i think, some of (the older) dutch people can read malay..but i doubt it. and, since the text is too small or blurry so i just translate a bit of it.the story is about maria hertogh, a dutch girl who has been given by his mother, adeline, and his grandmother, nor loisenya to che aminah to be raised without the acknowledgement of her father sergeant adrianus pertus hertogh.
she was raised by che aminah who is malay & therefore muslim. so shes being raised in islamic environment eversince.
but, soon after her father was freed from a japan detention camp after the atom bombs being dropped on the cities of hiroshima & nagasaki by the us in WWII, he returned to bandung, java to search for his daughter (which was at that time, in terengganu, malaysia).
meanwhile, in high school, natrah joined a sport competition to represent her school, Sekolah Menengeh Chukai terengganu/ Chukai High School . turn out the event was also being watched by a british officer, arthurlocke.
her group won at the time, so it became twice as visible that she's --'different'. that was the first time arthurlocke see her, and he has this feeling that something must be wrong .. why is that a malay family rasing a foreigner/make her part of the family. so he find a way to executed what he has planned.
with the help of some people, arturlocke been able to tracked che aminah. he then persuaded che aminah and claimed that he can help her to get a legal custody of natrah. he said that the issue only can be settle if she bring along natrah to singapore, because at that particular time singapore is under dutch. so its easier
without further thinking, che aminah agreed and when they arived at singapore she realize that was just a hoax. not helping (and doing quite the opposite), arthurlocke with the help of some dutch officers in singapore managed to get a court letter to prevent natrah from returning home (which the power to do so is not valid if natrah is in terengganu.)
so, natrah was taken from che aminah and was put in girl homes trust centre, york hill, singapore which is a catholic shelter.
however, on 19 july 1950, che aminah who represent by a lawyer named ibrahim, win the custody and was given back the custody
this event made the real parents of natrah unsatistfied. so they find a way to get some help from dutch government to take natrah back.
because che aminah didnt want the same exact thing happen again, natrah , in a nick of time, got married with a teacher, in singapore. natrah at that time was 13 & mansoor was 22, fell in love after their second meet. in islamic law, a 13 yo women is allowed to be married. it was believed that the ceremony was to prevent natrah from being sentenced once again in singapore.
but another thing happened, under dutch/british law it was illegal to be married if youre under 18. so they accused che aminah for forcing natrah /how can only after their second met they've decided to get married. eventhough at that time natrah repeatedly emphasized & told the court that she want to get married by herself & choosing islam as her religion, but the judge didnt sensitive enough to adressed the issue. so, natrah was given to his real parents.
because of this culture clash, not to mention with a slight tint that the court was a bit biased handling the issue, people in singapore get very angry.
its a tragic clash back then----- that 18 people was died and 173 others were injured when confronting with british officers and police. singapore was under siege for two days and two nights.
from then on, the issue can't be saved anymore..
maria hertogh/natrah passed away in huijbergen, holland on july 2009. she was 72.
January 29, 2010
July 10, 2009
The riot was not caused by rejection of the court decision by malay & muslim but due to the propagation done by Strait Times which at that time under british colonial influence. Muslim & Malay were shown their respect to the court decision but when a capture shown Natrah or Nadra knee down to virgin mary in the front page of strait times for many times, this was the reason why the riot happened. All knew that not came from the young lady heart but done by force.
Don't let destiny occur due to our stupidity
July 11, 2009
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Hertogh_riots
Maria Hertogh and Che Aminah binte Mohamed, circa 1950.
The Maria Hertogh riots or Nadrah riots, which started on 11 December 1950 in Singapore, consisted of outraged Muslims who resented the court decision to give custody of Maria Hertogh (or Bertha Hertogh), then 13, to her biological Dutch Catholic parents after she had been raised as a Muslim under the care of Aminah binte Mohamed, whom she regarded as her mother. The riots lasted till noon on 13 December, with 18 killed, 173 injured and many properties damaged—the worst incident of its kind ever witnessed in Singapore.[dubious ]
Prior to the riots, the disputed custody of Maria had received widespread press coverage. Many Muslims living in Malaya and Indonesia believed in the legitimacy of the adoption of Maria and a later short-lived marriage to Mansoor Adabi, two major points of contest in the court proceeding to determine the custody of Maria. They thus lent their support, financial and moral, to organizations that fought to keep Maria in Malaya. But some, such as the Malayan nationalists, seized the incident as an opportunity to further weaken the colonial government's position in the region. The insensitivity of the colonial government towards Muslim sentiments and the involvement of radical elements eventually culminated in the tragedy.
Contents[show] |
[edit] Maria Hertogh
[edit] Beginning
Maria Hertogh[1] was born on 24 March 1937 to a Dutch Catholic family living in Tjimahi, near Bandung, Java, then a part of the Dutch East Indies. Her father, Adrianus Petrus Hertogh, came to Java in the 1920s as a sergeant in the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army. He married Adeline Hunter, a Eurasian of Scottish-Malay descent brought up in Java, in the early 1930s. Little Maria was baptized in the Roman Catholic Church of Saint Ignatius at Tjimahi on April 10 by a Catholic priest.When World War II broke out, Sergeant Hertogh was captured by the Imperial Japanese Army and sent to a POW holding facility in Japan, where he was kept till 1945. Meanwhile, Adeline Hertogh stayed with her mother, Nor Louise, and her five children, among whom Maria was the third and youngest daughter. On 29 December 1942, Mrs. Hertogh gave birth to her sixth child, a boy. Three days later, Maria went to stay with Aminah binte Mohammad, a 42-year-old Javanese woman and a close friend of Nor Louise. This controversial transfer of custody, reversed in a Singaporean court eight years later, was the centre and opening episode of the tragic riots that were to come.
[edit] Adoption or a short stay?
[edit] Adeline Hertogh's version
According to Adeline Hertogh, in the version given in evidence before the court at the hearing in November 1950, she was persuaded by her mother after the birth of her sixth child to allow Maria to go and stay with Aminah in Bandung for three or four days. Consequently, Aminah arrived on 1 January 1943 to fetch Maria. When the child was not returned, Mrs. Hertogh borrowed a bicycle on 6 January and set out to retrieve her daughter. She claimed that she was arrested by a Japanese sentry on the outskirts of Bandung as she did not possess a pass and was thereupon interned.From her internment camp, she smuggled a letter to her mother, requesting for her children to be sent to her. This Nor Louise did, but Maria was not among them. So Mrs. Hertogh asked her mother to fetch Maria from Aminah. Her mother later wrote and told her that Aminah wanted to keep Maria for two more days, after which she herself would bring the child to the camp. This did not materialize and Mrs. Hertogh did not see Maria throughout her internment. After her release, she could find neither Maria nor Aminah.
[edit] Aminah binte Mohamed's version
The above version was rejected by Aminah binte Mohamed in her affidavits and sworn testimony to the High Court on several occasions. She claimed that Adeline Hertogh had given Maria to her for adoption in late 1942. She asserted that she, without offspring of her own, told Mrs. Hertogh then that she would regard Maria absolutely as her child, whom she would bring up in the Muslim faith. To this, according to Aminah, Mrs. Hertogh replied that she would be glad as she herself had been brought up as a Muslim[2].Aminah also contested the truth of Adeline Hertogh's internment by the Japanese. She testified that she and Mrs. Hertogh continued to visit each other frequently after the adoption until the latter left for Surabaya to look for a job "about the end of 1943 or the beginning of 1944." Thereafter the two never saw each other again till 1950.
[edit] A new home and a new religion
Anyhow, Maria Hertogh received her circumcision in late 1943, whereupon she was given the name Nadra binte Ma'arof. For unknown reasons her new family moved to Jakarta for a period before moving back to Bandung again, where Aminah worked for the Japanese military police as an interpreter until the end of the war.Then, in 1947, fearing harm upon the family during the Indonesian National Revolution as Maria was a "Putih", or a "White Child", Aminah moved via Singapore to her hometown in Kemaman, in the state of Terengganu, then Malaya. By then Maria was completely the same as any other Malay Muslim girl of her age: she spoke only Malay, wore Malay clothes and practised her religion devoutly.
[edit] To court
In 1945, with the end of World War II, Sergeant Hertogh was released and returned to Java, where he reunited with his wife. The couple said that they enquired about Maria but could find neither their daughter nor Aminah. They then returned to the Netherlands after requesting the Dutch authorities in Java and Singapore to try to trace the child. Investigations were then made by the Red Cross Society, the Indonesian Repatriation Service, the Royal Netherlands Army and local police. Finally, in September 1949, Aminah and Maria were traced to the kampong they were living in.Negotiations were opened to retrieve Maria in early 1950. The Dutch Consulate offered S$500 to make up for Aminah's expenses in bringing up the girl for eight years. Aminah rejected the offer and refused to give up her foster-daughter. Nonetheless, she was persuaded to travel with Maria to Singapore in April to discuss the issue with the Dutch Consul-General. However, Aminah's firm position could not be wavered and the Consulate eventually applied to the High Court on 22 April for Maria to be delivered into the custody of the Social Welfare Department pending further order. The Chief Justice heard it on the same day and approved the application ex parte.
The next day, an officer from the department served the order on Aminah and brought Maria away. After a routine medical examination at the Middle Road Hospital, she was admitted to the Girls Homecraft Centre at York Hill. From this point onwards, Maria had made it clear that she wanted to stay with Aminah and did not wish to be returned to her natural parents. However, the High Court ruled on 17 May after a short hearing of about 15 minutes that the custody of Maria be entitled to the Hertoghs.
As Aminah and Maria exited the court via the backdoor, a car from the Consulate was waiting to take Maria away. Maria refused to enter the car and clung on to Aminah, both shouting in Malay that they would kill themselves rather than be separated. A large crowd quickly formed around the commotion. It was only after much persuasion that Aminah agreed to enter the car together with Maria and pay a visit to her lawyer, who explained that Maria had to be given up until an appeal was made. The duo then parted in tears, with Maria returned to York Hill for temporary safekeeping.
At York Hill Maria stayed for two more months, under a further order from the Chief Justice pending appeal, which was filed on 28 July. The verdict was an overruling of the earlier decision. Aside from the ex parte order to hand Maria to the Social Welfare Department, the Appellate Court found ambiguity in the Dutch Consul-General's representation of Maria's natural father, a rather minor and technical detail but apparently significant enough under the circumstance. Both Aminah and Maria were overjoyed.
[edit] Controversial marriage
On 1 August 1950, merely four days after winning the appeal, the events took a dramatic and unexpected turn. Maria was married to 22-year-old Mansoor Adabi, a Malayan-born who was then a teacher-in-training at the Bukit Panjang Government School, in a Muslim ritual. The marriage could have been a manoeuvre by Aminah to prevent further attempts by the Hertoghs to get back their daughter, as Maria returned to live with Aminah after the wedding night and the new couple never consummated their marriage. Whether such speculation was true was unimportant in the subsequent development of events, in which Maria, a willing bride nonetheless, became the central figure.The first challenges on the appropriateness of the marriage actually came from the Muslim community. On 10 August, a Muslim leader wrote to The Straits Times pointing out that although the Islamic law permits the marriage of girls after puberty (which Maria had reached a year earlier), there were Muslim countries such as Egypt that legislated for a minimum marriage age of 16. He added, however, that it would not be in the interest of "the friendly understanding... between Christians and Muslims" to object to the marriage since it had already taken place. The latter view was held by the Muslim population at large, albeit in a more antagonistic mood against the Dutch and Europeans at large.
(edit) To court, again
Meanwhile, the Hertoghs had not given up legal pursuit to retrieve their daughter. Only a day after the marriage, Aminah received the Hertoghs' representative lawyers from Kuala Lumpur. The lawyers delivered a letter demanding the return of Maria by 10 August, failing which legal action would be taken. Believing that the marriage settled the matter, Aminah and Mansoor both ignored the deadline. The Hertoghs did not. On 26 August, an originating summons was taken out, under the Guardianship of Infants Ordinance, by the Hertoghs as plaintiffs against Aminah, Maria and Mansoor, who were all made defendants.The hearing did not begin till 20 November. For four months the matter hung in suspense. During this time, Maria rarely left her residence in the house of M.A. Majid, then president of the Muslim Welfare Association, because in her own words, she attracted "too much attention". Nevertheless, media coverage on the incident had grown to a global scale. Letters from Muslim organizations in Pakistan promising financial and other help arrived, some going so far as to declare any further move by the Dutch Government to separate the couple as "an open challenge to the Muslim world". Pledges of aid also came from Indonesia and as far as Saudi Arabia.
The hearing finally opened, and Maria's natural mother, Adeline Hertogh travelled down to Singapore to attend. The judge, Justice Brown, delivered the verdict two weeks later. The marriage, instead of resolving the dispute, had instead complicated it. Justice Brown had two issues on his hand, namely the legality of the marriage and the custody of Maria. He held that the marriage was invalid because:
- Maria's country of domicile was, by law that of her natural father, i.e. the Netherlands. Under the Dutch laws, the minimum age of marriage for girls was 16. The English law applicable in Singapore recognized the marriage laws of the subject's country of domicile.
- An exception to the above point could not be established because neither Mansoor, born in Kelantan, could be proved to be domiciled in Singapore nor Maria be considered a Muslim by law[3]. During her minority, Maria's natural father, who was a Christian, had the legal right to control her religion. He had testified that he would never consent to her conversion to Islam.
It is natural that she should now wish to remain in Malaya among people whom she knows. But who can say that she will have the same views some years hence after her outlooks has been enlarged, and her contacts extended, in the life of the family to which she belongs?"He also noted that whatever the details of the contested initiation of the custody at the end of 1942 might be, Adrianus Hertogh had not been part of it and had not abrogated his parental rights. He therefore awarded the custody of Maria to the Hertoghs and ordered that she should be handed over to her mother with immediate effect.
[edit] Stay at the convent
When policewomen came to take Maria away, she wept and clung to Aminah and Mansoor. Aminah fainted on the spot and a doctor standing by had to attend to her. Mansoor advised Maria to concede for the time being and promised that he and others would carry on the legal fight. Thus Maria allowed herself to be brought away into a car. Outside, the police, including a Gurkha contingent, held back a crowd of several hundred.The car delivered Maria to the Roman Catholic Convent of the Good Shepherd in Thomson Road. Mrs. Hertogh stayed at another address for a few days, from where she visited Maria daily, before moving in to the convent herself. According to an official of the Netherlands Consulate-General, such arrangement was because of "greater convenience" while the stay of execution pending appeal was in effect. But it proved to be the falsest step, the spark that lit the fuse of the subsequent riots.
First and foremost, the press was not barred from entering the convent grounds. Nor were they restricted in any way in their approach to the incident, which had been nothing shy of sensational. On 5 December, the Singapore Standard published on its front page a photograph of Maria standing holding hands with the Reverend Mother. There were several more pictures on page 2, under the headline: Bertha knelt before Virgin Mary Statue. The Malay press retorted. The Utusan Melayu published on 7 December three photographs of Maria weeping and being comforted by a nun, as well as articles about Maria's "lonely and miserable" life in the convent.
These pictures, whether presenting Maria as happy or sad, mostly showed Maria surrounded by symbols of Christian faith. The Muslims, who looked upon Maria as one of their own, were deeply offended by such pictures, not to mention the sensational reports, some of which explicitly labelled the case as a religious issue between Islam and Christianity.
On 9 December, an organization calling itself the Nadra Action Committee was formally constituted under the leadership of Karim Ghani, a Muslim political activist from Rangoon. This extreme organization solicited support among local Muslims by distributing free copies of its newspaper, the Dawn (not the Dawn, an English paper published in Pakistan). Karim Ghani had also made an open speech at the Sultan Mosque on 8 December in which he mentioned jihad as a final resort.
In the light of these potent signs of a great disturbance, the Criminal Investigation Department sent a memo to the Colonial Secretary suggesting moving Maria back to York Hill to avoid further inciting Muslim anger. The Secretary did not agree on grounds that he had received no such representations from Muslim leaders, nor did he have the authority to remove Maria without further court orders - weak excuses since Maria could be relocated with her mother's consent. Nonetheless, it cannot be said definitively that moving Maria out of the convent at such a late stage could have averted the riots.
Crowds were enraged by the Court's rejection of the appeal.
[edit] The riots
The appeal hearing opened on 11 December. Maria stayed at the convent and did not attend. Since early morning, crowds carrying banners and flags with star and crescent symbols began to gather around the Supreme Court. By noon, when the hearing eventually began, the restive crowd had grown to 2,000 to 3,000 in number. Unbelievably, the court threw out the appeal within five minutes. The brevity of the hearing convinced the gathering that the colonial legal system was biased against Muslims. The riots erupted.The mob (largely consisted of Malay or Indonesian Muslims but local Chinese gangs were also reported to have joined in) moved out to attack any Europeans and even Eurasians in sight. They overturned cars and burnt them. The police force, its lower ranks largely consisted of Malays who sympathized with the rioters' cause, were ineffective in quelling the riots. By nightfall the riots had spread to even the more remote parts of the island. Help from the British military was enlisted only at around 6:45 PM. Major-General Dunlop promptly deployed two Internal Security Battalions while calling in further reinforcements from Malaya. Meanwhile, various Muslim leaders appealed over the radio for the riots to cease.
Reinforcements arrived early on 12 December, but riotous incidents continued on that day. The troops and police only managed to regain control of the situation by noon on 13 December. In total, 18 people were killed, among whom were seven Europeans or Eurasians, two police officers, and nine rioters shot by the police or military, 173 were injured, many of them seriously, 119 vehicles were damaged, and at least two buildings were set on fire. Subsequently, two weeks of 24-hour curfew were imposed, and it was a long time before complete law and order was re-established.
[edit] The trials
After the riot, the police set up a special investigation unit which detained 778 people, among them Karim Ghani[4]. Out of these, 403 were released unconditionally and 106 were released on various conditions (they generally had to report to the police station monthly and adhere to a curfew after dark). The police eventually brought rioting charges against 200 people, of whom 25 were acquitted, 100 were convicted, 62 were referred to the Enquiry Advisory Committee, and seven were brought to trial at the Assize Court for wanton killing and five of them were subsequently sentenced to death on the gallows.On 25 August 1951, Tunku Abdul Rahman, who would later become the first Prime Minister of Malaysia, took over as the president of UMNO, a Malay and therefore Muslim party, that remains the largest and ruling political party in Malaysia today. He immediately set out to save the five on death row. Having garnered support from the Muslim population, Abdul Rahman placed pressure on the authorities, who finally gave in. The British government was expecting their role as the colonial master to end very soon and did not wish to leave behind grim memories. The death sentences for all five were commuted to life imprisonment.
[edit] Reviews
A Commission of Inquiry was appointed by Governor Franklin Gimson. It was headed by Sir Lionel Leach, a member of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. The Commission placed large blame on the police command for not having anticipated the violence from many indicators between 2 and 11 December. Furthermore, when the riots first started, the police failed to act promptly to disperse the crowd. The Gurkha contingent standing by was not put into action, while too much dependence was placed on Malay policemen, many of whom defected or at least hesitated to carry out their duties. The British House of Commons criticised the colonial government for its poor handling of the situation.Present day Government of Singapore also attributed the tragedy to the insensitivity of the colonial government towards the racial and religious feelings of the locals. It cites the incident as a vital lesson learnt in the importance of racial and religious understanding and harmony. It also cites the incident as a case for placing a certain degree of governmental control on the media, especially when racial or religious issues are implicated.
[edit] Epilogue
On the night the riots broke out, Maria Hertogh was moved out of the convent, where the rioters tried twice to march on and were only kept back by the police. Plans were made at York Hill to receive her but she was instead sent to Saint John's Island, an offshore island 4 miles south of the main island of Singapore. The next day, Maria and Adeline Hertogh departed for the Netherlands by aeroplane. After landing in Schiphol Airport, they quickly proceeded to the Hertogh home on the outskirts of Bergen op Zoom.At first, Maria could only talk to her mother, the only one in the family who understood Malay. She demanded rice with every meal, resenting the western diet. She continued to say her Muslim prayers five times a day. In addition, a policeman in plain clothes was assigned to escort her whenever she left the house, for fear of possible kidnappers who might take her back to Singapore, following reported sighting of "oriental strangers" around town. The house was also placed under surveillance.
Slowly, Maria began to adjust to her new environment. A nun came to the house daily to teach her Dutch until she was proficient enough to attend a local convent school. She also began to attend Mass with her family. Back in Singapore, Aminah and Mansoor had apparently given up hope of retrieving Maria after leave to appeal to the Privy Council was not granted. Earlier interest of the several Muslim groups involved had also gradually died down.
On 20 April 1956, Maria was married to Johan Gerardus Wolkefeld[5], a 21-year-old Dutch Catholic. On 15 February 1957, she gave birth to a son, the first child of ten. However, Maria did not seem to be contented. As she told De Telegraaf, she often had rows with her mother, who lived near by. She also said she still longed for her Malayan homeland. Johan and Mansoor began corresponding. In letters both expressed wish for Maria to travel to Malaya to visit the aged Aminah, but such trip was never made due primarily to financial difficulties. Aminah died in 1976.
The life story of Maria took another dramatic turn on 16 August of the same year, when Maria found herself on trial in a Dutch court charged with plotting to murder her husband. She admitted in court that she had been thinking about leaving her husband but was afraid to start divorce proceedings in case she lost custody of her children. She came into contact with two regular customers at her husband's cafe bar. The trio bought a revolver and recruited a fourth accomplice to carry out the actual murder. However, the latest member got cold feet and gossiped about the murder plan. The police quickly learnt of it and arrested all four conspirators.
In her defence, Maria's lawyers brought up her background, which the court acknowledged. With this in mind, and because the plot was never executed and there was no proof that she offered any inducement to the other three, the three-man bench acquitted Maria. Meanwhile, Maria had also filed for divorce on the grounds of the irreparable breakdown of her marriage.
[edit] Death
On 8th of July 2009, Maria Hertogh died at her house in Huijbergen at the age of 72. The cause of her death was the Leukemia from which she had been suffering[6].[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
- ^ Her full name at birth was Huberdina Maria Hertogh. To Dutch and other westerners she was normally known as Bertha (or Berta) Hertogh. The name given to her when circumcised by Muslim rites was Nadra binte Ma'arof, which was the name used by the Malays and other Muslims. However, Maria Hertogh was the name most frequently used in court proceedings and the English press. She died in 2008, Huijbergen, The Netherlands.
- ^ There was an uncanny parallel between the early lives of Maria Hertogh and her mother. Adeline Hunter, born a Eurasian, was adopted by a Muslim family at a young age. She married Adrianus Hertogh at the age of 15, upon which she converted to Christianity. Maria would later go through the same conversion, at around the same age, albeit involuntarily. Moreover, both were eventually married to Dutch soldiers.
- ^ If and only if both conditions were met could the Muslim law practiced in Singapore be applied to the case, which would render the marriage valid.
- ^ Karim Ghani was arrested along with several members of the Nadra Action Committee and held at the detention camp on Saint John's Island for 15 months under Emergency Regulation 20 for his part in the riots before being released on grounds of poor health.
- ^ Family tree of Johannes Gerardus Wolkenfelt, Berthe and their ten children
- ^ Maria Hertogh (Natrah) meninggal dunia di Belandaas reported by Malaysian ambassador to the Kingdom of Netherlands through e-mail to Bernama News Agency.
[edit] References
- Tom Earnes Hughes (1980). Tangled Worlds: The Story of Maria Hertogh. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. ISBN 9971-902-12-5.
- Haja Maideen (2000). The Nadra Tragedy. Pelanduk Publications. ISBN 967-978-287-5.
- "The Maria Hertogh Riots (11 Dec 1950)". Ministry of Education, National Education. http://www.moe.gov.sg/ne/sgstory/mariahertogh.htm. Retrieved October 19, 2005.broken URL
- Syed Muhd Khairudin Aljunied, Colonialism, Violence and Muslims in Southeast Asia: The Maria Hertogh Controversy and Its Aftermath, London: Routledge, 2009.
- "Maria Hertogh Riots". National Library Board.http://infopedia.nl.sg/articles/SIP_83_2005-02-02.html
[edit] Further reading
- Torn Between Two Worlds at "Headlines, Lifelines" website of the National Educational Multimedia kit for schools (c) Singapore Press Holdings. First published in 150 years of the Straits Times (15 July 1845-1995).
- In Dutch language, an Algemeen Nederlands Persbureau photo archive Flash slideshow of select news photos of the events published in Holland
- Maria Hertogh, returned to Malaysia in 1999 aged 63, for a Dutch TV documentary De Affaire
- Singapore Media Development Authority and Christopher Chew's Monsoon Pictures Pte Ltd are developing an English language film "The Jungle Girl" aka "Nadra(period drama)" with screenwriter Sarah Lambert, Lantern Pictures, Australia.
Maria Hertogh (Nadra)
By Tan, Bonny written on 2000-03-13
National Library Board Singapore
National Library Board Singapore
Comments on article: InfopediaTalk
Early Life
Maria was the third child of seven children that Adeline Hertogh bore. She was baptised Maria Bertha Hertogh by her Dutch-Eurasian parents. The Japanese invasion of Java during World War II saw Maria's father become a prisoner-of-war in 1943. Struggling alone and pregnant with their sixth child, Adeline gave Maria to the care of a family friend, Aminah bte Mohammad, on 15 November 1942. The process was witnessed by Adeline's brother, Soewaldi. Maria was brought to Bandung, raised as a Muslim and given the name Nadra bte Maarof at her circumcision a year later.
Aminah and Maria moved to Jakarta for one period but soon returned to Bandung, where Aminah's fluency in Japanese enabled her to work as an interpreter for the Japanese military police. In 1947, fearing that Maria's Dutch background made her vulnerable during the Indonesian War of Independence, Aminah and Maria fled to Terengganu, Malaysia. She grew up in Aminah's hometown Kemaman, Terengganu, where Aminah was highly regarded. Studying at Chukai Malay Girls' School, Kemaman, Maria also was trained in Koran reading outside school hours by an ustazah.
Developments
Reunited after the war, Maria's parents began seeking for their lost daughter in the late 1940s. They lodged a request with Dutch officials to locate their daughter. Arthur Locke, the Administrative Officer (East), was the first to alert authorities to Maria's whereabouts when he spotted her at a school competition in Kemaman. A custody battle then ensued over Maria, which, through sensationalist press reports, drew much public attention and fuelled religious sensitivities.
Initially, custody of Maria was given to Aminah. Within four days of the ruling, on 1 August 1950, Maria was married off to Mansoor Adabi, a 22-year-old teacher at Bukit Panjang Government School heading a second-year Normal Class. The marriage of the juvenile 13-year old-Maria was raised in court, at Adeline's appeal for custody over Maria. On 2 December 1950, custody over Maria was gained by Adeline who whisked her to Amsterdam, Netherlands. On 11 December 1950, riots were sparked off over the custodial ruling, resulting in the death of at least 18 people.
Maria married a Dutch cabinet maker, Johan (Joep) Gerardus Wolkenfeld, on 20 April 1956 and they had 13 children, three of whom did not survive infancy. However, a 1975 television production on Maria's story stirred up Maria's unhappy memories and led her to tragic actions. Miserable over working at her husband's cafe-cum-bar, the "T Pumpke", from early morning to midnight, she plotted to murder her husband through two friends but the plans were found out and she was brought to court on 16 August 1976. However, after reviewing her tragic past, Maria was acquitted within one day of hearing. Her marriage ended by the 1980s. She died of leukaemia on 8 July 2009, at her residence in Huijbergen, Netherlands.
Family
Grandmother: Louise Winterberg a.k.a. Nor Louise. A Eurasian of Indo-Dutch parentage. She had left her Scottish husband, Joseph Hunter for an Indonesian opera actor Raden Ismail. She gained fame as a Bangsawan performer and through this became friends with Aminah.
Uncle: Soewaldi, son of Louise Winterberg through Hunter. Converted to Islam
Father: Adrianus Petrus Hertogh (b. 1905), army sergeant with the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army. He is of Dutch origins. He married Adeline Hunter on 23 December 1938.
Mother: Adeline Hunter. Spoke fluent Bahasa.
Sisters: Wiesge (b. 1935)
: Corrie (b. 1936)
Brothers: Kees
: Bennie (both brothers were born between 1938 - 1941)
: Kareltje (b. 26 December 1942)
: another brother (b. 1948)
Adoptive Family
Mother: Aminah bt Mohammad. From a respected Malay family in Kemaman, Terengganu. She married her first husband, Abdul Rani (a.k.a Abdul Ghani) who had been the private secretary to the Sultan of Terengganu in 1919. Abdul Rani, was the cousin to Datuk Bukit Gantang who became Mentri Besar or "Chief Minister" of Perak after the war. She accompanied her husband to Tokyo where he taught Malay language for almost 11 years. They mastered Japanese and adopted a Japanese girl whom they named Kamariah.
Father: Maarof bin Haji Abdul, a jeweller from Bandung, whom Aminah married in the mid-1930s after Abdul Rani had passed away.
Author
Bonny Tan
References
Hughes, T. E. (1980). Tangled worlds: The story of Maria Hertogh. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.
(Call no.: RSING 364.143095957 HUG)
Maideen, Haja. (1991). The Nadra tragedy: The Maria Hertogh controversy (pp. 29-41, 103, 303-305). Petaling Jaya: Pelanduk Publications.
(Call no.: RCLOS 959.5704 MAI)
Maria Hertogh: Her life at a glance. (1998, July 14). The Straits Times, Home Focus, p. 28.
Zaharah Othman. (2009, July 10). Maria Hertogh, 72, dies of leukaemia. New Straits Times. Retrieved July 10, 2009, from http://nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/articles/12nadra/Article/index_html
Further Readings
Chee, J. (1992). My name is Nadra, not Bertha [Videotape]. Singapore: SBC.
(Call no.: SING 959.5704 MY)
Conceicao, J.F. (2007). Singapore and the many-headed monster. Singapore: Horizon Books.
(Call no: SING 303.623095957 CON)
Netto, L. (1996). Maria: Based on a true story. Singapore: Derby Publishers.
(Call no.: SING S822 NET)
The information in this article is valid as at 2009 and correct as far as we can ascertain from our sources. It is not intended to be an exhaustive or complete history of the subject. Please contact the library for further reading materials on the topic.
Subject
Ethnic Communities
Events>> Disasters
Riots--Singapore
Custody of Children--Singapore
People and communities>>Social groups and communities
People and communities>>Social conflict>>Riots
Librarian Recommendations
>> Maria Hertogh Riots
All Rights Reserved. National Library Board Singapore 2004.
http://infopedia.nl.sg/articles/SIP_508_2004-12-23.html
Maria Hertogh Riots
By Tan, Lay Yuen written on 1997-09-29
National Library Board Singapore
National Library Board Singapore
Comments on article: InfopediaTalk
Background
Maria Hertogh, born to Dutch-Eurasian parents in Java, was adopted during the war by an Indonesian Muslim woman named Aminah. When Maria's father was arrested by the Japanese, Maria's mother gave Maria to Aminah to be raised. She was given the Muslim name Nadra. In 1947, Aminah moved to Trengganu with Maria.
After the war, the Hertoghs launched a legal battle for the custody of their daughter after they received information in 1949 of her whereabouts in Malaya. The custody battle attracted intense media attention worldwide. Photographs in newspapers of a Muslim girl in a Catholic convent and claims that she had bowed down to the Virgin Mary affected religious sensitivities and whipped up emotions. The Muslim side was championed by Indian Muslim Karim Ghani. As editor of the Jawi daily, Dawn, Ghani instigated emotions within the Muslim community by publishing controversial reports of the case. He also worked out an extensive plan for 1,500 girls to protest in a procession. Exhortations were made at the Sultan Mosque to wage a holy war to force the return of Maria to Aminah. At the appeal hearing on 11 December 1950, the Judge dismissed Aminah's appeal and custody was given to Adeline Hunter, her biological mother. Upon hearing the judgement, huge crowds outside the court rioted, convinced that the colonial laws, the courts and the legal system were prejudiced against Muslims.
Casualties
For three days, mobs of Malay and Indian Muslim rioters attacked any European and Eurasian in sight. They set up barricades along major roads, set cars and houses on fire and took control of districts in the vicinity of Sultan Mosque, North Bridge Road and Jalan Besar. Rioting was stopped only after two troops of the Internal Security Battalion were called in, supported by several Malays within the troops. Even so, scattered attacks continued over two days. A 24-hour curfew had to be imposed for two weeks before British and Malay troops and the Constabulary regained control of the situation.
Altogether, 18 people were killed and 173 were injured. Nine were killed by rioters while the others were killed by policemen. Aside from a Police Inspector and a Special Constable, those killed by rioters had little to do with the Hertogh case and their murder was motivated more by fanaticism and racial hatred.
Significance and Consequences
The riots highlighted the insensitive way the media handled religious and racial issues in Singapore. The British colonial authorities also failed to defuse an explosive situation when emotional reports appeared in the local press of the custody battle accompanied by sensational media photographs of a Muslim girl in a Catholic convent.
Although the rioters were mainly Malays, they included a large number of foreigners including Indian, Pakistani and Indonesian Muslims. Added to this, the mainly Malay Police Force appeared to sympathise with the Muslim rioters and displayed some measure of deliberate inaction and defection during the riots. Gurkha Police Riot Squad Detachment, constituting at least 149 men were unfortunately not utilised and were in fact withdrawn at critical locations.
As a result of this historic event, the Government of Singapore, upon independence in 1965, instituted legislation against racial discrimination. It became an offence to incite racial and religious hatred in Singapore. The local media exercised greater discipline in the coverage of sensitive issues. National integration and nation-building took top priority in the formulation of government policies.
Time-line
1950 : The Hertoghs filed a lawsuit in the courts of Singapore, seeking to assert their parental rights over Maria.
22 Apr 1950 : The court ruled that Maria should be returned to her biological parent after a period of care under the Social Welfare Department.
28 Jul 1950 : Maria was returned to Aminah after the latter appealed against the decision. Shortly after, Maria married a 22-year-old Malay teacher.
13 Nov 1950 : The Hertoghs appealed the decision and the courts ruled in their favour on the basis that Maria was removed from them without their consent. Upon her return to her biological parents, the court further ruled that Maria should be subject to Dutch laws where it was illegal for minors below the age of 16 to be married. Hence, Maria's marriage was declared null and void and she was placed in protective custody at a Catholic convent, the Girls' Home of the Convent of the Good Shepherd, prior to her return to the Netherlands.
11 Dec 1950 : An appeal hearing for Aminah's case was dismissed leading the waiting crowds outside the courts to riot.
12 Dec 1950 : Maria is flown to Holland with her parents to be reunited with her family.
13 Dec 1950 : Order is restored in Singapore.
Author
Lay Yuen Tan
References
Clutterbuck, R. L. (1984). Conflict and violence in Singapore and Malaysia: 1945-1983. Singapore: G. Brash.
(Call no.: RSING 959.57 CLU)
Hughes, T. E. (1980). Tangled world: The story of Maria Hertogh. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1980.
(Call no.: RSING 364.143095957 HUG)
Blythe pays tribute to Army. (1950, December 14). The Straits Times, p. 7.
City back to law and order. (1950, December 14). The Straits Times, p. 1.
Curfew brings a quiet night. (1950, December 13). The Straits Times, p. 1.
Five dead, 100 hurt in riots. (1950, December 12). The Straits Times, p. 1.
Hertoghs promise to bring Maria to court if necessary. (1950, December 12). The Straits Times, p.7.
How it all started. (1950, December 12). The Straits Times, p. 4.
Maria in Calcutta. (1950, December 14). The Straits Times, p. 1.
'Stay of execution' appeal on Maria: custody fails. (1950, December 13). The Straits Times, p. 4.
Further Readings
Aljunied, Syed Muhd. Khairudin. (2009). Colonialism, violence and Muslims in Southeast Asia : the Maria Hertogh controversy and its aftermath. London : Routledge.
(Call no.: RSING 959.5704 ALJ)
Maideen, H. (1980). The Nadra tragedy: The Maria Hertogh controversy. Petaling Jaya: Pelanduk Publications.
(Call no.: RCLOS 959.5704 MAI)
Netto, L. (1996). Maria: Based on a true story. Singapore: Derby Publishers.
(Call no.: RSING S822 NET)
Riots Inquiry Commission. (1951). Report ... together with a despatch from His Excellency the Governor of Singapore to the Rt. Hon. the Secretary of State for the Colonies. Singapore: Government Printing Office.
(Call no.: RCLOS 364.143095957 SIN)
City of troops, police. (1950, December 13). The Straits Times, p. 1.
'Inept handling of situation' - UK Press. (1950, December 14). The Straits Times, p. 1.
'Mosque is place of peace'. (1950, December 14). The Straits Times, p. 7.
Chee, J. (Producer). (1992). My name is Nadra, not Bertha [Videotape]. Singapore: Singapore Broadcasting Corporation.
(Call no.: RSING 959.5704 MY)
KnowledgeNet. (n.d.). Legal Battles. Retrieved March 20, 2000, from www.knowledgenet.com.sg/singapore/sg/nr/nrmhr001.asp
Ministry of Education. (n.d.). Maria Hertogh Riots. Retrieved March 15, 2000, from
www1.moe.edu.sg/ne/Archives/Episodes%20from%20the%20Singapore%20Story/Maria_Hertogh/Maria_Hertogh.htm
The information in this article is valid as at 1998 and correct as far as we can ascertain from our sources. It is not intended to be an exhaustive or complete history of the subject. Please contact the Library for further reading materials on the topic.
Subject
Politics and Government>>National Security>>Civil Unrests>>Riots
Events>>Historical Periods>>Aftermath of War (1945-1955)
Race riots--Singapore
Riots--Singapore
Singapore--History--1945-1963
People and communities>>Social conflict>>Riots
Librarian Recommendations
>> Maria Hertogh (Nadra)
All Rights Reserved. National Library Board Singapore 2004.
http://infopedia.nl.sg/articles/SIP_83_2005-02-02.html
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