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Novel Tan also described the plantation
entrepreneurs’ ignorance of thier laborers’ welfare,
education, and health. Even when vomiting epidemic
happened in their labors’ settlements, those
entrepreneurs almost did nothing for their workers’
recovery. Meanwhile, novel Max Havelar described
about the famine hitting Java island.
Novels taking national movement theme
described a lot about capitalism chain in the Dutch
East after the enactment of Agrarian Law 1870. The
economic conditions in the early 20
th
century were
marked by the high spread of rampant poverty, misery
and famine which caused Indonesian to suffer a lot of
misery and death. This arose as a result of the massive
degradation of human and natural wealth done by the
Dutch Colonials. The peak of Indonesia suffering
occured when cultuur stelsel or forced cultivation
System was enacted which was then continued during
the era of liberal economic system (Teja, 2016)
In Max Havelaar, the economic policy of the
colonial government during forced cultivation or
Cultuur Stelsel period was described detailedly. The
writer of Max Havelaar (2016) accused that Lebak
regent, Raden Adipati Karta Natanegara, abused his
authority by illegally exploiting his people's
manpower, and suspected the regent to have exorted
people while asking for crop in natura without
payment or by randomly fixed prices. Demang
parang Kujang (Regents’ son-in-law) participated in
those arbitrariness.
4.2 The Overview of Historical Novels
about Political Setting during
National Movement Period
Ethical politics provided opportunity for Indonesian
youth to attend education, although they were still
very limited in number; as a result, there arose
educated class among Indonesian people. The
emergence of the Indonesian educated classes at the
beginning of the 20
th
century marked the new history
of the Indonesia. They started to realize the misery,
poverty, and stupidity befalling their nation and then
they started to have strong desire to improve the fate
of their people. They did not fight only for the welfare
of their people but also for the independence of
Indonesia. Novel Tan (Teja, 2016) described further
about ethical politics:
“The honorable Mr. Van Kol. I was deeply
inspired by the Green Roof Tent Bate van
Nederland movement which became the
forerunner of the Ethical Policy. Now, what do
you think, Sir? Has the government's education
policy towards the Indies people suited to what
you preiously imagined?” (Teja, 2016: 97)
In novel Tan (Teja, 2016), it was also described
that ethical politics made Indies impossible to study
in Netherland and it impacted on the emergence of
various nationalist movements such as Jamiatul
Khair, Jamiatul Al-Irsyad, the organization of Arabs,
Budi Utomo as the gathering place for Javanese
priyayi, Muhammadiyah with Islam its puritans, as
well as the Indies Social Democratic which struggled
for socialism. In addition, Tan's novel also described
the emergence of revolutionary consciousness for
educated class.
In addition to talking about ethical politics with
its various consequences, Novel Tan (Teja, 2016) also
spoke about the struggle of the educated class for
Indonesian’s political rights. One of the discourses
recorded in the novel was the debate about the
proposed emergence of the volksraad:
The reactions of the students' proposals were also
elaborated in novel Tan (Teja, 2016), one of which
was from Pieter Brooshooft, a noted Journalist of the
Netherlands, offering a win-win solution so that the
educated class of Indies endured until they grew in
number to be three to four fold, then the new policy
was enacted. Meanwhile, according to D.M.G. Koch
(the Dutch bourgeoisi), the increasing number of civil
organizations in the Indies was a sign of political
literacy. This phenomenon must be supported by the
presence of an aspiration agency. Reactions to the
political right proposal of Indonesian proposed by the
students sheltered under was revealed in Tan (Teja,
2016), i.e. PPHN has done two fatal mistakes: First,
PPHN was a group which was ignorance for favor as
it had slandered onderrneming entrepreneurs who had
been major supporter of ethical politics this long.
Thanks to the entrepreneurs’ contributions that
irrigation infrastructure and highways were built,
common schools were established, and
transmigration programs were carried out; Secondly,
PPHN had committed a grave sin to have doubted the
good faith of the Queen (Sri Ratu), who promised to
give autonomous government to the people of Indies
when the time came. The last, In the end, the
Volksraad was still formed, but its formation still
attracted criticism from Indonesian students.
The description about the organization of national
movement could not be seperated from novels themed
national movements. Nonetheless, only Tan novel
described much about the of national movement
organizations found both in Indonesia and in
Netherland. In Tan (Teja, 2016), the much-exposed
organizations were Indische Vereninging, Indologie
Students and Indies Union, The Islamic Union
(Syarikat Islam), and PKH (Indies Communist Party).
Left ideologies, such as Marxism and socialism
along with their leaders were much exposed Tan's
novel. In fact, in Tan, it was claimed that the birth of
national movement organizations such as Railway
Social Changes in Economy and Politic During the National Movement Period in Indonesia (1900-1942) from the Historical Novels
Perspective
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