Dutch apology to Indonesia – Accept, with a thank you note

Netherland’s Prime Minister Mark Rutte (left) walking next to Indonesian President Joko Widodo prior to their meeting at the presidential palace in Jakarta in 2016. – AFP

INDONESIA should accept the Netherlands’ apology, offered by Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Feb 17 for the atrocities its forces committed against our people during the war for independence in the late 1940s, although in earnest, we never asked for one. In fact, if anyone deserves an apology, it is the Dutch people, who have been lied to and deceived by their government and historians all this time.

The official line, and the prevailing view until now, has been that the Dutch were the victims of the violence. The apology came following the completion of a five-year study, commissioned by the Dutch government, for historians to look into the violence in Indonesia between 1945 and 1949 as the Dutch tried to regain control over its former colony after World War II.