Abstract
Kenji Tsuchiya rightly noted that Kartini and Soewardi marked the arrival of modern Indonesia. Kartini represented native awakening, Tsuchiya argued, for she obtained Dutch ik and wrote “Ik kijk....” It should be noted, however, that Dutch ethici were overjoyed with Kartini not only because she marked native awakening but also and more importantly because she obtained Dutch ik and became as civilized as anyone who obtained ik should be in the Dutch language world and enabled them to see what Kartini's ik was seeing. Kartini thus represented both native awakening and Dutch ethical success in native self-policing.
Soewardi, Tsuchiya argued, represented the coming of Indonesian nationalism when he wrote “If I were a Dutchman.” It needs to be noted, however, that he also introduced Malay saya in an uncharted Malay-language world. This excited Indonesians, threatened the Dutch ethical project for native self-policing, and set in motion modern popular politics.
Modern Indonesian politics, both modern surveillance politics and popular politics, started with Kartini and Soewardi in this sense.
