With his brother, he attempted to assassinate an Indonesian official in the Netherlands. Before that, he was involved in the APRA coup in Bandung.
His old age in the Netherlands was filled with misfortune. He still couldn't get over a reality that happened during his youth: the sovereignty of the Republic of Indonesia over Nusantara, which was formerly known as the Dutch East Indies.
“If it hadn't happened, I wouldn't be here today. No white man would have come back from Indonesia,” the old man said in the newspaper Nieuwsblad van het Noorden on April 27, 1991.
If there had been no independence, he would remain in Indonesia, specifically in Java, which he considered as his other homeland.
He was one of the thousands of Indonesian-born Dutch people who were forced to stay in the Netherlands and could no longer return to Indonesia. When they were born and raised in the Dutch East Indies, most of them lived a decent life. Their parents made a much better living than most Indonesians.
Losing the Sweet Life
Willem Herman Meindert Colson, that old man, was the son of François Joseph Colson and Antonia Dorothea Maria Schavers who was born in Java just a day before Christmas. A week after his birth, the newspaper De Indische Courant on December 30, 1925 reported his birth on December 24, 1925 at the Gantiwarno Plantation, Klaten, Central Java. Since a child, he was known as Pim.
Pim was not the only child of Colson-Schavers. He had a younger brother named François Antoine Colson, who was born on January 6, 1928 also in Klaten. François Antoine was later commonly addressed as Frans.
The Colsons lived in Klaten and played a part in the sugar industry in Java, as their father, François Joseph, was a plantation businessman there.
The Colsons' comfortable life ended after the Japanese army occupied Indonesia. Between 1942 and 1945, the Dutch family was under the watchful eye of the Japanese army and was no longer as free as before.
The beginning of the Japanese occupation was quite memorable for Pim. One day in late April 1942, Pim and Frans were hanging around the Klaten Station.
“To our surprise, we found that in some open freight cars there were bamboo baskets stacked on top of each other containing battered prisoners of war with injured knees,” said Pim, quoted by De Telegraaf, August 11, 1990.
What Pim and Frans saw were Australian soldiers who were exhausted after being taken prisoner. They were captured in March 1942 and became prisoners of the Japanese army who were moved from one place to another. Many of the Australian soldiers were clearly infuriated with the inhumane treatment of the Japanese soldiers.
“Dirty yellow monkeys, dirty, dirty,” some of the Australian soldiers shouted in English. It was as if their shouting could relieve them from their misery.
Pim could never forget that sight, and the 16-year-old Pim came to hate the Japanese. Between 1942-1945, Pim and his family had to suffer in internment camps that were cruelly managed by the Japanese army. Usually, Dutch internees were placed in a different city from the one where they lived. According to Pim, the Japanese had taken over the lives of the Dutch in Indonesia in 1942.
After Japan's defeat in 1945, Pim and the other surviving prisoners were freed from the Japanese internment camps. Despite their freedom, their life choices remained limited. Pim joined the military and served in the Militaire Politie (MP) or Military Police.
When he was released, Pim had to face the reality of the Indonesian independence revolution. Those behind the revolution were young people and leaders who had long been voicing about their ideals of Indonesian independence. Pim wasn't surprised as he had seen the onset of the movement of some Indonesians since 1936.
“I wasn't surprised by that at all. Part of my family is Indonesian and people talk in those circles,” said Pim Colson in Nieuwsblad van het Noorden.
In the midst of a revolution that even the leaders of the Republic of Indonesia could not control, chaos and hatred existed. Pim and many other Dutch people witnessed and felt the horrors of the rampant revolution.
“There were gangs running around everywhere targeting white people. Even though there was protection, many were still killed,” recalled Pim, who eventually came to dislike the Republic of Indonesia.
When the Republic was supported by the international community, forcing the Kingdom of the Netherlands to recognize Indonesia's sovereignty on December 27, 1949, Pim and Frans refused to remain silent. Both of them could never allow dangerous gangs to come to power and end their rich family history in Klaten.
Pim tried to gather former army members of the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army (KNIL). Pim also met Willem Hendrik Manoch, an Indo (European-Indonesian) born in Jatinegara.
Manoch was a Dutch military policeman. When he met Pim, Manoch was working as a doorman at General Motors Jakarta. Together, Manoch and Pim became involved in the movement of former Captain Raymond Westerling, which was called the Ratu Adil War Force (APRA) movement.
The movement, which killed Indonesian soldiers from the Siliwangi Division (West Java), ultimately failed to achieve its goals. After APRA's lack of success, Pim and Frans decided to relocate to the Netherlands.
Attacking an Indonesian Hero
When the Colsons became prisoners of war in Indonesia, the Japanese army trained many young Indonesians to become officers and soldiers of the voluntary army Defenders of the Homeland (PETA). One of those Indonesian youth was Mas Tirtodarmo Harjono.
After 1945, Harjono joined the People's Security Army (TKR) and became head of the Liaison Office in Jakarta. When the Dutch-Indonesian Round Table Conference (RTC) was held in The Hague in 1949, Harsya Bachtiar wrote in Siapa Dia? Perwira Tinggi Tentara Nasional Indonesia Angkatan Darat (Who is He? High-ranking Officers of the Indonesian Army) that Harjono was seconded to the Indonesian delegation representing the Army Chief of Staff (KSAD) Colonel Abdul Haris Nasution.
After the recognition of sovereignty following the RTC, then Lieutenant Colonel M.T. Harjono was assigned to be the Indonesian military attaché to the Netherlands, from July 24, 1950 to October 1954. Harjono's task wasn't always smooth sailing. He even went through a life-threatening incident there.
One day, Meine Pot and Frans Colson came to Harjono's house with firearms. The May 27, 1952 edition of Het Parool newspaper said the two wanted to seize Westerling's extradition documents. Pot fired three bullets at Harjono, while Frans fired twice but the bullets ricocheted.
They did not want Westerling to be tried in Indonesia for the case in South Sulawesi and for other cases. Captain Westerling later denied that he was behind the actions of Frans Colson and Meine Pot.
“The actions of Colson and Pot were ill-prepared and unfounded. It was a foolish action,” said Westerling as quoted by De Telegraaf on December 24, 1952.
Frans and Pot were eventually sentenced to more than 3 years in prison. Pim himself was made a suspect before being released because he was considered unaware of the plan. According to Pim, his brother's actions only made it difficult for Westerling.
At that time, Pim was rumored to be Westerling's aide. The Colson brothers were associated with the Landelijke Organisatie van Oud-Illegale Strijders (LOOIS), or the National Organization of Former Illegal Fighters.
Lieutenant Colonel M.T. Harjono, an officer born in Surabaya, January 20, 1920 who survived the shooting, later served in Jakarta. He became Inspector General of the Army and eventually Deputy III Minister of the Army Commander, the last position he held until his death on October 1, 1965 by the September 30th Movement group. He is remembered as an Indonesian Hero of the Revolution.
