'Een zondebok is een nuttig dier'. Over de commissie van overleg Zuid-Molukkers-Nederlanders (1976-1978)

Samenvatting

'A Scapegoat Is a Useful Animal:' The South Moluccan/Dutch Council 1976-1978. The history of the South Moluccan/Dutch Council, established in 1976 by the Dutch government in an attempt to replace political violence committed in the Netherlands by South Moluccan (Indonesian) separatists with more customary political procedures, is discussed. The council, which consisted of five Dutch and five Moluccan representatives, had three principal tasks: (1) buffering between majority groups and Moluccans demanding political and social rights in the Netherlands; (2) conducting historical studies on the process leading to Indonesia's 1949 independence from the Netherlands and the Dutch influence on the Moluccan Islands' incorporation in Indonesia; and (3) conducting an exploratory study regarding the popularity in the Netherlands and the Moluccas of the notion of a separate South Moluccan Republic. The political implications of the council's results and suggestions are discussed, and how the council increasingly functioned as a political and mass media scapegoat for the inability of Dutch government and Moluccans to resolve their conflict is explained. The coincidental decrease in violent actions and the dismantling of the council in 1978 are described. 9 References. S. Paul