The train hijacking near Wijster in December 1975 is not the last form of terror by Moluccans in the Netherlands and Drenthe. On May 23, 1977, a second train hijacking took place at De Punt, where two hostages and six hijackers died. On the same day, the primary school in Bovensmilde was also taken hostage. The last action was on March 12, 1978, when three Moluccans occupied the provincial government building in Assen. Two hostages die as a result.
The violent actions of Moluccans in the 1970s are rejected today by younger generations. Today, Moluccan youth look at that painful past with a different view. This also applies to Miguell Kaidel and Gloria Lappya in the RTV Drenthe podcast The forgotten train hijacking. “My friends and I can simply go to the Moluccas, so that we can help our people there in our own way. I think that the actions of the 1970s seemed the only way to do something at the time. But now this can be done in very different ways than by force.”
According to Lappya, the pain among Moluccans still runs deep, but they deal with it differently. “You may not experience the pain directly, but indirectly the trauma is still there,” she explains. “I think it’s up to our generation to express that pain in a different way, by using words instead of anger.”
Kaidel also believes that violence ultimately does not pay. “So many years later, there is more room for nuance, in which the Dutch side understands the Moluccan side more. And let me stick to myself and my friends: we also realize that violence is actually inexcusable.”
Tuparia also looks at it that way. “How can you be proud of actions that resulted in deaths? But on the other hand, the eyes of the Dutch government and society were opened.”