writing human rights in indonesian colonial literature
TRANSCRIPT
Writing Human Rights in Indonesian Colonial Literature Law & Literature Lecture Series, Faculty of Law Leiden University 9 February 2017
Paul Bijl, [email protected]
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“Why Anticolonialism Wasn’t a Human Rights Movement”
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Kartini, 1879-1904 Sjahrir, 1909-1966
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“human rights as an export product”
The rights of man are the right of those who have not the rights they have and who have the rights that they have not.
Jacques Rancière
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I learned three things from the Europeans. Love, pity, and the concept of right–I want to live according to these.
Ik heb 3 dingen van de Europeanen geleerd. Liefde, medelijden en ‘t begrip recht – en ik wil daarnaar leven.
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Legal pluralism as “a formation of historically occurring patterns of jurisdictional complexity and conflict”
In Kartini’s letters:
Adat (Javanese law & customs)Islamic lawEuropean law
Still, how can one expect more just laws for us if in the enlightened, civilized West women are put on a par with children and idiots?
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The most minor European official has the right to sit on a chair, while native officials below the rank of regent of whatever age, origin, or expertise, are directed to sit on the floor when Europeans are present.
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Seeing that in enlightened Europe, the center of civilization, the source of Light, the struggle for the right of women is still being fought so fiercely and furiously, can we expect that the Indies, which has been in deep slumber for centuries and which is still asleep, would accept, would permit, that women, who throughout the centuries have been looked upon as inferior beings and have been treated as such, see themselves as humans who have the right to an independent conscience?
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I learned three things from the Europeans. Love, pity, and the concept of right–I want to live according to these.
Ik heb 3 dingen van de Europeanen geleerd. Liefde, medelijden en ‘t begrip recht – en ik wil daarnaar leven.
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“To have human rights, people had to be perceived as separate individuals who were capable of exercising independent moral judgment” and as “able to empathize with others.”
Do you know what my motto is? “I want!” These two little words have so often carried me across mountains of objections and difficulties. “I cannot” is being discouraged. “I want!” reaches the top of the mountains.
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Pandita Ramabai Qasim Amin (1858-1922) (1863-1908)
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Sjahrir, 1909-1966
Boven-Digoel
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One of the most important aspects of our struggle is our attitude towards various groups who are more or less isolated from the rest of our citizens: foreigners, Europeans and Asians of mixed descent, Christians, Ambonese, Menadonese, and so forth. […] Hatred for alien groups and peoples is a hidden facet of every nationalist movement. Our attitude towards this question must be […] in the service of the cause of humanity and social justice.
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In their struggle for nationhood our people are demanding their basic human rights [in Indonesian, “hak-hak kemanusiaan”; in Dutch, “menselijke rechten”] as guarantees that they will never again be treated like slaves.
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The rights of man are the rights of those who have not the rights they have and who have the rights that they have not.
Jacques Rancière
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