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![handle is hein.journals/crmlsc7 and id is 193 raw text is: Contemporary Crises, 7 (1983) 195-208 195
Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company, Amsterdam - Printed in The Netherlands
THE SOUTH MOLUCCAN MINORITY IN THE NETHERLANDS
KOOS DALSTRA
Introduction
Seldom has a Dutch minority group attracted so much attention in their
own country as well as in the rest of the world as did the South Moluccan
minority during their spectacular terrorist actions in the second half of the
Seventies.
Despite the world-wide media attention, their situation - politically,
economically and socially - has not improved. Among the younger members
of the 35,000 exiles from the eastern part of the Republic of Indonesia,
unemployment is as high as 75%, and 10% are drug addicts (within the age
group 18-24). A comparison with the other large ethnic minority from the
former colonies, the Surinamese people, shows that these figures are ex-
tremely high. Surinamese unemployment in this age group amounts to 60%
and 5% are addicted to drugs. The comparable Dutch age group shows 25%
unemployed and 0.06% addicted to drugs [1 ].
Recent publications about South Moluccan terrorism focus on the mil-
itary and media strategy of the radical minority. The conclusion has been
put forward that the focus of South Moluccan terrorism in the Netherlands
is likely to shift from attempts to secure an independent homeland for their
people to closer contact with other terrorist groups espousing anti-colonial,
anti-imperialist and nationalist ideals [2]. Written in 1979, this statement
must now be considered a military overestimation of the political and social
potential of radical factions within the South Moluccan minority. In line
with this criticism, it is probable that the media used South Moluccan
terrorism to advance their market position more than the South Moluccans
used the media to publicize their cause.
The South Moluccan minority fits the pattern of most marginal minorities
in the Netherlands. Political and social protest is combined with an institu-
tionalized deviant lifestyle, that is peripheral to the established social struc-
ture of ideological blocks (pillars), making up the basic formation of
Dutch society. The structure of pillars has dominated Dutch parliamentary
history for some hundred years. At the top of the pillars a small number of
Oude Bilt Zijl, The Netherlands
0378-1100/83/$03.00 © 1983 Elsevier Science Publishers B.V.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/crmlsc7&div=18&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)