Euro-Descendant Hero Douwes Dekker Fights Colonizers to Defend Indonesians

RRI.CO.ID, Jakarta – National hero Ernest François Eugène Douwes Dekker defied colonial discrimination to fight for the rights of native Indonesians. Despite his European heritage, he firmly rejected his class privileges to end racial injustice in his homeland.

His political courage began to show while working at coffee and sugar plantations in East Java. He repeatedly clashed with his superiors and chose to resign to fight for workers' rights and fair irrigation for local farmers.

His defiant spirit against foreign dominance even drove Douwes Dekker to travel to South Africa in 1899. He boldly joined the Second Boer War to fight directly against British imperialism.

After returning to the Dutch East Indies, Douwes Dekker used journalism as his primary tool of struggle. Through sharp articles in newspapers like De Locomotief, he fiercely ignited the spirit of national consciousness.

Douwes Dekker even turned his residence near STOVIA into a central hub for young independence activists. Prominent leaders like Soetomo and Tjipto Mangoenkoesoemo regularly gathered there to formulate independence strategies.

The pinnacle of his movement came when he co-founded the Indische Partij in Bandung in 1912. As the first modern political party, it united all ethnic groups, which terrified the colonial government and led to his exile.

Douwes Dekker maintained his unwavering loyalty to Indonesia post-independence despite enduring years of exile in Suriname. President Soekarno later appointed him as Minister of State before he passed away and received the National Hero title. (Shayla Nabila)