Besturen in Nederlands-Nieuw-Guinea 1945-1962: Ontwikkelingswerk in een periode van politieke onrust.  Edited by Pim Schoorl.  Leiden: KITLV Press, 1996. 658 pp., photographs, index.  Reviewed by Sjoerd R. Jaarsma (Centre for Pacific and Asian Studies, Nijmegen, The Netherlands).

The Dutch title of this volume translates as Administration in Netherlands New Guinea 1945-1962: Development Work in a Period of Political Turmoil.”  It is certainly an appropriate title as Schoorl brings together no less than 17 authors who all worked for the Dutch New Guinea administration in the years between Indonesia's struggle for independence (1945-1949) and the end of Dutch colonial rule in Southeast Asia in 1962.

Following the example of Schoorl's preface and introductory chapter, all but two of the remaining 25 contributions portray the multifaceted nature of administrative work. The volume deals only with the administration itself, other representatives of the colonial effort in West New Guinea - the police, health care, missions, as well as the indigenous people themselves - are not given a voice here. Despite its narrow focus this volume is a rich and extremely readable document that provides a good introduction to the administrative achievements in this period and area. I use the term 'introduction' on purpose as this book only begins to scratch the surface of the history of this much-neglected period.

The contributions do not provide any in-depth analysis of the work done in West New Guinea. Most authors provide anecdotes on problems they dealt with during their appointments. Nevertheless, the contributions give a good idea of the kind of challenges the average administrator faced and the kind of skills he needed. As the focus of the book is on the work of the administrator it provides but little ethnographic information. Though most contributions do pay attention to the Dutch administrative impact on the indigenous population the insights we gain vary, as only a few authors (i.e., Lagerberg, Broekhuijse, Dasselaar, Merkelijn, Veldkamp) actually provide much detail.

The diversity in the book mirrors West New Guinea's variability. Here, the fact that we are given accounts of the same or similar events from different perspectives is very beneficial, even though the authors rarely reference one another's interpretations. For instance, we find consecutive contributions dealing with opening up the Highlands area (Veldkamp, Schneider, Broekhuijse), exploring the Star Mountains area (Hermans Dasselaar), and the repression of a cargo cult (Dasselaar, Thooft). Despite the specific focus of the book we are still offered different perspectives as the authors held different administrative ranks, even though these viewpoints are not really placed against an analytical framework. The perspectives mirror a variety of ranks open for Dutch personnel in the administrative services, ranging from administratief ambtenaar (patrol officer), through controleur (district officer), to resident (district commissioner).

Having said all this, there are some misgivings I have about this book. The book is written more as a commemoration of the events than as a historical analysis of what happened in West New Guinea in the final years of Dutch colonialism. In that respect, too, I find the subtitle of the book slightly out of place. While some of the authors (Schoorl, Lagerberg, Merkelijn, Sollewijn Gelpke, Veldkamp) approach what they write about in terms of development, little is said on the purpose or framework behind development in West New Guinea at the time. This also would not have been possible without giving considerably more attention to other agents involved in the development effort.

Similarly, although all of the authors convey to the reader the feeling that what they did happened against a background of political turmoil the necessary background information is not developed. The Republic of Indonesia had laid a claim on the area and consistently throughout the period there is the presence of political struggle in the colony itself, in Dutch national politics, as well as on various international levels. We are told of its existence, but with some exceptions (Brand's contribution on the United Nations Temporary Authority that mediated the shift to Indonesian administration, and Veldkamp's on the 1961 district council elections in Radja-Ampat) it is hard to appreciate what happened.

Where I really miss some kind of analytical framework is in appreciating the place of the administration within the local colonial society. Schoorl's introduction does not really touch upon this issue, and neither does Sollewijn Gelpke's analysis of the changes in the administrative structure and the role of its personnel as the Dutch East Indies was reduced to 'only' West New Guinea. Given the richness of the material presented, it is a shame that an endeavor like this lacks a more adequate introduction to what is described between its covers.

Despite these misgivings I enjoyed reading this book. It covers a period that has lacked adequate historical documentation for a long time now. The book contains a lot of extremely interesting information even if it is anecdotal in places. This is all the more true if one takes into account the three appendices on the administrative personnel working in the area between 1945 and 1962.