King Willem-Alexander visited the Moluccan performance ‘On the other side’ in the former camp Schattenberg in Hooghalen on Monday evening. Moluccans from Assen and Bovensmilde demonstrated during the visit for in-depth research into the decolonization of the Dutch East Indies.
The RMS working group Assen and Bovensmilde seized the royal visit for a loud protest with drums, battle cries and banners at the entrance of the former Kamp Schattenberg. In 1951, Moluccan KNLL soldiers and their families were housed on the old site of Camp Westerbork. Otto Tatipikalawan of the Moluccan working group presented Willem-Alexander with a letter asking the king to have the Dutch government conduct a thorough and thorough investigation into the decolonization of the former Dutch East Indies. The king promised to deliver the letter with the request in The Hague.
The research should mainly concern the period after December 27, 1949, the day that the Netherlands transferred sovereignty to Indonesia. In 1950 this led to the proclamation of the Republic of the South Moluccas (RMS) and later to the arrival of KNIL soldiers and their families to the Netherlands. They were supposed to stay in the Netherlands for six months, but were given notice of dismissal upon arrival in our country and never returned. The RMS working group hopes that a new study will provide insight into how the Netherlands has dealt with the claim of the Moluccans to their own state and how the Moluccan population has been treated after their arrival in the Netherlands.
In conversation
The king talked extensively with Tatipikalawan. He touched on the commemoration last Sunday of the death of six of the nine Moluccan train hijackers of De Punt in 1977 and asked whether Tatipikalawan was behind the content of the performance ‘On the other side’ about the history of Moluccans in the Netherlands. “Part yes, part no. The play depicts events that actually went differently,” he replied.
The King visited the performance ‘East Side Story’, the last part of the triptych ‘On the other side’, on the camp grounds in Hooghalen. The play is set on the grounds of Kamp Schattenberg. Accompanied by theater maker Miranda Bolhuis, the king walked for more than an hour past various scenes about life in the Moluccan residential area. But the leading role was for actor Roger Goudsmit, who acted as camp announcer in KNIL uniform. He addressed the king. “The Queen has promised us six months. She months, then we go back. We were fooled”, and looked Willem-Alexander straight in the eye. The king suffered.
But Tjallie also brought humour. As with the scene of the visit to Schattenberg by the ladies of the Ambonese care from The Hague, concerned about the fate of the Moluccan children in the camp. “You are not taking my children with you, just go back to The Hague, with that king. Yes and please walk a bit. Walk, walk.”
Camping Vogelpoel
After the first part of the performance, the king left for camping Vogelpoel in Hooghalen, where he talked to the Moluccans who grew up at camp Schattenberg, with young Moluccans and the theater makers. East Side Story normally takes place at two locations, but Willem-Alexander did not get to visit the sequel in the Moluccan neighborhood in Bovensmilde.
Earlier in the day, the king visited the provincial house in Assen, where he spoke with deputies and members of the Provincial Council.