The Entire Dutch East Indies Affected By Economic Recession In Today's History, February 11, 1935

Economic activity of the Dutch East Indies in the early 20th century. (Wikimedia Commons)

JAKARTA History today, 88 years ago, February 11, 1935, the Via newspaper reported that the whole Dutch East Indies was affected by the economic recession. From rich officials to farmers. Many companies went out of business and the fate of uncertain workers.

Previously, the economic recession in the 1930s caused a big stir. The life certificate of the Dutch East Indies fell to its lowest level. People call the time a malaise era the tongue of the bumiputras calling it a missed era.

Economic recession is the most frightening scourge in the world. No economic sector has not collapsed because of it. In the Dutch East Indies, let alone. The global economic crisis (zaman malaise) that occurred in the 1930s spread to the archipelago.

This condition got worse because the Dutch East Indies made the export business to finance its livelihoods. As a result, all sectors in the Dutch East Indies were affected. Major European-owned companies are starting to shake.

They try to come up with a strategy. There are companies that cut wages, some have to lay off their employees. The decision made the unemployment rate in the Dutch East Indies increase.

The colonial government tried various studies. However, it resulted in failure. The impact of the recession made Europeans who were previously rich bankrupt. Some of them chose to return to their hometowns.

We live in a crisis era. So great is the world and the interactions of life are experienced, so almost everyone says it. The word crisis no longer remains closed in the dictionary of economists, but reaches small workers and blind farmers know how to call it, even though they don't understand the intricacies.

"Only they feel the stems of their bodies, how painful and difficult it is to live today. Crisis and the era of malaise said the economist and they also mentioned these foreign words and questioned them as they know and experience. Moreover, the word malaise is easily attached to the common sense. It is called with Indonesian tongue that it becomes missed, "explained Bung Hatta in the book Critical Economics and Capitalism (1935).

Losses were not only experienced by the Dutch. The Bumiputras who worked mostly as workers in European companies were affected. They have to be satisfied with the presence of a wave of mass layoffs (PHK). Since then, the life of the bumiputras has become increasingly fragile.

The difficulties of the malaise era proved that there are no groups that can avoid the big impact of the economic recession. Alias, indiscriminate malaise era. Those who are rich to poor both feel pain.

The narrative was then reported by the Dutch East Indies mass media. The Visibility newspaper, for example. The report relates to the tremendous influence of the economic recession present on February 11, 1935.

NEWS letter The scene that was published in Batavia on February 11, 1935 wrote, not a single population is free from pressure from malaise, and not a single company is able to work as before.

Private people and government employees are already happy if their income is not cut too much. However, this is difficult to avoid because in everyday life there are expenses whose costs cannot be reduced, such as school fees, drinking water, electricity, and transportation subscriptions. explained P. Swantoro in the book From Book to Book: Connect Connect So One (2002).