Rutte offers sincere apologies for 1950s war violence in Indonesia Current student loan system set to be abolished

Rutte offers sincere apologies for 1950s war violence in Indonesia

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte has offered sincere apologies on behalf of the Dutch government for the extreme war violence that Dutch soldiers committed during the independence struggle in Indonesia in the 1950s.

For more than 70 years, the Dutch government has denied that excessive force was used by the armed forces when the former colony of the Dutch East Indies declared its independence.“Armed forces as a whole behaved correctly in Indonesia,” was the formal position of the Dutch government. Previous cabinets have consistently looked away from this unsavoury part of Dutch history. Rutte is the first Prime Minister to break with that position. “We have to face the facts. The Netherlands waged a colonial war in which extreme violence was used systematically and widely, including torture, which in most cases went unpunished,” said Rutte.

He has offered apologies to the Indonesian people and to everyone in the Netherlands who has had to live with the consequences of the colonial war to this day. With the latter, Rutte was referring to the Dutch veterans, who were sent on an impossible mission, often ill-prepared. The responsibility for the atrocities does not lie with individual soldiers, but with those in authority at the time: the cabinet, the armed forces as an institution and the judicial authorities. Soldiers who were sent to Indonesia were not sufficiently equipped for guerilla war, neither physically and mentally, and often suffered from posttraumatic stress syndrome after their return.

The Prime Minister’s response followed a scientific study called Independence, decolonization, violence and war in Indonesia 1945-1950, published by NIOD (Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies), Royal Institute for Language, Land and Ethnology (KITLV) and the Netherlands Institute for Military History (NIMH). It showed that Dutch soldiers were frequently and structurally guilty of war crimes. These included extrajudicial executions, abuse and torture, detention under inhumane conditions, arson of houses and villages, and often arbitrary mass arrests and internments. The vast majority of Dutch politicians, military leaders and judges knew about this, but were willing to turn a blind eye.

About 100,000 Indonesian soldiers and civilians were killed in the fighting. On the Dutch side, approximately 5000 soldiers died, as well as nearly 6000 Dutch civilians and Indonesian allies.

Full acknowledgement of what happened has been a very sensitive issue for a long time. In 1995, then Queen Beatrix held the position that there was too little political space to apologize during a state visit. Then, Minister Ben Bot of Foreign Affairs tried to make up for that in 2005, when he said that the Netherlands was on the wrong side of history. In 2020, King Willem-Alexander during a state visit expressed regret and offered some apologies for war violence. It was Rutte who took the last step towards full apologies.

That is not relief for everyone. “Dutch veterans are portrayed as war criminals,” said Hans van Griensven of the Veterans Platform. Although he believed that things went wrong, he also believed that humanitarian aid was provided and infrastructure built. He also believed that little attention was paid to the violence used by Indonesian fighters against the Dutch.

What is certain is that the cabinet is now willing to compensate relatives in Indonesia for the suffering caused. “Widows and children of the victims can claim compensation,” said the Prime Minister. Some widows from the village of Rawagede had previously successfully sued the Dutch state for the execution of their husbands. After years of litigation, the Netherlands agreed in 2011 to pay out 20,000 euros per person in compensation. The current apologies are paving the way for tens or possibly even hundreds of thousands of claims for damages.

Written by Stephen Swai

Current student loan system set to be abolished

The student loan system in Dutch higher education will be phased out from September 2024. This decision was taken in the run-up to the elections, which witnessed the CDA and ChristenUnie declare their support for restoring the basic student stipend, while D66 revealed intentions to fund student aid through taxes. The VVD was the only party to pledge to keep the existing lending system in place.

The new coalition agreement instead pledges to return to funding for students that includes a basic, non-returnable grant for all students and an income-dependent additional grant. The new administration is presently working to repeal the dreaded loan system, which resulted in everyone who began studying in or after 2015 being stuck with much higher student debt. Thank heavens for that!

What does this shift in the lending system entail? Let’s take a look at it more closely. Changes ahead You’re in luck if you’re planning to starting studying at university in the academic year 2023-24: this will be the first year in which the new system will be in place. It’s unclear exactly what it will look like, but it’ll be similar to the previous system, which existed until 2015. The most important aspects of this scheme, known as the performance grant, are outlined here.

Every student must meet the criteria of the performance grant. These are the following: - Everyone gets the same basic allowance (whether they live with their parents or not), regardless of their own and their parents’ income. - All students receive free travel on public transportation throughout the week or on weekends (you can choose whether you like weekends or weekdays) with a public transportation card - If you obtain a higher education diploma within ten years, you don’t have to pay back the basic grant and the costs of your public transportation card. - Additional interest-bearing loans must be repaid within 15 or 35 years.

Despite the fact that the loan system will be phased out, little is as yet known about how this will be accomplished.

The loan system in brief In a nutshell, the lending system currently in place works as follows: - Each month, your loan might be changed upwards or decreased. - If you obtain a diploma within 10 years, you do not have to pay back the costs of your public transportation card.

As you can see, from 2015 students had to pay significantly more, as the previous basic grant was scrapped. As a result, their total student debt climbed dramatically, which can have long-term ramifications. When you wish to buy a house or take out another loan, for example, the student loan reduces the amount you can borrow. The system also increased the gap between rich and poor students: the rich just received more money from their parents, while poor students had to borrow higher sums. It’s no surprise, then, that the loan system is unpopular.

Student unions and organisations react The National Student Union replies with joy, but caution. The elimination of the loan system is “wonderful news”, but the question now is what will replace it. Moreover, the government is currently working on compensation for students who used the loan system in the period 20152023. The ministry listed several options earlier this year. The cost would be between 1.4 and 11 billion euros.

Commenting on the student loan system, Quint Linderman, an Economics & Business Economics student at Erasmus University Rotterdam says, “As a loan student, it is a good practice not to look at the DUO site, for fear of the amount of debt you will see. It seems as if the new coalition is also afraid to face the real damage to this unlucky generation. We have always been told that you should still see your studies as ‘an investment in the future.’ I think the coalition should look at the loan students in the same way, by compensating us better.”