Having Many Wives As Muara, Bumiputra Officials Of Corruption In The Dutch Colonial Era

The portrait of the regent (regent) and his family during the Dutch colonial era. (Wikimedia Commons)

JAKARTA - Life as a footballer of Dutch colonialists is like a regent (regent) full of profits. The image of Bumiputra officials made them free to perpetuate luxury, even though they betrayed their nation. There is often more than one wife's business. However, having a wife is not easy.

The matter of financing a lot of wives' lives is not an easy matter. Relying on a salary alone will not be enough. The regents often rack their brains. They perpetuate all means to support their wives and families. Popular strategy is also played. Corruption, his name.

The colonial government of the Dutch East Indies could not work alone to perpetuate its power in the archipelago. The hands of the natives were used. They were made Bumiputra officials. The Dutch also worked together to recruit bumiputra officials like regents.

Special criteria are prepared. Whoever the bumiputras who want to become regents must of course be clear about the origins of their families. They are also required to take education and be able to speak Dutch. All existing backgrounds must also be wrapped with high loyalty.

This condition made the Dutch prefer the position of regent. The regent's salary is quite high compared to other bumiputra officials such as wedana or village heads. They no longer feel the hardships of life like other bumiputras who are squeezed like dairy cows.

All kinds of regents' power needs were met by the Dutch. This advantage became more evident when their children could get all kinds of access to education. Instead of domestic education, access to education abroad is wide open.

The aid is clearly not a free thing. The regent must be prepared to defend all of the interests of the Dutch in return. They are required to work like traitors to their compatriots. The narrative makes the regent's conscience to the suffering of his people minimal if it should not be said to have been completely lost.

Financial subsidies to the regents are given between 500 guilders and 1,500 guilders for the most influential and large ones, such as the Regent of Madiun. When small regents are integrated into large areas (this process ends approximately in 1876), each regent is paid 1,500 guilders a month. Percent of Paksa Planting they still enjoy, as well as the rights of community service (200 people) a year, and tribute, as well as other customary rights.

On the other hand, the regent's need is much greater than the need for a resident (Netherlands) with a nuclear family (child and wife). A regent has a large family of cores (children and wives). A regent has a large family: Faily and his children, especially if they have more than one wife. How do they live? Trade for them, in writing, is prohibited by the Dutch because it can lead to corruption, "explained Historian Ong Hok Ham in the book Kehilangan, A Land of Guncang(2018).

The regents also enjoyed a comfortable life as Dutch footballers. They live a luxurious life. Even they do not hesitate to bear the life of their family who do not have a job. This condition is sometimes also used to marry more than one person.

Things to do by adding more wives are easy for the regent to perpetuate. The popularity and money they have made the girls' parents give up their children to be edited by the regent. Even if the child is the second or third wife.

The regents were just having fun. However, that doesn't mean life is luxurious with many wives running smoothly. This condition actually makes a regent have a greater need than the needs of a resident (Netherlands) with a nuclear family (child and wife). A position that incidentally tops the regent.

The need for a high life is because the regent participates in financing his extended family in the form of families and children from each wife. Even if the regent in question has many prostitutes too. The expenditures made can be doubled, even though the salaries received are far less than the Dutch officials.

In fact, they do not only finance the needs of luxury and many wives with mere salaries. The regents finance their luxury by perpetuating corruption. They have that power.

The regent can extort the people of his compatriots. Not to mention, the matter of buying and selling positions in his area of power. This diversity makes many bumiputras want to taste the position of regent. If the dream is high, they will choose the dream of becoming a family of the regent only.

"High officials are increasingly limiting themselves to the maximum legal limit. And if they, apart from that, still dare to do certain freedoms in many ways, they do so with the belief that they are consumer."

If they, without a valid contract, give a living to a woman whose origin is low in the village or in the village, then this woman is also called a prostitute, but also given other names, such as belitting. And this is not only the case for those who already have four legitimate wives, but also done by people who have one legal wife and indeed allow for obscene relationships from their husbands, as long as they are not combined, "explained Snouck Hurgronje in the book Nashah-Nashah C. Snouck Hurgronje During his staffing time to the Dutch East Indies Government 1889-1936 Volume VI (1991).