MDDP - Portuguese and Luso-Asian legacies in Southeast Asia, 1511-2011 (Paper abstract)

Portuguese and Luso-Asian legacies in Southeast Asia, 1511-2011
(Paper abstract)

PORTUGUESE AND LUSO-ASIAN LEGACIES IN SOUTHEAST ASIA, 1511-2011
28-30 September 2010
Singapore (ISEAS) and Melaka (UiTM)

THURSDAY, 30 Sept.
VENUE: LISBON HOTEL, MELAKA
LISBON 2 MEETING ROOM

PANEL 10

Malacca / Melaka: The Ongoing Challenges of Understanding the Past

Chair:
- Dato' Dr Mohd Yusof Ahmad
Director, Institute of ASEAN Studies and Global Affairs (INSPAG), FSPPP, Universiti Teknologi MARA Malaysia

Commentators:
- Prof Badriyah Haji Salleh
Faculty of Human Sciences, Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris, Tanjung Malim, Perak, Malaysia
- Dato' Prof Dr Qasim Ahmad
Faculty of Administrative Science and Policy Studies (FSPPP), Universiti Teknologi MARA Malaysia

Abstract of paper presented:
Enemies, Friends, and Relations: Portuguese-Eurasians during Malacca's Dutch Era and Beyond.
Mr. Dennis DeWitt
Management Consultant and Author,
Selangor, Malaysia

Introduction

The Portuguese and the Dutch were age-old enemies and remnants of the historical political and religious competition between the two nations can still be found in the culture and heritage of the Portuguese-Eurasian community in Malacca.

Margaret Sarkissian said it best when she observed that whenever the history of the Malacca Portuguese-Eurasian community touches on the Dutch era, people from this community would invoke the brief tale of the cruelty of Dutchmen who "inflicted a period of religious persecution upon the hardy Portuguese, reduced them to subsistence fisherfolk, forced them into the jungle for secret church services, but were unable to crush their spirit."

It is a rather popular point of view which portrays the negative aspects of Malacca Portuguese-Eurasians during the Dutch era that is shared by historians and writers from this community, such as the late Bernard Sta Maria and Gerard Fernandis. They, in turn, were much influenced by the views and research of Roman Catholic clerics with whom they had interacted with in Malacca.

The source of their research is greatly derived from Portuguese documents either from primary sources that were either translated by those clerics or from secondary sources obtained by them written by Portuguese historians, in the Portuguese language.

Although Malacca existed for 160 years under Dutch rule, the disconnection of communities there with the Netherlands since 1825 has caused local historians to be greatly deprived of materials and books which would have given them an alternate point of view – from the eyes of the Dutch.

Therefore, when the history of the Malacca Portuguese-Eurasian community is re-examined from a Dutch perspective, it can be seen that it was not totally a time of rampant persecution and focused discrimination against this community. In fact, some members of the community even enjoyed economic gains and attained some manner of status, when they were with the Dutch.

The Historical Conflict

Portuguese Malacca fell to the Dutch in 1641 after six months of deadly conflict. It was a huge blow for the Portuguese and it marked the beginning of the end of the monopolistic Iberian reign in Asia. The protestant Dutch, enemies of the Roman Catholic Portuguese, became the new rulers of Malacca.

Many Portuguese left Malacca, but some, mainly Portuguese descendants, continued to remain there to be governed by the European interloper and their heretic enemy for the next 160 years. To the Portuguese, it was inconceivable that their strong fortress could fall into the hands of their enemy. Blame for it was soon put on one of their own – Manuel de Sousa Coutinho, the Portuguese governor of Malacca. Rumours spread that the fall of Malacca was due to a bribe received by the governor and he died shortly after Malacca fell to the Dutch.

After the conquest, the victors focused on rebuilding Malacca and attempted to rejuvenate its trade relations with neighbouring countries. To achieve this, the presence of a flourishing community and society was a necessary prerequisite. Therefore, the Dutch encouraged the inhabitants of Malacca to settle down to honest work and pledge their loyalty to them. Instead, a group of Portuguese clerics and wealthy citizens requested safe passage to the Coromandel Coast in India. The Dutch invited them to stay and take part in the governance of the town, as long as they agreed to swear loyalty to the new Dutch administration. The priests did not agree to the offer and insisted on leaving Malacca and therefore, they were allowed to leave.

Religious Conflict

In Europe, Holland continued to be at war with Spain and Portugal. Therefore, the Dutch continued to be subjected to numerous attempts to be deprived of their share of trade in Asia.

For political considerations, the Malacca Dutch administration initially allowed Catholics there to build their churches on private land located outside the town and to conduct Mass. They hoped that by allowing some degree of religious leniency towards the Portuguese descendants of Malacca, they could retain many of the indigenous Malacca Portuguese, halt the exodus of these people from Malacca to other Portuguese controlled settlements and allow them to settle down to honest work. Although the two Christian groups were enemies, the Malacca Dutch administration hoped to establish religious peace between the Dutch Protestants and the Portuguese Roman Catholics. However, this did not stop the Dutch from trying to convert the Portuguese to the Gereformede Kerk (Dutch Reformed Church).

Soon after the capture of Malacca, there was an intention from the Dutch administration to attract the Portuguese Catholics to their Reformed Church. However, it became evident that their attempts to convert the Malacca Portuguese Roman Catholics to the Dutch Reformed Church would be futile. Commissary Schouten even admitted that "very few, if any, of the Malacca Roman Christians are likely to be converted to the true Reformed Church even by sermons in the Portuguese language." Such early awkward and feeble attempts at converting the Malacca Roman Catholics were quickly seen as a failure and the Dutch made no further efforts to unify the Christian community in Malacca under the sole banner of the Reformed Church.

While only the Dutch Reformed religion was permitted in Dutch territories, the provisions against priests of other religions were rarely enforced in a strict sense.

In 1645, by way of a letter dated 6th December 1645 from the Hoge Regering (Supreme Government) at Batavia to Arnout de Vlamingh van Oudtshoon, Governor of Malacca, the Dutch administration began to retract their leniency towards Roman Catholics. Catholic churches were banned and all forms of public worship by the Catholics were halted. All those who refused to give up their Catholic religion were required to leave Malacca. The sudden change of attitude by the Dutch was as a result of their distrust towards Catholic Jesuit priests who were seen as behaving as enemies and traitors towards the Dutch in Malacca.

To the Catholic priests who visited Malacca, the Dutch were still viewed as their heretic enemy and they encouraged their flock to offer resistance against the Malacca administration.

On 12th June 1646, through an official public proclamation in Malacca by Governor Balthasar Bort, the Malacca Dutch administration explicitly forbade the coming ashore of Roman Catholic priests and for all priests who were already ashore to leave within one month, unless they were willing to disrobe their priestly habit (i.e. cassock) and not preach or hold public Masses.

In early 1665, the Malacca Dutch administration discovered that while a Portuguese ship was lying in the roadstead, no less than 1,500 people were secretly meeting in a garden near the town to attend a Catholic Mass. The Dutch fiscal (prosecutor) went to the garden with soldiers, dispersed the worshippers and brought the religious images back to the fort where they were burned. The priest escaped to Bengkalis on a native ship. The action taken by the Dutch must have infuriated the Portuguese Catholic community in Malacca. As a result, it led to further distrust of the Malacca Portuguese and their employment as night watchmen at the fort was terminated.

Following this event, the Dutch promptly decreed that all Catholic priests were banned from entering Malacca and all forms of public preaching for the Roman Catholic faith was to cease.

By 1666, Dutch intolerance toward the Roman Catholics in Malacca reached its climax. On 15th January 1666, Governor Balthasar Bort began to strictly enforce his anti-Catholic legislation.

Religious restrictions by the Dutch did little to dampen the faith of the Catholics in Malacca. The Portuguese-Eurasians in Malacca formed the Irmaos de Igreja (Brothers of the Church), a secret brotherhood of lay-people who were loyal to the Roman Catholic Church, to ensure the continuance of Catholicism in Malacca. Public Masses were still celebrated but in secret and at remote areas in Malacca's interior. A French Jesuit bound for China who visited Malacca in 1698 wrote that "Catholics are obliged to go far into the interior of the forest to celebrate the sacred mysteries (i.e. Mass)". Therefore, Dutch persecutions against Roman Catholics were still adhered to up to the end of the 17th century.

Despite their religious conflicts, difference in beliefs and cultures, the Dutch did not look with contempt upon the Portuguese-Eurasians. In fact, Schouten regarded them as "the natural Malaccans" and it was his opinion that this community formed the backbone of Dutch Malacca.

Although there were various levels of religious suppression of the Portuguese Catholics in Malacca, it generally did not cause a severe strain on the Dutch-Portuguese social relationship there. Portuguese-Eurasians were still employed by the Dutch as night watchmen, a position of some importance with regard to the security of Malacca's fortress for the Governor and other officials who lived in it.

Members of the Malacca Portuguese-Eurasian community were also instrumental in providing assistance to Malacca's Dutch administration in the 17th century, especially when dealing with surrounding Malay rulers, due to their knowledge of Malay culture and language as well as their experience in local customs and culture.

Tomas Diaz was a Portuguese-Eurasian from Malacca who served as a trusted employee of the United Dutch East India Company. During his unprecedented journey to the Minangkabau highlands of Sumatra in 1684, he served as a diplomat and trade envoy for the Dutch in Malacca to develop contacts between the Dutch and the interior states of Sumatra. It was by his ability to successfully deal with Minangkabau rulers that the Dutch were able to resolve trade rivalries and misunderstandings that had occurred in Siak and to further develop trade there. This was ultimately beneficial to both Johor and Malacca. Although Diaz was a mestizo, he served in a diplomatic function for the Dutch in Sumatra and was regarded as an important link between Malacca and Sumatra.

At the beginning of the 18th century, Dutch attitude towards the Roman Catholics took a turn.

Their anti-Catholic legislation was abruptly discontinued and the Malacca Dutch administration began to take on a more liberal and tolerant outlook towards the Catholics there.

Around the year 1702, Catholics in Malacca built the Church of St. Peter's at Bunga Raya, located just outside the town, now serving as the oldest functioning Catholic Church in Malaysia. Around the same time Roman Catholics in Malacca established the Chapel of the Holy Rosary, located along the river bank in Bunga Raya.

Inter-ethnic Relationships

In time, the Dutchmen in Malacca and the Portuguese women there intermarried and as a result, many families from these communities bonded and became interconnected. There existed a deeper bond between the two communities and they eventually shared a symbiotic relationship.

An early example of this relationship can be found in the case of Maria Pereira of Malacca and her son, Jurriaan Beek.

Maria Pereira was a young Portuguese-Eurasian girl who lived in Malacca more than 350 years ago. She was married to another Portuguese-Eurasian named Francisco Da Costa. Between 1646 and 1655, Maria and Francisco had three children. After the death of Francisco, Maria married Jan Beek, with whom she had a son named Jurriaan.

Through unknown circumstances, young Jurriaan was brought to Holland. He never returned to Malacca and never saw his mother again. By the beginning of the 18th century, Jurriaan Beek was living in the house that he owned on the Herengracht at Amsterdam.

Jurriaan lived alone with his servants until the final days of his life. On 22nd May 1714, he made out his last will and testament. A week later, at approximately 54 years of age, Jurriaan died and was buried in the Oude Kerk (Old Church) at Amsterdam. In his will, Jurriaan named the Weeskarmer (Orphan Chamber) of Amsterdam as the executor of his will. The main beneficiaries of his properties were his half-siblings – the first three children of Maria Pereira who were from Malacca.

Eventually, the Weesmeester of Amsterdam (acting as the trustees) managed to track down the half-brother and half-sisters of Jurriaan Beek in Malacca. The Weesmeesters of Malacca confirmed that the other surviving children of Maria Pereira were Magdalena Da Costa, Catarina Da Costa and Joan Da Costa. The entitled beneficiaries received their portions of the inheritance. Although Jurriaan Beek was far removed from his stepfamily, he was still willing to acknowledge them.

By the 18th century, the Dutch community of Malacca was made up of a curious mix of Dutch and Dutch descent Protestants and Roman Catholics. There were also some Protestant Portuguese Eurasians who practiced the religion of the Reformed Church, although a majority of them, mainly from the poorer community, were made up of faithful Roman Catholics.

From Dutch records, there could be seen a number of entries for mixed marriages, particularly between males from the Dutch settler community with females of the Portuguese Eurasian community. However, there are also the names of three Portuguese Eurasians listed.

Included in the names of Europeans, classified as Malacca Free Burghers (i.e. Free Citizens of Malacca) living in there were:
1. Matthias Monteira sr. (i.e. Monterio), (1758 - 1837) of Malacca. He was hired by the VOC in 1781 as a bookbinder on a salary of 14 guilders a month.
2. Matthias Monteira jr. (1798 - 18??) of Malacca who was a Burgher at Surabaya.
3. Roemalda Tissera (i.e. Teixeria), was born sometime around 1750 at Malacca.

They were mentioned as Europeans and considered socially at par with the other Dutch Free Burghers in Malacca.

The 18th century was a time when Malacca began to undergo many social, economic and political changes. The Malacca Dutch administration began to be more tolerant of the Catholics living there. Therefore, Malacca's plural society, consisting of Malays, Chinese, Indians, Peranakans, Eurasians and Europeans were living harmoniously together.

The various communities there interacted in administration, trade and in defence of the town when threatened by external foes. On 13th February 1784, the Bugis leader - Raja Haji and his fleet arrived from the south and occupied Teluk Ketapang in the southern part of Malacca. He was soon joined by Malay forces from Selangor and Rembau. Malacca found itself blockaded by the enemy who occupied all the surrounding suburbs and villages.

The people of Malacca came together and took up arms to repel the enemy. With each race under their own Kapitan and leaders, the Malays, Indians, Chinese and Portuguese-Eurasians fought together with the Dutch. Abraham Couperus, who was then the fiscaal (Prosecutor) at Malacca (and later rose to be Governor of Malacca), commanded a company of mixed-races against Raja Haji's attack on Malacca.

Towards the end of the 18th century in Malacca, among the owners of the largest pieces of property there was a Mrs. De Costa who owned substantial landed property located north-east of Malacca town. This is evidence that the Dutch administration held no preference against property owners and allowed Portuguese Eurasians as well as other Asian races to also own large amount of properties in Malacca.

Genealogical links

In time, Portuguese-Eurasian women eventually married Dutch personnel stationed in Malacca.

The Dutch felt closer to Portuguese-Eurasians. Even though they were from different denominations, they were their fellow Christians. The two Christian communities bonded and became genealogically linked.

Contemporary Portuguese-Eurasian writers such as Sta Maria mentioned the conversion of Dutch citizens in Malacca through intermarriage. This is based primarily upon the marriage records of the registers of the Church of St. Peter's, Malacca. It seems that the motive of this statement was to display the religious resilience and strengths of their community throughout history. However, they had only consulted the Catholic Church records of Malacca and failed to compare the list of marriages from Dutch records. Often, these mixed-marriages also appeared In the Dutch ecclesiastical records of Malacca and in the records of the Malacca Dutch administration.

There seems to be a lack of research as to why the above marriages appeared in both Catholic Church records as well as in the Dutch Reformed Church records. This question has been asked mainly by genealogists researching their roots going back to the Dutch era in Malacca. So far, it is presumed that since the bride was Portuguese-Eurasian, her family probably held her marriage in a Roman Catholic Church as a means to spiritually solemnise their union. However, the children from these marriages were baptised in the Dutch Reformed Church, showing that the families practiced and perpetuated the religion of their fathers. The children of those marriages were christened in Malacca's Dutch Reformed Church and their descendants actively remained as members of Malacca's Dutch Reformed Church.

Eventually, it was common to find family connections between Portuguese-Eurasian and Dutch descent families in Malacca as a result of these inter-marriages. However, this did not mean that there were only Dutchmen who were marrying Portuguese-Eurasian women in Malacca.

Also, by the beginning of the 18th century, Malacca saw more new arrivals of Europeans who made Malacca their new home and became part of the Malacca Dutch community. The newcomers found their wives among the daughters of the Malacca Dutch community and in this way, it helped maintain the ‘Dutchness' of the society of colonialists in Malacca. However, it is interesting to note that in the late 18th century records, there exist marriages between Portuguese-Eurasian grooms and brides with Dutch sounding names.

To take this a step further, there were even those from the Portuguese-Eurasian community in Malacca who had been assimilated into Dutch society and decided to replant their families to Dutch Indonesia. Such was the case of Matthias Monteiro (jr.) who moved from Dutch Malacca to the Dutch port town of Surabaya in Indonesia. His descendants eventually fully assimilated themselves through intermarriage with the Dutch in Indonesia and were eventually repatriated to the Netherlands after Indonesia achieved its independence. Their current descendants living in the Netherlands are now part of the Indische Nederlanders (Dutch Indo) community living throughout the Netherlands.

It was a somewhat similar situation for the descendants of Peter do Rozario who was born in 1795 at Malacca. His grandson named Fertuliano George de Rozario migrated to Batavia sometime during the 19th century. Eventually, his descendants also eventually moved to the Netherlands.

The fact of the matter was, in Malacca (as it was elsewhere in other Dutch colonies in Asia), a larger number of Dutchmen who were stationed in the colony married ladies from the local Portuguese-Eurasian community. When the Dutch in Asia began marrying locals and Portuguese-Eurasian ladies, the culture that was passed on to the children of these mixed marriages was mostly that of their Asian or Eurasian mother. As the lingua franca in the Malay Archipelago during the 17th century was mainly Creole Portuguese — known then as the language of traders — many children from Dutch fathers were able to have a better command of the language learned from their mothers rather than having a fluency in Dutch. Similarly, it was by this way that the ancestral culture of the mother was emulated more and perpetuated in many Dutch descent families.

By the 18th century, the Malacca Portuguese-Eurasian culture had become well rooted in the Malacca Dutch community. In time, the assimilation of many Dutch families into Malacca's Portuguese-Eurasian community and their culture became complete. Till today, there are families with Dutch sounding names who speak Kristang and practice the culture of the Portuguese-Eurasian community. Current generations from families with non-Portuguese surnames such as Danker, Goonting, Hendroff, Klassen, Minjoot, Overree and Spykerman have attached themselves closely to the Malacca Portuguese-Eurasian culture and identify their roots to the Portuguese Settlement in Malacca.

In Malacca, Portuguese-Eurasians have received the support of the Catholic Church and Portuguese cultural organisations from Macau and Portugal. The Portuguese Settlement is now not only a major tourist attraction in Malacca but more importantly, is popularly seen as the bastion of their rich and colourful culture and heritage for all Portuguese-Eurasians in Malaysia.

Conclusion

The Portuguese and the Dutch began their relationship in Malacca as political enemies and religious competitors. In time, the Dutch became dependent upon members of the Portuguese community to act as commercial and political intermediaries for their ability to move easily between the Dutch and the Malay world. The relationship between Portuguese-Eurasians and the Dutch community in Malacca developed to form a symbiosis that existed among them. Their bond became complete through intermarriage between the two groups and the Portuguese-Eurasians gained acceptance by the Dutch who came to regard them as their equals.

Today, there are over 29,000 Eurasians living in Malaysia and a vast majority of them are of Portuguese descent. The Portuguese-Eurasians from Malacca, who refer to themselves as Christao, have every right to be proud of their unique roots and culture. Nevertheless, their history and heritage is entwined with the other Malaysian Eurasians and the history of each respective race becomes the collective heritage of Malaysian society at large.

References:

- Abdullah bin Abdul Kadir. Hikayat Abdullah, trans. and eds. Hill, A. H., Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Volume XXVII Part 3, (1955).
- Barnard, Timothy P. "Mestizos as Middlemen: Thomas Días and his Travels in Eastern Sumatra" in Iberians in the Singapore-Melaka Area (16th to 18th Century), ed. Peter Borschberg (Weisbaden: Harrassowitz, (2004), pp. 147-60.
- Bort, Balthasar. Report of Governor Balthasar Bort on Malacca, 1678, ed. C.O. Blagden, trans. M.J. Bremmer, Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Volume V, pt. 1, (1927).
- Christiaans, P. A. "De Europese bevolking van Malakka onder het laatste Nederlandse bestuur, 1818-1825", in Jaarboek van het Centraal Bureau voor Genealogie, Volume 40 ('s-Gravenhage : 1986), pp. 257-287.
- Coolhaas, W. Ph. Malacca under Jan van Riebeeck, Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 38, pt. 2, (1965).
- De Witt, Dennis. History of the Dutch in Malaysia, Selangor : Nutmeg Publishing, (Selangor : 2007).
- Fernandis, Gerard. Save Our Portuguese Heritage Conference 95 Malacca, Malaysia, (Malacca : 1996).
- Leupe, P.A. The siege and capture of Malacca from the Portuguese in 1640-1641, Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Soeity, vol. 14, pt. 1. (1936).
- Pintado, Fr. M.J. Survival Through Human Values, (1974).
- Sarkissian, Margaret. D'Albuquerque's Children : Performing Tradition in Malaysia's Portuguese Settlement, Chicago : University of Chicago Press, (2000).
- Sta Maria, Bernard. My people, My Country: The Story of the Malacca Portuguese Community, Malacca : The Malacca Portuguese Development Centre, (Malacca : 1982).
- Teixeria, Mon. Manuel. The Portuguese Missions of Singapore and Malacca (Volumes I, II & III), Instituto Cultural Macao, (1986).
- Watson Andaya, Barbara, "Melaka under the Dutch, 1641-1795", in: K.S. Sandhu and P. Wheatley (eds.), Melaka. The Transformation of a Malay Capital, c. 1400-1980 (Kuala Lumpur : 1983).

Copyright: Dennis De Witt

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Research 2010/2011

Portuguese and Luso-Asian legacies in Southeast Asia, 1511-2011(Paper abstract)

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Portuguese and Luso-Asian legacies in Southeast Asia, 1511-2011
(Paper abstract)