JAKARTA - Indonesia has responded tepidly to a speech made by Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte apologizing for 250 years of slavery in the country’s former colonies, saying the country needs to do more than simply offer a mea culpa for its role. 

In a 20-minute speech on Monday, Rutte apologized to the country’s former colonies, particularly seven Caribbean states: Suriname, Curaçao, St Maarten, Aruba, Bonaire, Saba and St Eustatius. Calling the Dutch slave trade an unimaginable “criminal system [...] so inhuman and unjust”, Rutte announced a fund for social initiatives in Curaçao, St Maarten, Aruba and Suriname. 

Indonesia, a former Dutch colony where slavery was practiced, was not explicitly mentioned, except for the acknowledgement that “between 660,000 and over 1 million people [...] were traded within the areas under the authority of the Dutch East India Company [VOC]”. 
  
“Rutte’s speech does not mention Indonesia. In the English and Dutch versions of his speech, he only mentioned the Caribbean countries. So from the point of view of the foreign minister – and we on House of Representatives Commission I approve of this view – [the speech] was more political and made to cater PM Rutte’s domestic needs,” said TB Hasanuddin, a senior Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) legislator who sits on the House’s foreign affairs commission.