question: in your opinion, what could have prevented the Maria Hertogh riots in 1950? give at least two suggestions
In the early 1950s, the people saw themselves as different races with no shared identity or destiny. Racial and religious sensitivities, if mishandled, could cause trouble as in the Maria Hertogh riots in 1950. Maria, a Dutch Catholic, was raised in a Muslim family during the Japanese Occupation when her Dutch parents were prisoners in Indonesia. The story began in 1942 when five-year old Maria was placed in the care of Che Aminah as her parents were about to be interned by the Japanese in Java. After the war, Maria's parents searched for the former in vain because by then, Che Aminah had settled in Kemaman, Trengganu. When she was finally found in early 1950 13-year old Maria was named Nadra and she had been brought up as a Muslim all along.
Her natural parents fought for her custody, but they lost in the first courtsuit. Later, in August, in the care of Che Aminah, Maria married Mansor Adabi. However in the second round of the custody battle the court ruled in favour of the Dutch parents, annulled Maria’s marriage to Mansor Adabi and placed her in a convent pending Che Aminah's appeal. While English papers showed pictures of Maria being contented and happy in her new home, the Malay papers flashed scenes of a bewildered Maria leaving her foster mother Che Aminah and husband Mansor Adabi. Both races were arguging and the tension was building up at an alarming rate. On Monday 11 December, the day when Che Aminah's appeal was to be heard, a large Muslim crowd carrying banners demanding that Maria be taken out of the convent, went berserk and began attacking every European they saw.
in my opinion, the judge must be firm with his decision. Since he had the authority to give the verdict, he should not change his mind as it will hurt more people in the process. I think that the judge should not change his mind after giving the custody to Che Aminah because after the first round of custody was won, she married to a muslim teacher. So, when the marriage was "cancelled" after the second round of custody , it angered the muslims as they thought that it was very disrespectful of them. had the judge remain his verdict, things would not be so complicated. maria would marry the teacher and would not feel that stressed up. Secondly, if the judge chose maria to return to her natural parents in the first place , at least, the pain would not be so great as she had not marry then. By then. she had lesser people to think of when she left them.
Secondly, i think the government did not handle it properly. Knowing that the verdict was not confirmed, they should not put mary into a catholic convent. they should put her into a government orphanage instead. Another thing that they should do was to control the media. they should at least set someone to guard the convent instead of letting them enter the convent. By doing that, a lot of photoes were taken and thus, rumours were spread across the land with the muslims opposing the eurasians. It would also cause mary to be stress and unhappy. If the government handled it properly, the result would not end off with a riot with so many people injured. the government could also stop the media from persueing that matter.
All in all, i think that the government at that time was the main cause of the problem and they should have handled it in a proper and firm way to stop all the disagreement.
