Introduction

At the time of their arrival to the Netherlands in 1951, the lives of 12,500 Moluccan soldiers and their families were dominated by their desire to return home – to an independent Republik Maluku Selatan (Republic of South Molucca, RMS) in the eastern part of the Indonesian archipelago. They had come to the Netherlands as the consequence of a complicated decolonisation process. Temporarily, they thought. Up until the mid-1970s they were convinced that they would return to a re-established RMS. Reluctantly integrating into Dutch society, they developed a politicised and oppositional identity towards it. This culminated in train hijackings and the taking of hostages by Moluccan youngsters in, among others, schools in 1975 and 1977, resulting in several innocent casualties. It was during and after these hijackings that members of the second generation of Moluccan immigrants began to review their relationship with the Moluccas, as well as their position in the Netherlands. In retrospect, it seems that this was the point at which they began accepting the fact that they would stay. It was attended by a flurry of creative and cultural projects: from magazines and literature to music and theatre. Moluccan identity now had to be articulated within Dutch society, rather than as a culture of exile.

Most experts think that a failed second train hijacking in 1977 and its violent ending spurred the changing ethos in the Moluccan communities. In their view, the ‘failure’ of that terrorist action compelled Moluccans to reconsider how they had pursued their political aspirations (see e.g. Bartels 1986). Politicians were inclined to believe it was the government's hard, fast response in 1977 to the hijackings that brought the radicalisation to a halt.1 I would argue, however, that a reorientation was already underway within the Moluccan community at the time of the train hijackings. This was a key moment in the identity transformation of the Moluccan group when they changed from refugees to immigrants.

The history of the relationship between the Moluccans and the Dutch government is very much determined by their colonial relationship and by the Dutch colonial project. Throughout the timeline of their stay in the Netherlands, this colonial adventure and experience reverberates.