Ons Program (Kuyper, 1878) — Our Program — is the Anti-Revolutionary party manifesto published by Abraham Kuyper in 1878, in which the relation of the Netherlands to its colonies is for the first time framed in political form as that of “de voogd tot zijn pupil” — the guardian to his ward. The doctrine of the moral vocation of the Netherlands towards its colonial populations set out in the manifesto is the political seed-bed of the ethical policy officially proclaimed in the troonrede of 1901.
The guardian-ward relation
In Ons Program of 1878 Kuyper saw the relation of the Netherlands to its colonies as that of a guardian to his ward (voogd-pupil). The guardian’s first duty was to bring to the Indies the blessings of security and order that the Netherlands had itself received with the Gospel. A second duty — cited by Vermeulen with the reference: “A. Kuyper, Ons Program, 1892, blz. 332” — was to enable the Indies in the future to assume a more autonomous position. Of these two duties the second proved more acceptable to the non-confessional parties than the first, which carried a Christian-zending subtext.
The two duties
For the Christian parties, especially the anti-revolutionaries, Kuyper said, it was clear that the Dutch first duty was to bring to the Indies “die zegeningen van veiligheid en orde, die Nederland, sinds hier het licht der evangeliën doordrong, door Gods goede gunst ontving en, God zij lof, nog steeds bezitten mag” — those blessings of security and order that the Netherlands, since the light of the Gospels penetrated here, has received by God’s good grace and, praise God, still possesses. The history had, Kuyper held, “ontegensprekelijk” — incontestably — shown that all peoples who remained outside the Christian sphere could not, from their own strength, rise to “een hoger standpunt” — a higher plane.
The second duty — preparing the Indies for greater autonomy — was more acceptable to the non-confessional parties. Snouck Hurgronje — who in many respects was the spiritual leader of the vrijzinnig (liberal) ethici — gave it its classic liberal formulation in his Nederland en de Islam ([[1911)|Nederland en de Islam]] of 1911.
The troonrede of 1901
The troonrede of 1901 — drafted under the Kuyper ministry — gave an ereplaats — place of honour — to the “staatkunde van zedelijke verplichting” — policy of moral obligation — that Ons Program of 1878 had been the first to formulate in political form. The ethical policy as a program point was soon adopted by the other political parties; “het zou trouwens niet denkbaar zijn, dat ze was afgewezen” — it would not have been conceivable, after all, that it should have been rejected.
Significance for Atjeh
Ons Program is the document in which the moral frame within which the conquest and pacificatie of Atjeh would be conducted was first politically articulated. The doctrine of the moral vocation supplied the official justification for the Van Daalen expedition of 1904, for the pacificatie that followed, and for the broader ethical-policy program of irrigation, education and regional councils.
See Also
- Abraham Kuyper
- Ethische Politiek
- Troonrede of 1901
- C. Snouck Hurgronje
- Nederland en de Islam (Snouck Hurgronje, 1911)
- Pacificatie van Atjeh
- Van Daalen’s Gajo-Alas-Batak expedition (1904)
- 1878
- 1901
Source
Schets eener parlementaire geschiedenis van Nederland van 1849 tot 1901, by Mr W. J. van Welderen baron Rengers, 4th rev. ed., Vol. IV: Oost-Indië 1891-1918 by Dr W. H. Vermeulen (‘s-Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff, 1955), pp. 279, 281.
A. Kuyper, Ons Program (1878), p. 332.