLMS De Zeven Provincien before the mutiny

Well my drink is empty and I am left with no one to toast. The Dutch never found the ideal formula and the Indonesians themselves in this period seemed largely no shows to the debate. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

Categories
Uncategorized

Well we think we are independent, we have a constitution, a flag, and Austrian stamps

Welcome readers to todays offering from The Philatelist. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. We have an interesting story to tell of locals seizing an opportunity and holding out just long enough for world opinion to force the hand of the colonial power.

The stamp today is a very well done virtually real stamp from 1949. An American stamp from the same year would not be nearly so well printed. While the stamp says Republik Indonesia, as of the day of issue the area was still officially the Dutch East Indies. The rebellion had contracted with printers in Vienna, note Wein in small letters on the bottom, to print stamps. They were to be mainly marketed by an American stamp dealer named Proofs. A few of the stamps made it to Indonesia and were sold for postage but cancelled copies are so rare that the Scott catalog has not enough data to set a value.

The stamp is issue C24, a 75 sen air mail stamp issued by the rebel forces in Dutch East Indies on August 17th, 1949. It is part of a 13 stamp issue in various denominations celebrating the Indian flown airplanes that were ignoring the Dutch blockade and bringing supplies to rebel held areas. The stamp shows a rebel sentry and a DC4 airliner over Lake Toba in Sumatra. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 95 cents. There are later overprints of these stamps celebrating actual independence and these are worth less.

Holland expended a great deal of effort in a failed bid to hold on to their Dutch East India colony. While the rule had become slightly less repressive with less peasant forced labor and more educational opportunities, independence movements were dealt with harshly and rebellious leaders like future president Sukarno spent much time in jail. At the time World War II broke out there were three active rebellions against the Dutch. One centered on Islam, one Communist, one centered on Indonesian nationalism lead by Sukarno. Sukarno was charismatic and spoke many indies dialects as well as Dutch, English, French, and Japanese. He had been well educated in Dutch schools When Japan invaded the Dutch East Indies they released Sukarno from jail and encouraged him to rally the people in favor of the Japanese war effort. He did so and during Japanese occupation he was allowed to head a group of Indonesians to work on the formation of an independent Indonesia. This group wrote a constitution and Japan was preparing to recognize Indonesian independence when the atomic bomb was dropped on Japan and they surrendered. Sukarno then got to work, he personally proclaimed independence and got most of the Japanese occupiers to turn over their arms to the new Indonesia. Quickly the Dutch administration reappeared from exile with a brigade of the British Indian army and took the biggest city Jakarta. They rearmed Dutch POWs held by the Japanese.

At first there was no fighting and the Indonesians helped the British and the Dutch get the surrendered Japanese soldiers home. Sukarno was at the time wooing the west. He understood there was much anticolonial sentiment in the west and he had ingratiated himself somewhat by respecting all religions in the 1945 constitution, excluding sharia law. He also without western help put down communist rebels within  his movement. The Dutch sent more troops and fighting broke out with Sukarno’s forces being pushed from much of the country. The Dutch  had many casualties however and America was against them, threatening to cut off Marshall Plan aid if independence was not granted. The Dutch yielded late in 1949 and independent Indonesia was recognized with Sukarno the first President.

I know this stamp seemed a little fake at the time of issue. This stamp so well reflects the history of the time that any resurgence of stamp collecting in Indonesia  could see a big  run up in the value of the stamp. The stamps printed in Vienna were very attractive and did a great job showing off the birth of the nation. Indonesia is a populous nation with many well off people. How could any patriotic Indonesian stamp collector not have these stamps in their collection. Get them while they are still cheap!

Well, my drink is empty and so it is time to open up the discussion in the below comment section. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.