The End of Life of the Old Captain

"Fantastic," exclaimed some high school students when they heard that Captain Westerling had arrived in the city of The Hague. Such euphoria and warm welcome was only natural for a patriotic soldier in those days. It was all still fresh in the memory of Peter Schumacher, one of the students in the city in the early 1960s whom Historia met at his home in Amsterdam. Schumacher is a former journalist and later became friends with Westerling.

However, Raymond Pierre Westerling's life turned upside down and wasn't as fortunate as it was in the beginning. In his prime, he was proudly trusted to lead the elite corps of the Depot Special Forces (Depot Speciale Troepen or DST), a prestigious position for Koninklijke Nederlands-Indische Leger (KNIL) soldiers.

As a commander, Westerling traveled a lot in the colonies. When the struggle for Indonesian independence peaked, one of the centers of chaos at that time was South Sulawesi. "The situation was out of control. Local insurgency spread in various regions, and people were fighting each other. The TNI at the time was also involved in the war, with or without the local youth gangs," historian researcher Frederik Willems wrote. "A number of villages and its inhabitants were wiped out, and the KNIL soldiers could only watch helplessly. That's when Westerling came and managed to overcome total anarchy in a short time," concluded the historian, who also wrote Westerling's biography.

This kind of reports about his achievements made Westerling very confident. "In his later statements in the (Dutch) media, he always said the same thing. He admitted to have made some mistakes, and that some of the officers he commanded committed war crimes. But he always defended himself confidently, because he believed it was the soldier’s leader (KNIL, General Simon Spoor) and the Dutch East Indies government that gave him the order to conduct the operation in South Sulawesi.

Westerling always seemed to be used for impossible tasks, yet he was always considered successful except for the APRA (the Legion of the Just Ruler) coup attempt in January 1950 in Bandung. Despite the APRA coup becoming a controversy in the Netherlands, historian Frederik Willems claimed to "have strong evidence that Westerling founded APRA on the orders of (KNIL commander) General Spoor" to protect Dutch companies and plantations in West Java from TNI attacks.

The APRA coup was a turning point in Westerling's life. Before making a move, Westerling had warned the government of the Republic of Indonesia and informed his supporters about it. However, the KNIL officials who supported him argued that the warning had ruined the element of surprise of the coup.

Following the failed coup, Prime Minister Willem Drees ordered that Westerling be rescued at all costs. According to a source quoted from Frederik Willems in “Westerling had steun legertop,” Checkpoint, No. 8, October 2012, there was an assumption that the Dutch feared that Westerling would be dragged to court along with his military leaders.

Since then, Westerling always had to move from place to place. After being smuggled by Dutch marines on a Catalina plane in February 1950 to Singapore, Westerling's existence was completely ignored by The Hague. He even had to face his hardships alone in the Lion City when the British government announced him a fugitive. He had to survive by seeking contacts with a number of people who were involved in arms smuggling for the APRA coup. From Singapore, he then lived in Brussels before finally returning to the Netherlands.

A true adventurer, Westerling was never satisfied with just sitting quietly. In Singapore, he still tried to find contacts to continue his action in West Java. Later in the Netherlands, he also contacted Badan Persatoean RMS, an executive council that led the Republic of South Maluku (RMS) in The Hague.

The Old Days of Westerling

Dark clouds began to loom over Westerling's life in the 1980s when he settled in Amsterdam with his wife who worked in a beauty salon. Westerling went to great lengths to earn a living; utilizing his passion in music, asking for financial aid, and trading, yet nothing was fruitful.

He once owned a vintage bookstore which was also his residence in Ter Haarstraat, in Amsterdam Oud-West. The bookstore had very few customers. "It was always empty," said former journalist Peter Schumacher, recalling when he first met and interviewed Westerling in the late 1970s. Westerling's bookstore was eventually sold to the publisher Nabrink, a renowned vintage bookstore where Indonesian and Asian scholars usually went to. "I was the one who informed Nabrink about the bankruptcy of Westerling's bookshop," added Schumacher, who was lucky to acquire a number of vintage books through his intermediary.

Westerling indeed had no talent for commerce despite his family in Turkey being known as rug merchants. It is unclear why many of his influential friends and acquaintances such as Prince Bernhard, who once proposed that Westerling be given a royal award, and the other ex-KNIL officers, didn't help Westerling. There is a high chance that it is because when the Netherlands-Indonesia relations improved, Westerling became a controversial figure who was feared to be a stumbling block to the interests of both countries. Meanwhile, the Dutch public was starting to become critical of the country's past.

His failure in making a decent living was probably also caused by a series of disappointments from his past–from his great disappointment with the disbandment of the KNIL, the failure of the APRA coup, perhaps also including his disappointment with the lack of support from KNIL officials during the APRA coup, his unsuccessful attempt to establish the State of Pasundan, the loss of the federalism dream in Indonesia, and of course, the triumph of the Sukarno-Hatta government. All of those accumulated into a ball of life pressure that dragged Westerling into the abyss of frustration, sucking him into his new deteriorating habit: alcohol.

"Westerling, I must say, was a kind, friendly, and warm person," said Peter Schumacher. "He was never afraid. He was threatened with trial but he said that he was ready, because he believed he was innocent and only carrying out orders," added Schumacher.

Since meeting him in the late 1970s, Schumacher had become what the Dutch call a vraagbaak (a person to ask) for the life story of Westerling. It was Schumacher who opened the door for journalists and Westerling researchers such as Willem Ijzereef and Frederik Willems. Schumacher, who was born in Samarinda, Kalimantan and was a journalist for Radio Nederland and a correspondent for the GPD (Dutch press agency) and NRC Handelsblad in Hong Kong and Jakarta, knew Westerling personally, but at the same time was critical of his past.

"At first, I came to his vintage bookstore to see his collection of books and to meet him. It wasn't difficult, although at that time Westerling rarely met people he didn't know. I was invited to go up to the attic. There, Westerling warmly welcomed me without suspicion. Since then I have often met him," said Schumacher.

Around the mid-1980s, the situation changed. Schumacher recounted, "In the morning he was still fresh, easy to meet, but in the afternoon, after 3 pm, he started to drown in drinks." Alcoholism made him release his frustration, as well as isolate himself.

Peter Schumacher once suggested to Westerling to have a dialogue with Poncke Princen, a fellow Dutch who was hated by Westerling and the Dutch public at the time because of Princen's crossing over to the Republican side. It was hard to convince Westerling to meet Princen who was labeled as "traitor". Schumacher eventually succeeded and Westerling agreed to meet Princen, but Princen, whose name started to be the talk of the town and was despised by the public, was barred from entering the Netherlands.

When the Dutch government finally granted Princen a visa in 1995, Westerling was already gone. The meeting of the ex-compatriots Princen-Westerling is just a historic rendezvous that never was. 

Westerling died on November 26, 1987 in Purmerend, 15 km from Amsterdam, in a poor, debt-ridden and drunken state, a condition that was not so honorable for a one-time patriot of his nation.