On the website of the Dutch Indies Federation (FIN) they refer to this clip in which Jeffry Pondaag highlights the inconsistency of the Dutch claim that Indonesians were colonial ‘subjects’ until 1949, while at the same time ‘Indonesians’ are accused of the crimes against (Indo-)Dutch people. That is why he asked: “who were those people that committed the crimes of ‘the Bersiap'”?
Quote form the press release by K.U.K.B.:
For almost 77 years, the Netherlands refused to legally recognize this date. ‘If the Netherlands regards the country as their property until 1949 and considers the inhabitants colonial subjects, then who are the people who (according to the Dutch) committed ‘Bersiap murders’?’, asks chairman Jeffry Pondaag. ‘Since the Netherlands uses December 27, 1949 as the date that Indonesia became independent, they cannot speak of ‘Indonesians’ as citizens of an existing country. The state of Indonesia, and Indonesian as nationality, is exactly what they do not recognize! During the colonial occupation Indonesians were not citizens but ‘subjects’. If we follow the reasoning of the Netherlands, they murdered their own ‘subjects’ between 1945-1949. Yet, whatever reasoning we follow, it is racist anyway’, says Pondaag. He concludes: ‘The Netherlands cannot have it both ways. The Indonesian population, which numbered about 70 to 100 million people around 1945, were not considered human beings, remember the signs that prohibited entrance for dogs and natives.’