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Indonesian Opposition in the Colonial Municipality: A Minahasser in Bandung

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 February 2015

Jan Michiel OTTO
Jan Michiel OTTO*
Affiliation:
Van Vollenhoven Institute for Law, Governance and Development, Leiden Law School, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
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Abstract

This article discusses politico-legal relations and actual decision-making in urban government in late colonial Indonesia, notably in the municipality of Bandung. On the basis of verbatim reports of council meetings in the early 1920s,1 the article catches the atmosphere of hot debates touching upon the core problem of colonial rule, namely inequality between racial groups. Decentralization and democratization in the colony had made such discussions unavoidable. The 1923 budgetary debate shows how eloquently elected representatives of the native population used the municipal council as a forum to plea for the interests of Indonesians. The colonial government referred to autonomy of urban desas to justify laissez-faire approaches to natives’ interests. The municipality was in doubt for, at the same time, colonial administration was transitioning from a minimalist to a welfare state model. Hence, notwithstanding their differences, the common ambition to develop Bandung, albeit in a colonial context and led by the mayor, contributed to co-operative attitudes.

Keywords

Indonesiacolonial municipalitylocal councilBandung towndecentralizationindigenous population
Type
Research Article
Information
Asian Journal of Law and Society , Volume 2 , Issue 1 , May 2015 , pp. 169 - 193
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press and KoGuan Law School, Shanghai Jiao Tong University 

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Footnotes

*

Professor of Law and Governance in Developing Countries; Director of the Van Vollenhoven Institute for Law, Governance and Development. This article is based on an earlier publication in Dutch, see Otto (1991). The author thanks Hannah Mason for her support in translating. Correspondence to Jan Michiel Otto, Van Vollenhoven Institute for Law, Governance and Development, Leiden Law School, Leiden University, PO Box 9520, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands. E-mail address: j.m.otto@law.leidenuniv.nl.

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