A kong koan (;

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

: ''Chinese Raad'';

Indonesian Indonesian is anything of, from, or related to Indonesia, an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. It may refer to: * Indonesians, citizens of Indonesia ** Native Indonesians, diverse groups of local inhabitants of the archipelago ** Indonesian ...

: ''Raad Tjina'') or "chinese council", was a high government body in the major capitals of the

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies ( nl, Nederlands(ch)-Indië; ), was a Dutch colony consisting of what is now Indonesia. It was formed from the nationalised trading posts of the Dutch East India Company, which ...

, consisting of all incumbent Chinese officers in those cities. It acted as both a judicial and executive authority and constituted part of the Dutch colonial system of

indirect rule Indirect rule was a system of governance used by the British and others to control parts of their colonial empires, particularly in Africa and Asia, which was done through pre-existing indigenous power structures. Indirect rule was used by variou ...

. The ''rechtszitting'', or official seat or building, housing the kong koan was called a kong tong (; literally "tribunal" or "law court").

Overview

The Kong Koan as a government body was inseparable from the institution of Chinese officers, who were high-ranking civil administrators, appointed by the Dutch colonial authorities to govern the local Chinese community in colonial Indonesia. In the larger cities, the active officers sat as a council, the Kong Koan, in order to adjudicate justice, govern the local Chinese community and implement the directives of the colonial government. In executing these responsibilities, the Kong Koan had its own administrative staff, headed by the First Secretary or ''Toa Tju'', and at the height of its power also had its own police force.

History

Among the Chinese Councils of colonial Indonesia, the Kong Koan of Batavia was — in the words of Mary Somers Heidhues — "''primus inter pares'', first founded, longest serving and most powerful". In contrast, those of Surabaya, Semarang and other cities were not as old and did not serve for as long. The Batavia historian, P. de Roo de La Faille, traces the origin of the first Kong Koan to 1660, when the

Dutch East India Company The United East India Company ( nl, Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the VOC) was a chartered company established on the 20th March 1602 by the States General of the Netherlands amalgamating existing companies into the first joint-stock ...

granted a plot of land to be used as a Chinese cemetery. According to de Roo de La Faille, the voluntary community organisation that managed the cemetery became the precursor of the Kong Koan. In the following decades, this community organisation acquired more government-related functions under the leadership of Batavia's Chinese officers. In the aftermath of the Chinese Massacre of 1740, with the ensuing Chinese War still raging in the Javanese heartland, the colonial authorities felt a need to have a better relationship with Batavia's Chinese community. This led in 1742 to the reconstitution of the capital's informal Chinese community organisation as the Kong Koan of Batavia, an official government body within the Dutch colonial bureaucracy. The High Government (''Hoge Regering'') provided the newly recognised council with its first Kong Tong or tribunal at ''Jalan Tiang Bendera'' in Batavia's

Old Town In a city or town, the old town is its historic or original core. Although the city is usually larger in its present form, many cities have redesignated this part of the city to commemorate its origins after thorough renovations. There are ma ...

. Membership was capped at eight and consisted of the city's active Chinese officers. The Kong Koan was presided by its most senior Chinese officer, bearing the rank of ''Kapitein der Chinezen'' until 1837, thereafter that of ''Majoor der Chinezen''. This body assumed the character of a

yamen A ''yamen'' (''ya-men''; ; Manchu: ''yamun'') was the administrative office or residence of a local bureaucrat or mandarin in imperial China. A ''yamen'' can also be any governmental office or body headed by a mandarin, at any level of govern ...

Qing Dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

government department. In 1750, the council acquired an official secretary, then in 1766 an adjunct secretary. In 1809, Tan Peeng Ko, Kapitein der Chinezen of Batavia set up a subsidiary office on the southern side of the city, closer to

Glodok Glodok () is an urban village of Taman Sari, West Jakarta, Indonesia. The area is also known as Pecinan or Chinatown since the Dutch colonial era, and is considered the biggest in Indonesia. Majority of the traders and residents of Glodok are C ...

, the Chinese quarter, to simplify the implementation of the council's day-to-day activities. In 1866, Kapitein Tan Peeng Ko's son and successor,

Tan Eng Goan Tan Eng Goan, 1st Majoor der Chinezen (; 1802 – 17 September 1872) was a high-ranking bureaucrat who served as the first ''Majoor der Chinezen'' of Batavia (now Jakarta), capital of colonial Indonesia. This was the highest-ranking Chinese posi ...

, the 1st Majoor der Chinezen of Batavia, officially moved the Kong Tong to larger premises in Tongkangan, where the Koan Koan remained until its abolition by the

Republic of Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guinea. Ind ...

in the early 1950s. The history of other Chinese councils is neither as old nor as well documented. The Kong Koan of Surabaya became defunct in the 1930s following the abolition of the system of Chinese officers. Similarly, the Kong Koan of Semarang, which was only founded in 1835, was dismantled in 1931.

References

{{Reflist Kapitan Cina Chinese Indonesian culture Indonesian people of Chinese descent Government institutions 1742 establishments in the Dutch Empire Government of Indonesia

Overview

History

See also

References