Fairy Mahdzan: Dutch Guy, Fascinated with Indonesia, Creates Indahnesia.com

While surfing for information on Kalimantan, Indonesia in January this year, I came across a unique website called Indahnesia.com. The name itself intrigued me as I thought it was a cleverly made-up name. I wasted no time in clicking on the link.

A montage comprising of a young Indonesian girl wearing a white-polka-dotted red top with a matching red skirt and slippers standing behind a tropical scenery greeted me as I entered the main page of Indahnesia.com. For a while, I thought that the website was owned by some travel agency, designed to entice tourists to come visit Indonesia. After some extensive browsing, I discovered that Indahnesia.com was actually the personal property and creation of a young man whose interests revolved around everything Indonesian.

Meet Jeroen van der Linde, a 21-year-old bule (orang putih or Caucasian) from the Netherlands whose website will reveal that he means serious business when it comes to talking about and exploring Indonesia. From personal travel photos and stories, political news sourced from various sites, and even an English-Indonesian dictionary, Indahnesia.com warmly invites us to engage in a culture different from our own. Most interestingly, Jeroen hails from a country that had once colonized Indonesia for 300 years!

Immensely fascinated with Jeroen's website, I immediately shot out an email to him, excited that I had found someone young who, like me, was an "Indonesianist" (someone who studies Indonesian intensively - but in our case, studying Indonesia was a hobby).

Jeroen responded very well to my email and ever since we have fostered a friendship that is based on mutual interest in Indonesia. Through our emails we shared travel experiences, exchanged knowledge of what we knew of Indonesia (and of each other's countries), glanced at some historical aspects and voiced out concerns for Indonesia's future as a nation. In essence, we were being true Indonesian-nerds.

I also asked Jeroen about Indahnesia.com and what the deal was. What has motivated Jeroen to build the website and why is he so interested in Indonesia, a country that is so different from his native Netherlands?

In this exclusive interview, I picked Jeroen's brains and dug the dirt out on, among other things, why he's into Indonesia, his opinion on the so-called biased Dutch history education system, his worst Indonesian travel experience (and I thought my 12-hour train ride to Jogja was bad), and which Indonesian 'girl' holds a special place in Jeroen's heart...!

Jeroen: I was born on 13 April 1981 in Geldrop which is near a big town called Eindhoven where I now reside. I do programming for a living at a small Internet company that acts as a consumer representative for getting discounts on fuel, energy and mobile telephony.

Jeroen: The Netherlands, also called Holland, is located in Western Europe and is an active member of the European Union (EU) since it started. Since 1 January 2002 we have a common shared currency with 11 other countries in Western Europe and one in Asia - East Timor (Timor Leste): the Euro. It is currently valued at about the same level as the US dollar, which is between Rp. 9,000 and Rp. 10,000 against the Indonesian rupiah.

The Netherlands currently has a population of 16.2 million people, and that makes the Netherlands one of the most densely populated countries in the world. Of course Hong Kong is far more populated, but that's because it's in fact one big city. But on the other hand, there are more people per square kilometer on the island of Java than in the Netherlands.

The capital is Amsterdam, and the administrative capital is Den Haag (The Hague), which are both located in the western side of the country. The big international airport Schiphol is located near Amsterdam, and is about 1.5 hours by train or car from my hometown of Eindhoven.

Eindhoven currently houses just over 200,000 people, and is expecting to have 250,000 in a few years because of big building projects in the northwestern part of the city (where I work, and where the local airport of Eindhoven Airport is located as well)

Jeroen: I started Indahnesia.com in April 2000 to inform people about Indonesia. I felt that Internet surfers were missing out on certain information about the country, so Indahnesia.com strived to bring all of that into one single website.

Before Indahnesia.com, I used to have a small personal website with all kinds of information. I became more motivated to build Indahnesia.com when my number of visitors mounted to more than a thousand per day.

A few months ago, I also started a dictionary website, KAMUS-online.com which used to be a subsection of Indahnesia.com. That dictionary site now receives about 200 visitors a day.

Jeroen: The name Indahnesia.com is a made-up name because indonesia.com was taken (of course). I thought it should be nice to have a domain name with at least "nesia" in it because it means archipelago. "Indah" means pretty or beautiful in the Malay/Indonesian language, and also sounds very similar to "indo"

Jeroen: I have been to Indonesia four times since 1999; I usually go there during June or July. I had been dreaming about visiting the country ever since I was 15! My dreams were first realized when I turned 18.

I liked downtown Jakarta because of its crowds. I liked being on the train to Yogyakarta because of the green mountains I saw while entering the province. I also enjoyed my visit to the Borobudur Temple because of the magnificent view and the fact that the colossal temple was constructed during the early European Dark Ages.

The splendid temple of Borobudur in Central Java

There are many more places to discover in Indonesia. Each place that I have visited has a unique look, feel and smell to me. That's also why Indonesia is so interesting to me.

How did you become so interested in a country that is thousands of miles away from your home of Holland and whose culture is so different from yours?

Monumen Trisakti

Jeroen: My interests in Indonesia originated from the fact that Dutch history has a strong connection with Indonesia until the mid 1940's. I started thinking a lot about this bilateral relationship because that part of history is not well explained in the Dutch educational system, which is actually a big shame.

But what really moved me to start learning more about Indonesia were the May 1998 riots. The riots, which commenced on May 14 1998, brought down then-President Suharto after 7 days of massive rioting, killing, looting and burning. I was horror-stricken upon learning from watching television about the four Universitas Trisakti students who were tragically killed while demonstrating their anti-Suharto campaigns in capital city Jakarta.

A year after the horrific incident, a memorial was erected for the deceased to mark the first anniversary of the dreadful tragedy. I could vividly imagine the soldiers responsible for the killings on the bridge from which the students were killed.

"...what really moved me to start learning more about Indonesia were the May 1998 riots." - Jeroen van der Linde

The especially friendly Indonesia people also fascinate me; I feel like they will always try their best to please you despite their hardships. They don't hate me because I'm Dutch or because my forefathers used to be their former colonist, not at all. Indonesians are very forgiving.

Indonesian friendliness and tolerance are also evident if you observe Indonesian traffic. Naturally, people always want to be the first in line, but if they don't make it, they just smile and will give way to you. I think this is great, people here in Holland don't quite believe me when I tell them this. Here [in Holland], too often is aggression the solution to many things. But not in Indonesia, in my opinion, people there do a lot more talking and joking.

Indonesia has its dark sides, of course. Most people are poor, the unemployment rate is exceedingly high, floods occur at random in many places due to poor city planning, and people suffer from countless diseases as people do all over the world. I know I can't directly change these situations but I'm willing to help the people in any way I can.

The Dutch had colonized Indonesia for over 300 years starting from the 1600s. What did you learn in school about this colonization period? How does the Dutch perceive Indonesia?

Jeroen: Our learning about the colonization of Indonesia would always start with the founding of V.O.C (Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie or East India Company) and its trading activities in the Southeast Asian region in the 17th century. However I really didn't learn much about it from our history teaching. We were just taught that Indonesia used to be a Dutch colony until somewhere in the 1940's, and that this all ended with the Second World War.

"I still hope that the Dutch government will one day change the way we talk about Indonesia in our textbooks." - Jeroen van der Linde

However I later found out that we still had military actions ('Politioneele Akties') after the Japanese occupation; our Dutch troops killed many people. But under the pressure of the United Nations we finally left Indonesia to let it earn its Merdeka or Independence.

All of this, I never learned at school; there is so much that I don't know. I personally think it's a big shame that our government has pushed this part of world history away as far as possible. It's okay to be ashamed of your past actions, but I don't think it's right to push something away like it never happened.

The Indonesian people aren't bothered by the past anymore because they are very forgiving. They even want to talk Dutch to you if they can; some people over the age of 50 generally know some Dutch.

I still hope that the Dutch government will one day change the way we talk about Indonesia in our textbooks. However as we delve further into other aspects of Dutch history every year during our term in school, I think the education system will never be changed to reflect history that way that it actually happened, especially the history and conflicts that occurred between the Netherlands and Indonesia.

Jeroen: Bahasa Indonesia is a nice language. I do regret it sincerely that I don't speak the language fluently. Most of the time I can make up something from separate words. Also, since I'm also working on the dictionary website, I remember certain new words. I think it's about time that I spend much more time on learning Bahasa Indonesia.

I also think the best way to learn a language is to live among the people who speak it. That ultimately means that I would have to live in Indonesia, if I wanted to pick up Bahasa Indonesia right away. However, for the time being, a move to the country is not feasible.

With Dutch colonialism so deeply rooted in Indonesian history there must be some reminisce of that past present in today's Indonesian spoken language. Are there any Dutch words that you have heard commonly used in Bahasa Indonesia?

Jeroen: It's funny that you should ask me this. Most people wouldn't even think about it, but there are hundreds of words in Bahasa Indonesia that are similar to current Dutch or at least very similar to it. These words root back until the 17th century actually, and most of the very early words have changed dramatically over the time.

The word 'handuk' (towel) was the first Dutch-originated word that I found in Bahasa Indonesia. Handuk came from the Dutch word 'handdoek'. The pronunciation is the same but differs a little because of the fact that the Indonesian language has slightly different stresses than Dutch. I can give a very short summary of Dutch and Indonesian words which are the same, but that would be a huge list to start with. The only thing I'm still thinking about is where 'jalan' came from... I can't figure that one out, street or 'straat' (Dutch) would be an easy word to use in Indonesia, but they didn't.

Just as a side note, there are some English words in the Indonesian language, as well as some French and other European languages. For example, "sabun" (soap) originated from the French word "savon".

How much of a contrast is there between living in Indonesia and living in Holland? Would you ever consider living in the former?

Jeroen: Over here in the Netherlands, everything is so rigid and strict; everything has to be done at a certain time. It's not that I can't live with that, but often, everything is overdone. And if that's not good enough, people tend to be angry instead of understanding. This is what I often feel, and I don't like it very much.

But perhaps I have not stayed in Indonesia long enough to decide whether or not I would prefer the way of living in Indonesia to that of Holland's. You can only learn so much about a place from just a two-week vacation; what I would like is to have a two-month vacation there…! I would also really like to have a try at residing in Indonesia, as my opinions about the country may still sound naive.

But my first impressions of Indonesia are generally very good, and people who are currently living as expatriates in Indonesia also tell me good things. However they also tell me it takes a long time and a huge sum of money and patience to actually live to Indonesia.

Right now, my desire to move to Indonesia has toned down, mainly because I have a job here and a girlfriend as well.

Jeroen: The worst thing I have done in Indonesia is traveling to Bali from Jakarta by bus. The way to Bali took 24 hours, but the way back to Jakarta took an astonishing 37 hours!

However the decision to travel to and from Bali that way was purely out of my own will; I thought that I should at least have the experience. I don't remember much anymore from all of that. Most of the time I half-conscious because I was so tired. I felt nauseous for a long time and only drunk warm water. Worse of all, the bus had to actually stop near Cirebon for several hours to install a new engine!

The Bali bus trip was not all was not bad though. I think it's very nice to travel city by city and take your time in every one, although I was not satisfied with being at these cities for just a short while; I wanted to see more.

Another plus was the road from Cirebon to Semarang which runs directly along the beach and coastline for the most part, so that was very nice.

All together the bus ride to Bali was quite an experience, but I would never do it again...!

Jeroen: Since I founded my website, there are many people whom I have met with over time. I have spoken to most of them just a few times, others I have regular contacts with. Several of these friends are Dutch but were born in Indonesia. When their parents decided to move back to the Netherlands after Indonesia's Merdeka (in the 1950's mostly), they decided to come home too.

These Dutch Indonesian-born friends of mine are much older than I am, so they are surprised when I tell them I'm 'only' 21 and that I am very interested in Indonesia. I suppose it's not common that many young Dutch people are into this sort of thing.

Jeroen with friends Fifi & Cherry

Jeroen: My friends in Indonesia are about the same as everybody else I know: always busy working but they're very kind and always look forward to my visits. I've come to realize that people in Holland work as hard as people back in Indonesia; people are just the same everywhere in the world, trying hard to make a living.

However I hope one day that I can live in Indonesia without working so hard and live off the riches I earned during my hardworking and younger days, haha. But I know that's a lot to wish for, but who knows one day...

You've once mentioned in your old website that you admired President Megawati.

Megawati Sukarnoputri

Jeroen: Yes, that's true. When I first heard about Megawati, I didn't know who she was, of course. I didn't know that she was the daughter of Indonesia's first President, Bung Karno (Sukarno).

Now that Megawati is the President of Indonesia, she has a very difficult and heavy duty to get Indonesia economically going again and to protect it from terrorist acts like the ones that have happened in New York and Bali. Unfortunately terrorism in Indonesia is not coming from the outside, but very much from the inside, which makes things much more dangerous for her.

I hope Megawati can keep Indonesia together as it is now. I think it's better for people all over the country to maintain a single nation. However I sort of agree with East Timor's recent independence from the Republic in 1999; there were lots of controversy about Indonesia's annexation of East Timor (now Timor Leste) back in the 1970s.

With the departure of East Timor from the Republic of Indonesia, Aceh, which is located in Northern Sumatera, is putting mounting pressure on Indonesia to grant them their own independent Islamic state as well.

I have hopes that Indonesia will be able to tackle and solve its problems head on over the coming years. Once everything is ok, I hope to visit both Aceh and Maluku. Some day.

Jeroen: I hope that Indonesia will not be discouraged by the challenges that it faces as a nation, and remain united and work hard towards the betterment of their country.

Currently 25% of Indonesia's population is unemployed. After the Bali bombings in October 2002, the economy has taken yet another painful blow since the Asian Economic Crisis of 1997. I hope that tourists will go back to Bali [and other places] right away. If they are scared to do so, they can take me along for a small extra fee, and I'll guide them on their holiday. :-)

With Indahnesia.com, I hope that I can be a helping hand for the promotion of Indonesia, so people can see the good and bad sides of the country from a neutral and educated perspective, a privilege that is often lost in hard times like these.

Terima kasih banyak-banyak Jeroen for sharing with us your thoughts. I wish you all the best!

Photos courtesy of Jeroen van der Linde.
Photo of Megawati sourced from indonesiamedia.com