Th. B. Pleyte — a Dutch liberal politician — served as minister of Colonies (1913-1918) in the Vermeulen-period wartime cabinets. His ministry covered the 1911 begrotingsdebat aftermath, the 1916 proclamation of the Volksraad in the Staatsblad, and the 1918 installation of the Volksraad itself. He is one of the principal liberal executors of the ethical-policy program in the post-pacificatie period.
On the ethische politiek
In the formula of Pleyte — quoted by Vermeulen as the canonical liberal statement of the ethical-policy mission — the task of the colonial state was to “Indië’s hulpbronnen zoveel mogelijk door Indische volkskracht te ontsluiten, de bevolking geschikt te maken tot het behartigen van eigen belang en het bestuur van eigen land en daarmede de grondslagen te leggen voor een volledig zelfbestuur” — open up the resources of the Indies as far as possible through Indies popular strength, fit the population to look after its own interest and the government of its own land, and thereby lay the foundations for full self-government.
On the Javanese awakening
Pleyte’s parliamentary self-assurance about the political awakening of the Indies — even after the outbreak of the First World War — was notable. The awakening of the kleine man (common man) and of the lower native officials was, in his judgement, “een veel aangenamer en veel grootser taak” — a much more pleasant and much greater task — for a ruler “dan een slapend volk er onder te houden” — than to keep a sleeping people under. He ventured, despite the political difficulties of the past year, to make possible a greater freedom of association and assembly (vereniging en vergadering) — a measure that his predecessor Fock had already discussed with governor-general Van Heutsz.
Relation to Idenburg
Pleyte’s relation with governor-general Idenburg — a Christian-historical appointee of the previous anti-revolutionary cabinets — was, in Vermeulen’s verdict, smooth: “Pleyte bleek het wel te kunnen vinden met de gouverneur-generaal Idenburg and his stance on the zending was far more accommodating than the heat of the election campaign of 1913 had led one to expect. The case illustrates the practical consensus on the ethische politiek that crossed partisan lines in this period.
See Also
- Ethische Politiek
- Volksraad
- A. W. F. Idenburg
- D. Fock
- J. B. van Heutsz
- Sarekat Islam
- 1911 Indische begrotingsdebat
- 1913
- 1916
- 1918
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. 282, 340, 353.