[Jalan Raya Pos, Jalan Daendels (Jalan Raya Pos, Daendels' Highway). Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Lentera Dipantara, October 2005, 145 pp.]

Tasyriq Hifzhillah, Contributor, Yogyakarta – A book is an attestation; through books we can hail the changes in mankind's history and celebrate the birth of cultural forerunners. A book may also recount events in an era. Although only one individual may be singled out in a specific period, this figure can serve as witness to the experiences of those unrepresented masses during this time.

Jalan Raya Pos, Jalan Daendels (Jalan Raya Pos, Daendels' Highway), the latest work by Indonesia's distinguished writer Pramoedya Ananta Toer, bears testimony to the most horrifying genocide behind the construction of Jl. Raya Pos, better known as Daendels' Highway, a 1,000-kilometer road spanning the northern part of Java, from Anyer in the west to Panarukan in the east.

In its time, the quality of this road was comparable to the Amsterdam-Paris highway. Though it may sound incredible, the achievement came from one of several tragedies of large-scale forced labor in the history of the Dutch East Indies, upon the massacre of indigenous people in the course of its creation.

According to Pramoedya, another genocide also took place on Bandaneira Island in 1621, as ordered by Jan Pieterszoon Coen, governor in the early period of the Dutch colonization of Indonesia. Victims of forced labor were never mentioned because the common man could never be appreciated. Still another mass murder was recorded after the Java War of 1825 to 1830. Exhausted by the war, the Dutch East Indies was facing bankruptcy. In order to overcome the financial crisis, then Governor-General Van den Bosch initiated forced crop cultivation on various plantations and in railway construction.

In the 20th century, history also noted the tragedy inflicted by Japanese fascist troops in West Kalimantan. And in South Sulawesi, under the instruction of Dutch Captain Westerling, some 40,000 Indonesian people were slaughtered.

In Jalan Raya Pos, Jalan Daendels, Pramoedya reveals the murkiest side of mass killing in the building of this highway, which was laid down with the blood and tears of thousands of locals whose corpses littered the road. Jl. Raya Pos was built and widened under the direction of Dutch East Indies Governor Herman Willem Daendels (1762-1818) and spanned the cities of Anyer, Cilegon, Serang, Tangerang, Batavia, Depok, Bogor, Cianjur, Cimahi, Bandung, Sumedang, Cirebon, Brebes, Tegal, Pekalongan, Semarang, Demak, Kudus, Rembang, Tuban, Gresik, Surabaya, Sidoarjo, Pasuruan and Probolinggo, ending in Panarukan.

The idea of building Jl. Raya Pos struck Daendels on April 29, 1808, while on a tour from Buetenzorg, or Bogor, to Semarang and to Oosthoek, or East Java. On May 5 that year, he decided to construct en route a 250-kilometer road from Bogor to Karangsembung in Cirebon. The road was designed to reach a width of 7.5 meters where possible.

In building the road along the Java Sea coastline, forced laborers were not only worn out but also suffered from malaria. Most workers perished from exhaustion, harsh treatment and malaria as they were draining marshland. The same was true in areas where the road had to penetrate difficult terrain like in Ciherang Sumedang, now known as Cadas Pangeran, where they were forced to build through hilly zones with only simple tools.

Under such tough conditions, the first reported death toll reached 5,000; but a report from British sources put the number of people who died in the construction of Jl. Raya Pos at 12,000. This, however, was only the recorded toll, and the actual number is believed to have been greater. No official commissions have ever investigated the case.

In 1809, Daendels' 1,000-kilometer Anyer-Panarukan highway was completed – in only one year, a world record during his time. While he had covered the Anyer-Batavia route in four days, it took only a day for the next segment – by past standards, building a stretch of the major highway in a single day was a great accomplishment, one which raised him to world fame.

At the end of Jalan Raya Pos, Jalan Daendels is a brief biography of Daendels written by Koesalah Soebagyo Toer, Pramoedya's younger brother. Koesalah notes that "every secondary school student in Indonesia is very familiar with the name Daendels, described as a ruthless and cruel figure so that he is also called Tuan Besar Guntur (thunder boss), Marsekal Besi (iron marshal) and in West Java, Mas Galak (fierce guy) for causing the death of thousands of Indonesians".

Daendels was born on Oct. 21, 1762, in the small town of Hattem, Gelderland, the Netherlands, to father Burchard Johan Daendels and mother Josina Christina van Tulleken, the eighth of 13 children, of whom only four survived into adulthood.

He was named Dutch East Indies governor-general in 1808 by Dutch King Louis Napoleon, younger brother to Napoleon Bonaparte of France, which then occupied the Netherlands. Daendels was assigned to defend the Dutch East Indies against a possible occupation launched by Britain from its colony, India.

In detail, Pramoedya describes the history of the cities traversed by Jl. Raya Pos, including the social impacts during their establishment as well as their present conditions. Naturally, their dark times when the highway was under construction are also presented in this book.

Though published in 2005 as the newest work of Pramoedya, Jalan Raya Pos, Jalan Daendels was completed by the author in 1995, but it is unclear why the book's publication was delayed for 10 years. Despite its belated appearance, this book is still relevant for all readers, because it serves as testimony to the worst genocide of Indonesian people behind a giant road project through forced labor.

Pramoedya, through this paperback, styled after a travel journal, brings to the reader's mind the satirical notion that we are a rich but weak nation: We are a nation with a broad horizon yet we are always losing in all respects, that we are a nation with a long-standing mentality of submission to other nations.

[The reviewer is a researcher at the Institute for Salvation Studies, Yogyakarta.]