Task A third summary:

~This written evidence was given by Selvarajah,a man who had joined the Singapore Police Force after the Maria Hertogh riots had taken place.It was written that it started as a simple custody battle between Maria's real parents and her adopted parents but it ended up in a religious and racial confrontion.
~Maria was born in Java on 24 March 1937. Her parents were Dutch and her father was a sergeant in the Army. When the Japanese occupied Indonesia her father was interned. Her mother Adeline gave her to Aminah a Malay lady without her husbands knowledge. According to Adeline, Maria was given to Aminah for temporary care whilst Aminah claimed that she was given for adaptation. When the war ended in 1945 and Adeline's husband rejoined her they reported Maria as a missing person to the Dutch Authorities but there was no indication of any effort being made to trace Aminah who was a good friend of Adeline and her mother.
~While Aminah regard Maria as her own daughter,Maria was brought up as a Muslim and in the Malay way of life.She was given a Muslim name.She spoke only Malay and was deeply attached to Aminah.
~In 1950, the Hertoghs sought to reclaim Maria through the courts in Singapore. On 22 Apr 50, the Court ruled that Maria should be returned to her biological parents and she was to be first put under the custody of the Social Welfare Department.
Aminah then appealed and on 28th July 1950, Maria was returned to Aminah. A marriage was hastily arranged and on the 1st of August 1950 Maria was married to a 22-year-old Malay teacher Mansoor Adabi.Three months later the Hertoghs revived their custody battle. The court ruled that Maria should be returned to her biological parents as her father was not consulted when Aminah took her off to Bandung. As Maria should be subjected to Dutch laws which do not permit any girl under 16 to be married, her Muslim marriage was made invalid. The court then put her in the care of the Good Shepherd Convent, pending her return to the Netherlands
~There was widespread coverage of the custody battle in the English, Malay and Tamil press. Reporters and photographers were allowed into the Convent and pictures of a Muslim girl in a Christian convent appeared in newspapers. Maria's case was presented as a religious issue between Islam and Christianity and that aroused the religious antipathy of local Muslims. Calls were even made in the Sultan Mosque to start a holy war to return Maria to Aminah if all legal avenues yielded no result.
~On 11 Dec 50, the Appeal Court sat to hear Maria’s case.But the judge had just took only 5 minutes to throw out Amniah's appeal.The very short duration and the judgment convinced the crowd that the colonial legal system was biased against Muslims. A scuffle broke out between the group and a Eurasian, H.L. Velge, a member of the Special Constabulary, who drew his revolver and fired three shots. Two Malays were wounded, one in the head. The crowd became furious and started throwing sticks, stones and bottles at the policemen. It was no longer about championing the welfare of a child but a religious and racial confrontation and mob violence.
~ Rioting was at its worst on the afternoon and night of 11th December. It continued until 13 December, A 24-hour curfew was imposed and military was deployed to assist the police before law and order was restored. A total of 18 people were killed and 173 injured and about 200 vehicles were destroyed.
After the riots there was the usual bickering. The Police were blamed for delaying the request for military assistance, the Malay policemen were blamed for being biased, the colonial authorities for being insensitive in placing a Muslim girl in a Christian Convent and the press for over sensationalizing And it ended up with a Commission of Inquiry being set up in 1951.
~Its tells us that there were no any perfect solution to avoid a riot as it can happen anytime anywhere,a little spark is just needed to light up a confrontion of riots.

Waifoo
Henry
Randy
Dick










August 2008
September 2008