The System of Forced Labour
[p. 80]
The abolition of the Tanam Paksa system a did not mean that the suffering of the population of Java and Sunda ceased. The destiny of the Javanese population could be described as follows: ‘from the jaws of the tiger to the jaws of the crocodile’. The Liberals won the debates for the abolition of the Tanam Paksa system, but they did not want their profit to be cut. As long as this group intended to gain as much profit as possible, the Indonesian society had to remain the victim.
[a] Editor's note: Tanam Paksa , literally Enforced Planting , is the Indonesian expression for the policy applied by the Dutch colonial government in the mid-19th century. In Dutch it is called Cultuurstelsel , which means Cultivation System . Instead of raising taxes, each village had to devote 20% of their land to the government for the cultivation of export goods. Alternatively the peasants could work for the government for 60 days every year. See Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cultivation_System&oldid=689914675 (27.07.2016). This system was replaced by the so called Ethical Policy. See Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dutch_Ethical_Policy&oldid=716341699 (27.07.2016).↩
