The Case of Nadrah 'gadis Belanda'

I vividly remember the couple's loving poses. She was a foreigner, a Dutch. He was local, a teacher in Singapore hailed from Kota Bahru, Kelantan.

Other than the portrait of Sukarno, the Indonesian Freedom fighter, the framed postcard size photograph of Mansor Adabi and his young bride Nadrah adorned the ‘tiang seri’ (main pillar of a traditional Malay House) of my house. More so on most Malay houses in the British Malaya and Singapora then. They were then the icons of most Malay Muslim. The duo was the 1950es craze, their potraits were most adorable pinups.
Mansor Adabi was Malay, and Nadrah was Dutch - ‘gadis Belanda’. Mother fondly refers her beauty as that of a ‘bidadari dari shurga’ (a fairy from paradise) and Mansor as the young ‘Malay Bangsawan’ (The Prince Charming ).

To most Malays they were the most celebrated couple of the year. They adored them, prayed for their well beings and ever willing to fight for them. Being hardcore Muslims they were directly committed to the cause of Islam. They were of the openion that Nadrah had willingly embraced Islam and should remain a Muslim. She should not be raised as her biological parent’s Roman Catholic religion. She should be free to lead her own lives with her foster parents and her husband and raised her family as a true Muslim.’

There was a legal tussle between Aminah Mohamad her foster mother and Adranus Petrus Hertogh her Dutch father, and was widely covered by the media. When the court finally assigned Nadrah to her biological parents and returned to Holland, the Malay Muslim ran amok. The onslaught was bloody. The clash was between the Muslim and the Christians on the streets of Singapore. The aftermath of that religious riot in Singapore also deepened amongst the Muslim in the Peninsular. The period was 1950es. Indonesia just got its Independence from the Dutch and Malaya was still in the midst of negotiation on its Independence from the British. As such the grudge for the colonial rules continuously deepened.

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Today Friday, July 10, 2009 The New Straits Times – filed the sad news in its PRIME NEWS page the death of Maria Hertogh 72 at her home in Huijberhen in South Holland of leukemia at the age of 72 the day before. Her 10 children and close relatives were at her side.
A statement released by her family said Hertogh made world news when her parents Adeline Hunter and Adranus Petrus Hertogh went to court to seek her return after World War 2.

Adrianus had been captured by the Japanese in Indonesia in 1942. Her mother then gave her for adoption to Aminah Mohamad from Terengganu without her father’s knowledge. She was renamed Nadrah Maarof and raised in Kemaman as a Muslim.
After his release at the end of the war, Andrianus began the search for his daughter. Aminah took her to Singapore to see her father and she was placed in a girls home ( a convent ). Aminah won an appeal to get her back and the then 13 year old was married to Mansor Adabi. But on December 12, 1950, the court ruled she should be returned to her biological father and she went back to Holland where she was brought up according to the religion of her father.

After the judge assigned her to her parents riot broke out between Muslims and Christians in Singapore, resulting in 18 deaths and 200 people injured,’ the statement said.

Malaysian’s Ambassador to the Netherlands Datuk Dr Fauziah Mohd Taib, who last met Hertogh at her birthday party on March 24, said she looked frail but happy.
“Her birthday party had a Malaysian-Indonesian theme. She talked a lot about her happy days in Malaysia and her heart was very much there.”

Till present day, the tragic case of Maria Hertogh @ Nadrah Maarof was a never ending stories among the Malays especially those in the East Coast. Books and journals were written about her early life, the court tussle between Aminah her foster parents and Adrianus her biological father. Television ducumentries, a (Malay) feature film was also produced based on her life story. It was a love story with a different twist.

The youngest of her 10 children, Silvija Wolkenfell 38 said there would be no burial as it was Hertogh’s last wish to donate her body for research. “All her life she did what other people wanted. This is her own choice, and it is important we respect that,” the 38 years old said in a telephone interview.

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There is an irony to the above statement by her youngest daughter on her last wish, to give her body for research.

She was brought up as a Muslim for almost a decade before returning to Holland and brought up according to her biological parent’s religion. Such a tragic situation for a young girl having lost both her parents because of war and found a new family love in the Malay and Muslim hardland. She blossomed as a Malay damsel with a foreign complexions. Loved by her foster family and proudly accepted by the community. She was later married to a Muslim. But the jevunile marriage won her biological father's custody appeal. The court ruled in favour of her biological parents. She returned to Holland and was brought up according to the religion of her father.

It was a teen love story with a twisted ending. Her life story chronicled that of a 'bondage or feudal serf' female.

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She was borned in Tjimahi, Jawa on 24th March 1937. She was the 3rd child. She was baptised Maria Bertha Hertogh by her Dutch-Eurasian parents. Maria's father was a A Dutch Army Sargent was taken in as a prisioner-of-war during during the Japenese invasion of Jawa during WWII. Andelina her mother gave Maria to the care of a family friend Aminah Mohamad on 15th November 1942 without the knowledge of her husband. The process was withness by Andelina's brother Soewaldi. Maria was raised as a Muslim and named Nadrah binti Maarof. She was verymuch loved by her foster parents and fondly niknamed her Puteh ( meaning 'white').

Aminah moved out of Jakarta to Bandung. She was enlisted as an interpreter for the Japenese Military Police. Fearing that Nadrah's Dutch background made her vulnerable during the Indonesian War of Independence Aminah and her foster daughter Nadrah fled to Terengganu, Malaya. Nadrah grew up in Aminah hometown Kemaman. Maria aka Nadrah study at Chukai Malay School, Kemaman and learnt reading the AlQur'an from an Ustazah.

Renuited after the war Maria's parents began seeking for their lost daughter. They lodged a request with the Dutch officials to locate their daughter.

Arthur Locke, the a British Administrative Officer, in Terengganu was first to alert authorities on Maria's whereabouts when he spotted her at a school competition in Kemaman. A custody battle ensued over Maria, which drew much public attention and fuelled religious sensitivities.

Initially the custody of Maria aka Nadrah was given to Aminah. Within 4 days of the ruling, on 1st August 1950 Nadrah was married off to Mansor Adabi 18 year old Kelantanese, a 2nd year Normal Class Teacher at Bukit Panjang Government Shool. The marriage of a juvenile 13 year old Maria was reised to court, at Andranus's appeal for custody of Maria. The 12th December 1950 court's rulling granted the custody of Maria to her biological parents. She screamed for mercy and begged the court to recind its rulling. She pleaded to be with her husband and remained in Malaya with her foster mother as a Muslim. But the court rullings also nullified her juvenile Muslim marriage. She was made a 'Murtad' and 'allowed' to be brought up according to her father's religion that of Roman Catholic. With the court's rulling her biological parents immediately wisked her to Amsterdam.

Maria married a Dutch cabinet maker John (Joep) Ganardus Wokerfeld on 20th April 1956 and bored 13 children, 3 of which did not servive infancy. However a 1975 TV production on Maria's story stirred up Marias's unhappy memories and led her to tragic actions. Meserable over her working at her husband's cafe-cum-bar the "T Pumpke" (Tan Sri A.Samad Said 'Lantai T.Pumpke'?) from early morning to midnight, she plotted to murder her husband through 2 friends, but the plan was found out and she was brought to court on 16 August 1976. However, after reviewing her tragic past, Maria was aquitted within 1 day of hearing.

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Aminah bt Mohammad, Maria's foster mother was from a respected Malay family in Kemaman, Terengganu. She married her first husband Abdul Rani (Abdul Gani) who had been the private secretary of The Sultan of Terengganu in 1918. Abdul Rani was a cousin of Datuk Panglima Bukit Gantang, who became The Menteri Besar of Perak after the war. She accompanied her husband to Tokyo where he tought Malay for almost 11 years. They mustered Japenese and adopted a Japenese girl whom they named Kamariah.

Maarof bin Haji Abdul a jeweler from Bandung was Aminah 2nd husband whom she married in the mids of 1930 after her 1st husband passed away.

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A GIRL NAMED RIA

There was this girl named RIA. I stumbled into her in the ruins of Angkor I visited a couple of weeks ago – on 1st June 2008. She was there tugged in a corner amidst hundreds of foreign tourist that thronged the infamous historical sites of Cambodia. She was around 10 or 11 and of the same age as my two granddaughters Nurul Aifa and Nureen Hana. She was alone, and I presumed she was a local.
On the first glance I mistook her for an art student from a local institution doing some school projects. But she was there all alone, minding her own business, sketching rigorously on a worn out exercise book. Was she an art enthusiasts, or merely one of those street urchins trying to woo tourists with her sketching prowess for a couple of Riel or Dollar? My guess was almost right when a couple of Japanese teenage girl approached her corner, eager on what she was sketching on.
She was actually sketching one of them. It was a quick sketch job. She initialed her name on the caricature and handed it over to them. The 2 Japanese girls overjoyed. They giggled as they shook her hand. For that moment they were close, like bosom friends on an outing. I later help to photograph the three.
There were lots of street urchins at most of the historical sites. There were there, selling their wares. They would crowd and harassed those naïve visitors until you part with your dollar or Riel for a pair of bangles or other trinkets made of beads. Those were the nuisance lots. There were also street children scavenging dustbins looking for plastic bottles or empty cans. It was really a depressing sight looking at those half naked kids collecting discards, some to the point of eating any leftover foods found or quenching their thirsts from those salvaged bottles or canned drinks.
But this girl named RIA was one with a different. She was neatly dressed and well composed. She neither harassed the visitors nor scavenging the throw-outs. She sketched simple caricatures and passed them to those who find time to befriend her.
Her simple nature and kind smile for the moment urged me to get to know her. And as I approached her, she spontaneously handed me her latest sketch. It was a multi petals flower, with a butterfly hovering over it. The sketch was simple and neat.
For the moment I took it as a symbolic gesture of friendship. The initial RIA is prominently displayed on the top right corner. RIA in The Malay Language meaning gembira, girang, riang, sukacita ( joy,happiness). For whatever its true meaning was, the name RIA fitted her personality. The multi petal flower maybe bunga cempaka or chempa to the locals. Melayu Chempa originated from Cambodia, and hence bunga kemboja widely flourished in the country as well in Malaysia. Is she of the Malay origin?
I took a snapshot of her for my 2 granddaughters. Little did I know Nurul Aifa and Nureen Hanna had met her earlier, and was sketched. Like me the two were proud of their find.

Flashback: I recalled my early association with a Malay Chempa from Cambodia, was with actor, filem producer director Ismail Sasakul. We met in Kuala Lumpur at my office in Angkasapuri when I was The Head Of Drama, RTM (Radio Television Malaysia) in the 1980es. Earlier he had established himself locally as an independent film director. He was first based in Marang, Trengganu, later in Negeri Sembilan. Ismail Sasakul was a soft spoken and a kind man. He escaped to Malaysia with his families from his war-torned country, and found shelter in Kampong Kelulut, Marang. We were not in contact for a very long time since then. I believed either he or his family are still in the country or had been shipped back to Cambodia by The World Amnesty Organizations.