In the first days of the train hijacking near Wijster, Post wrote an analysis of the background to the action by the Moluccans. An analysis in which he condemns the violence of the hijackers, but asks for understanding for the situation of the Moluccans. “But there was very little understanding,” he remembers. “It was largely disapproved in the Netherlands. ‘Those people must be dealt with, this is pure terrorism’, it was said. If you don’t look further and if you leave out the background, that is of course also the case. You are not just going to put a train in the cold for three hundred hours and kill people there. That is horrible.”
Nowadays, Post has the idea that people understand the Moluccan story more. According to Post, it is “clearer today that great injustice has been done to them” by bringing them here and dismissing the KNIL soldiers still on board the ships.
But were the hostage crisis of the 1970s worth it? “I think it takes time,” says Post. “Time to realize that the Netherlands could not have done much more. In the eyes of Indonesia, KNIL soldiers were ‘scumbags’ who supported the Dutch, i.e. the occupying forces. It is a difficult issue. It is easy to say: they should have returned. But how?”
In the second episode of the podcast The forgotten train hijacking the makers are still looking for more people involved. But it is clear that time has not stood still. After fifty years, many of those involved are no longer alive, or are of such an advanced age that an interview is no longer possible. You will also hear more about the search for the hijackers of that time. For the time being, those shutters remain closed.