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Received:  
February 23, 2021 
 
Revised:  
June 4, 2021 
 
Accepted:  
June 5, 2021 

The Policies of Balai Pustaka as the Dutch Colonial Government’s 
Publishing Agency in 1917-1942 

 
Sulistya Putri*, Dewi Yuliati, Dhanang Respati Puguh 

Master Program of History, Faculty of Humanities,  
Universitas Diponegoro, Semarang, Central Java - Indonesia 

 
*Corresponding Author: 123456789sulis@gmail.com 

DOI: https://doi.org/10.14710/ihis.v5i1.10451 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Introduction 
This article discusses the policies issued by Balai Pustaka as the official agency of the 
Dutch Colonial Government. The policies issued by Balai Pustaka emerged in response 
to the implementation of Ethical Policy in Dutch East Indies, which produced educated 
generation who distributed their critical ideas through their publication to the colonial 
government. The educational aspect development as the result of the Ethical Policy 
implementation created new educated elites or group with mastery of basic skills of 
reading, writing and math. At that time, the Ethical Policy was not only aimed at 
educating native Indonesians, but also meeting the need for cheap and educated 
labors, especially for private companies (Supardan, 2008). In addition, the colonial 
government also expected that the Ethical Policy application would make the people 

Abstract 
 

The Ethical Policy (1901) generated many intellectuals who were able to express 
their ideas and opinion of nationalism and opposition through written media. The 
colonial government felt restless and needed a sensor agency for the intellectual’s 
works. In 1908 the colonial government started to establish the Commission for 
People’s Reading which in 1917 changed to Balai Pustaka. This was the Dutch 
Colonial Government’s first publishing agency with privileged rights in the 
monopoly on the publishing and printing industries. Balai Pustaka also created a 
policy supporting a sensor function. This study aims at analyzing the 
implementation of Balai Pustaka’s function as the sensor agency for literary works 
in ensuring the colonial government’s social-political stability in Dutch East Indies. 
The critical historical method of political approach was employed in this research, 
especially in the scope of colonialism and political policy. The policy issued by 
Balai Pustaka consists of three forms, namely: preproduction, production and 
postproduction policies. The preproduction policy was in the form of Nota Rinkes 
containing rules of the content of script to be issued, corporate management policy, 
and recruitment. Production policy covers editing (modification and hyphenation) 
and control over scripts received by Balai Pustaka. Meanwhile, postproduction 
policy was in the form of distribution of script by establishing more Taman 
Pustaka, expanding sales agents, and performing mobile library program. Other 
than these, Balai Pustaka also actively sued publication which were not published 
by it and by idea and notion opposing the colonial government. 
 
Keywords:  Balai Pustaka; Policy; Colonial Stability; Sensor Agency. 



 
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sympathetic and grateful to the Dutch Colonial Government.  
In line with the development of education in the Dutch East Indies, the demand 

for reading also increased. On the other hand, the expansion of foreign investment 
program after the Ethical Policy application made large foreign capital enter the Dutch 
East Indies, including the investment in printing and publishing, such as Chinese 
publisher (Soekaboemische Snelpersdrukkerij and Firma Sie Dhian Ho) and Indo-European 
and Dutch publishers (Albrecht, Bruining, van Drop, Carsseboom, Grivel). Meanwhile, the 
Native Indonesians also had some publishers which were established by the 
movement group such as Medan Prijaji by Tirto Adhi Soerjo and H. Samanhoedi and 
Sinar Djawa belonging to the Sarekat Islam (SI) organization, and others (Farid, 1991). 

Kahin (2013) states that in 1928-1929 in urban area there were less than two 
percent of Native Indonesians with independent Western education and more than 83 
percent were hired by local elites. The number showed no significant change to the 
economy for the education’s indirect impact on the prosperity and competitiveness of 
the Native Indonesians. This issue incited the Native Indonesians’ opposition through 
movement organizations such as Budi Utomo. Initially, Budi Utomo aimed at 
developing the traditional and Western educations, promoting agriculture, industry, 
and trade among Javanese and Madurese people. In addition, this organization also 
ensured them of living in dignity. Budi Utomo’s aspiration later developed politically 
(Kahin, 2013, p. 92.). Besides Budi Utomo, there were other movement organizations 
such as Sarekat Islam (SI) which at the time of its opening in 1912 had 360,000 
members. SI’s programs were militant in realizing a sovereign freedom (Kahin, 2013, 
p. 93).  

Some of the organizations and educated elites had publishers, such as Medan 
Prijaji, Doenia Bergerak, and Sinar Djawa which accommodated Native Indonesian 
intellectuals’ publication regarding criticism of the government. In addition, the 
intellectuals with journalist and author professions produced many literary works, 
such as Max Havelaar by Douwes Dekker, Syair Sama Rata Sama Rasa by Mas Marco 
Kartodikromo and Hikayat Kadiroen by Semaoen. These publications were about the 
social reality and worried the Dutch Colonial Government, that it then applied 
regulations on press criminal act (Kurniawan, 2016). 

In such a condition, the Dutch Colonial Government established an agency to 
investigate the scripts distributed all over the Dutch East Indies Land. The agency was 
Commisie voor de Volkslectuur (Commission for People’s Reading), established in 1908, 
which was changed to Balai Pustaka in 1917. In line with the change, Balai Pustaka 
kept developing politically since Balai Pustaka’s objective was to preserve the colonial 
government’s power. In realizing this objective, some policies had many Wild Reading 
authors sued for press criminal act. 

Based on the background above, the problem in this study is originated from 
the implementation of folk education development policy in Dutch East Indies as one 
of the Ethical Policy programs. As the result of the policy, more and more native 
intellectuals had the ability to write and publish their publication which contained 
nationalism and criticism of the Dutch Colonial Government. The publications were 



 
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often called wild readings. The development of wild readings deemed worrying, as 
proven with the persdelic case. Therefore, the Dutch Colonial Government through 
Balai Pustaka made efforts to restrain the narration of those wild readings. On this 
base, three important problems are presented: formation of publishing agency Balai 
Pustaka, formation and development process and policies issued to control the 
Colonial Government’s image. 
 Many studies have been conducted on the policies of publisher Balai Pustaka 
by researchers such as Teeuw (1972), Jedamski (1992), Fitzpatrick (2000), and Yuliati 
(2018). Teeuw (1972) reveals the importance of Balai Pustaka for the development of 
Indonesian modern literature. Teeuw also states that the birth of Indonesian modern 
literature was initiated by Balai Pustaka. Furthermore, Jedamski (1992) emphasizes the 
function of Balai Pustaka of not only as a publishing agency, but also as the agency of 
the government power hegemony. Fitzpatrick (2000) also attempts to show that Balai 
Pustaka, under disguise of developing literature in the Dutch East Indies, manipulated 
and disrupted the development of local literature for the government’s sake by 
promoting Western values and maintaining the Dutch power. Meanwhile, in the 
context of press policy, Yuliati (2018) also discusses the Dutch Colonial Government’s 
press regulations which were used as reference to formulate the publishing and control 
policies. Based on the existing study, the literary publishing and control policies 
during the colonial era and its application have not been discussed much specifically 
with regard to its institutional profile and social-political control function. 

Before further discussion on Balai Pustaka’s policies in the Dutch East Indies, it 
is necessary to understand the concepts of colonialism and policy. Loomba (2016, p. 3) 
defines colonialism as a conquest of a territory belonging to other nation. Colonial 
conquests of its colony develop further in some aspects to obtain full control. 
Colonialism is not only intended only to be territorial control, but also control over its 
territory along with anything therein. According to Gramsci, every social group 
coming to an area influences the economic system, and at the same time emerges a 
class of intellectuals giving knowledge. The knowledge given is not only regarding 
economy, but also politics, social and culture (Wahid, 2011, p. 170). Based on this 
explanation, colonialism is complete territorial control over the aspects therein, 
including economic, political and social-cultural aspects. During the Dutch colonial 
era, The Commission for People’s Reading was formed from the restlessness of the 
development of wild reading and movements in the Dutch East Indies, especially after 
the emergence of the Ethical Policy. Therefore, the Commission for People’s Reading, 
which was later changed into Balai Pustaka, had certain policies to participate in 
maintaining the colonial stability.   

Besides preserving the colonialism, policies were also made. Aminullah in 
Anggara (2018, p. 37) states that policy is an effort or act to influence the system of 
achieving the desired objective. Therefore, the policies applied by Balai Pustaka were 
used to achieve the objective of preserving the colonial practice in the Dutch East 
Indies. Policy is made based on the sequence of script publishing process, namely 
preproduction, production, and postproduction policies.  



 
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Method 
This research employed historical methods, from heuristicprocess, source criticism, 
and interpretation to historiography. This research on Balai Pustaka’s policies used 
sources of digital and non-digital forms in the form of law (staatsblad) stored in the 
National Archives of Republic of Indonesia (ANRI), National Library of Republic of 
Indonesia, and digital platform. Furthermore, the researcher also used sources of 
newspapers and magazines containing publication on Balai Pustaka, including 
Doenia Bergerak, Mingguan Pelita, Het Niews van Den Dag, De Preanger-Bode, and Panji 
Poestaka magazine obtained from Delper Krantern (https://www.delpher.nl), 
Literature Documentation Center H.B. Jassin, National Library, and Archive of PT 
Balai Pustaka as well as publications by Balai Pustaka. This research also used 
information from formulators of Balai Pustaka’s policies contained in related 
literatures. Some of the resources were then criticized internally, interpreted and 
analyzed using political and cultural approaches. The results of interpretation and 
analysis were then arranged into a historiographical work using prevailing 
principles. 
 
Colonialism in the Dutch East Indies 
Colonialism in the Dutch East Indies did not only influence strategic sectors such as 
economy and politics, but also cultural and intellectual sectors. Literature, which is 
part of culture and intellectual, also draw the government’s attention, since literature 
greatly influenced awareness of colonialism, especially for those educated. Some of the 
literatures included Max Havelaar, Nyai Dasima, Het Leven in Nederlands-Indie, continues 
story in press media, Medan Prijaji and others. This development could not be 
separated from the print culture in the Dutch East Indies.  

Printing press first emerged in 1668. Meanwhile, newspaper emerged first in 
the Dutch East Indies one or two centuries later, namely Batavia Nouvelles (Habib F, 
2017). Afterwards, many newspapers and publishers emerged in the Dutch East 
Indies. The Dutch Colonial Government’s publisher emerging in the 19th century was 
Landsdrukkerij. In addition, there were also printing company belonging to missionary, 
printing company belonging to Indo-European private sectors, and printing company 
belonging to native Indonesians. In fact, however, the print culture had not completely 
reached every line of the native Indonesians since few people were literate. Later, 
entering the 20th century, especially after the Ethical Policy, many native Indonesian 
and private publishers developed in the Dutch East Indies, since the native Indonesian 
intellectuals kept appearing during the Ethical Policy period (Moriyama, 2015, p. 113). 
The Ethical Policy indirectly made the native Indonesian modern group more active 
in reading and writing cultures. 

The Ethical Policy was officially constituted in September 1901 in Queen 
Wihelmina’s speech on the 17th date in the Netherlands on the attempts to deal with 
the declining prosperity of the native Indonesians. In addition, the Ethical Policy also 
encouraged education, producing professionals, including journalists who 
increasingly distributed the anticolonial spirit (van Niel, 1984, pp.11-12). Observing 



 
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the phenomena, the Dutch Colonial Government worried that the occurrence in India 
would also occur in the Dutch East Indies Land. As commonly known, the United 
Kingdom was overwhelmed by the freedom fighters’ demand in India whose 
nationalism was awaken after receiving Western education given by the British 
government (Rosidi, 2013, p.24). Habib F. (2017) explained that in the early 20th century 
printing agencies started to massively emerge, such as Bintang Hindia, established from 
1903-1907, and Medan Prijaji, established from 1907-1912. With the press development 
in the Dutch East Indies, the Dutch Colonial Government created press related 
regulations. The regulations were expected to reduce the development of readings 
which opposed or may endanger the colonial stability in the Dutch East Indies. 
Furthermore, the regulations caused cases of press criminal act to be sued against some 
of the native Indonesians who wrote the people’s social conditions or protests, such as 
Tirto Adhi Seoerjo and Mas Marco Kartodikromo. In general, they were also 
influenced by the publication style of Western and Eastern socialists and liberalists. 

In line with press development, emerged rules on press in the Dutch East Indies 
for the first time in 1856 through Staatsdblad No. 74, containing articles aiming at 
restricting press freedom (“Staatsblad van Nederlandsch-Indie 1856, No. 74”). In 
response to the protests through newspapers by Dutch socialists and liberalists against 
the rules, new rule was stipulated in 1906 in the form of Staatsblad No.270. 
Furthermore, it was known that the articles in Staatsblad No.270 still restrained press 
freedom (“Staatsblad van Nederlandsch-Indie 1906, No. 270”). Yuliati (2018) explains 
that later the Dutch Colonial Government made new more repressive rules in the form 
of Staatsblad No. 206 with serious threat, referred to as Hanzai Artikelen (Articles on 
Instilling Seeds of Hatred). Meanwhile, with Hanzai Artikelen still effective until 1918, 
the government even added new rules, Strafwetboek, containing rules on fine and 
imprisonment for press violation. Besides rules on press to suppress distribution of 
readings which might worry the colonial government, the Dutch Colonial Government 
further formed a commission serving to review readings distributed in the Dutch East 
Indies, referred to as Commisie Voor de Volkslectuur. 
 
Formation and Development of the Publishing Agency Balai Pustaka 
The Commission for People’s Reading was the origion of Balai Pustaka, established in 
1908. The commission was under the command of Adviseur voor Inlandsche Zaken 
(Bureau of Advisor for Native Indonesian Affairs), part of Departemen van Onderwijs en 
Eredients (Department of Teaching and Worship) (Swantoro, 2002). The members 
enlisted in the commissions were G.A.J. Hazeu (Advisor of Native Indonesian Affairs) 
as the leader, G.J.F. Biegman (Inspector of Education), D.van Hinloopen Labbertn 
(Lecturer of Javanese Language, Batavia), Ph. S. van Ronkel (Lecturer of Malay 
Language), and H.C.H Bie (Vice Inspector of Agriculture) (Jedamski, 1992). Jedamski 
(1997) explains that this agency served to investigate scripts distributing in the Dutch 
East Indies. In the first two years of establishment, the Commission for People’s 
Reading only served to collect scripts deemed inappropriate for publishing. Later in 
1910 after assignment of Rinkes as secretary, the commission advanced rapidly. The 



 
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commission started to recruit a number of experts of Javanese and Sundanese 
Languages to translate many foreign works into the two local languages (Jedamski, 
1997, p.10). In 1911 Rinkes was assigned as Taalambtenaar Adjunct-Adviseur (Vice 
Official Language Advisor) in native Indonesian case, which at that time was led by 
Dr. Hazeu as Directeur Onderwijs en Ereedienst. Then, Rinkes replaced Hazeu as 
Adviseur voor Inlandesche Zaken (1912) (“Balai Poestaka”, 1927, p. 343).  

In 1917, the Commission for People’s Reading was renamed Balai Pustaka. Balai 
Pustaka kept spreading its wings by expanding the distribution and making new 
business lines such as Panji Poestaka, Sri Poestaka, and Volksmanak magazines. In 
addition, Balai Pustaka also implemented new, sensor function over readings received 
by publisher of Balai Pustaka or publishers other than Balai Pustaka. This can be 
observed from the new policies stipulated by Balai Pustaka. 

At this time, Balai Pustaka was also more political, as proven with the sensor 
function it performed over the scripts of reading it produced.  

Hasil pengadjaran itoe boleh djoega mendatangkan bahaja, kalaoe orang jang telah tahoe 
membatja itu mendapat kitab2 batjaan jang berbahaja dari saoedagar kita jang koerang 
soetji dan dari orang2 jang bermaksoed hendak mengatjaoe. Oleh sebab itu ber-sama2 
dengan pengajaran itoe maka haroeslah diadakan kitab2 batjaan jang memenoehi 
kegemaran orang kepada pembatja tertib doenia sekarang. Dalam oesahanja itu haroes 
didjaoehkan segala jang dapat merosakkan kekoeasaan pemerintah dan ketentraman negeri 
(Harahab,1997, p. 19). [Education may lead to harm, if the literate people obtain 
harmful reading book from publisher that is unholy and has the purpose of disrupt 
the situation. Therefore, along with education, books that are fulfilling current 
readers’ interest must be made. In this effort, reading must be kept away from 
anything which may damage the government’s power and the national peace]. 

 
The statement was written by D.A. Rinkes in the commemoration of 25 years of Queen 
Wihelmina reigning in 1923. The statement was the basic principle that D.A. Rinkes 
base on in performance of his tasks in Balai Pustaka. From the statement, it is obvious 
that Rinkes had political mission in operating Balai Pustaka. Rinkes’s perspective 
could not be separated from his background. 

Based on his background, D.A. Rinkes (as pictured in Figure 1) had a tropical 
agriculturalist education, and continued his study on language and literature. He was 
an Islamologist, that besides having Islamic knowledge, he also knew the character of 
Javanese Muslim people. With his education and knowledge, he successfully 
advanced Balai Pustaka, that in 1930 he was called the “Father of Balai Pusaka”. 
During Rinkes leadership, Balai Pustaka had a rapid and repressive advancement 
against the development of literatures beyond Balai Pustaka.  

During Rinkes leadership, the main mission successfully developed by Balai 
Pustaka was the development of the national language and culture of the Dutch East 
Indies as desired by the Dutch Colonial Government. Therefore, under Rinkes 
leadership, Balai Pustaka developed strategic sectors such as organization 
management, business, and politics. He created some programs to promote Balai 
Pustaka advancement. The programs made by Rinkes focused on reading distribution. 



 
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The programs were establishment of libraries, sales agents, and advertisement agents. 
In addition, there were programs used for control function. In 1926 Rinkes decided to 
retire and his position was taken over by Lekkerkerker in March 1927. Lekkerkerker 
had no concentration on cultural sector like Rinkes. However, he adopted Rinkes’s 
idea in operating Balai Pustaka. He divided Balai Pustaka into two, namely linguistics 
and administration.  

 

 
Figure 1 DA Rinkes. 

(Book 80 Tahun Balai Pustaka Menjelajah Nusantara [80 Years of Balai Pustaka 
Exploring the Archipelago], p. 17) 

 
On 23 December 1929 Lekkerkerker suddenly died and his position was taken 

over by Drewes. Drewes had good academic career and was a doctor of orientalism. 
In the last few years under the Colonial Government, Drewes took the position of the 
chairman of Balai Pustaka for five years and was finally assigned as a professor at the 
Faculty of Law in 1935. During his leadership, Drewes encourage marginalization of 
scripts published by other than Balai Pustaka, as proven with an article published in 
De Gids magazine in 1932 on the contemporary development of literature. 

It will be difficult to underestimate the government’s important role in controlling 
the development of good taste of literature in this transitional period. There is clear 
danger for those who seek for something that they expect very much, but end up 
with bad reading with doubtful quality. Less accurate publishers successfully make 
use of this tendency of realism (because of desiring better term) and with the cheap 
products produced by Volkslectuur are able to give beneficial influence. That has 
successfully pushed back expensive literature (trash literature) sold by Chinese 
publishers (Maier, 1991, p. 79). 

 
In the article, it is obvious that Drewes started to show that Balai Pustaka’ authority in 
dominating the literature in the Dutch East Indies was relatively successful. He also 



 
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started to discredit Chinese people’s role in the development of literature in the Dutch 
East Indies in general. Drewes indirectly stated that Chinese literature had immoral, 
sensual, and harmful content according to the Dutch standards. The reason is that the 
scripts old by Chinese literature show their identity more in the Dutch East Indies. A 
year after Drewes issued unreasonable disqualification of Chinese Malay Literature, 
Pujangga Baru emerged. Majority of the founders of Pujangga Baru had Dutch 
education and were employees of Balai Pustaka. Therefore, Pujangga Baru also 
adopted the language used by Balai Pustaka more and also discredited Chinese Malay 
Language. After 1935 Drewes resigned and was replaced by JF Vos.  

J.F. Vos had serious illness and thus retired later. The next leadership was 
handed over to K.A.H. Hidding. He had the same principle as Rinkes of strengthening 
the knowledge of colonial power structure (Jedamski, 1992, pp. 31-32). The said 
knowledge was not only traditional culture, but also modern culture. Hidding once 
said: 

Stimulating the cultural development of the native Indonesians and advancing 
their education do not only involve new findings, but is also also made by 
maintaining anything bearing meaning to their culture and when giving new 
breath therein. Culture is not something isolated; every cultural case is bound to 
the past and future. In this context, the institution Balai Pustaka works to collect 
and reprint old literatures, which are the cultural heritage and will remain real 
for certain environment. Only by keeping relationship with the past can we 
expect something in the future (Farid, 1991). 

 
This statement is the evidence that Balai Pustaka has cultural politics by publishing 
good scriptures which are not detrimental to the government. Later, in the period 1933-
1942 Balai Pustaka showed a significant change, especially from the perspective of the 
native Indonesians’ interest. Employees of Balai Pustaka also formed saving and loan 
cooperative, bank of Balai Poestaka, and other activities which might strengthen 
relationship between employees (“Bank Balai Poestaka”, 1937). In addition, they also 
opened new lines in the form of Sri Poestaka and Panji Poestaka magazines. 
 
Balai Pustaka’s Policies 
Balai Pustaka as a government agency aimed at maintaining colonial stability. 
Therefore, policies arose to support that function. By publishing process, Balai 
Pustaka’s policies are divided into three, namely preproduction, production, and post 
production policies that will be discussed further below. 
 
Preproduction Policy 
The preproduction policy defined by Balai Pustaka started from employee selection to 
scrip selection process. Balai Pustaka employees (Figure 2) were initially dominated 
by European people, and the number of native Indonesians increased later. The reason 
was that native Indonesian employees were paid cheap. Native Indonesian employees 
were specially deployed in translation and press divisions. Balai Pustaka had strict 
rules regarding language mastery for its employees. The said language mastery was 



 
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not only Dutch Language, but also Malay Language, English, and local languages 
thoroughly. The rules of becoming employee of Balai Pustaka specifically for editor of 
Balai Pustaka included: proficient in Malay, Dutch and English languages; graduate of 
Hogere Burgerschool (HBS) of five year or Algemene Middelbare School (AMS), able to 
work independently, and having working experience; and having journalistic 
knowledge (Panji Poestaka, 7 Juli 1929). These rules imply that language mastery is 
important in order to understand various texts inspected and published by Balai 
Pustaka. In addition, only graduates of Dutch schools were accepted. This was also 
related to the language politics that would be applied in Balai Pustaka’s publications. 
The said language politics means the use of High Malay Language as the main 
language of publishing. The reason was that High Malay Language might reduce the 
use of rude, lewd, vulgar, and straightforward words, which might be triggered the 
spirit of opposition and nationalism which were many found in wild reading scripts 
in Low Malay Language. The examples may be found in Chinese descent literature or 
native Indonesian literature. 
 

 
Figure 2. Employees of Balai Pustaka in Batavia in 1925. 

(Collection of KITLV No. 116893) 
 

In addition to employee acceptance policy, Balai Pustaka also created script 
acceptance policy. The policy was formulated by Rinkes in the form of Nota Rinkes. 
Nota Rinkes was the policy made by Rinkes to regulate script acceptance by Balai 
Pustaka. Nota Rinkes consisted of three points of script acceptance, namely: (1) 
publication cannot contain political element; (2) it must shape character and lead to 
intelligence; (3) it must be religiously neutral (Mahayana 2010).  

Nota Rinkes was used to restrict author’s ideas and notions so as not to create 
narrations which might worry the Dutch Colonial Government. Authors with high 
idealism preferred publishing their works with private publishers. However, certain 



 
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authors preferred publishing their works with Balai Pustaka. They had certain price of 
having their scripts published by Balai Pustaka. The reason was that Balai Pustaka had 
distribution network and market, thus there was an assumption that when their works 
were published by Balai Pustaka, they would have more readers. In addition, Balai 
Pustaka offered relatively high royalty to authors compared to private publishers. The 
royalty offered was about 250 gulden. The value was tempting even if after entering 
the publisher, the script would likely to be edited by Balai Pustaka (Balai Pustaka, 1992, 
p. 22). This rule was also used to select script entering into Balai Pustaka. Because of 
such policy, some scripts were rejected by Balai Pustaka since they did not conform to 
the standard policy. 

Rejection of script by Balai Pustaka was once experienced by Soewarsih 
Djojopoespito with a work entitled Manusia Bebas. Many assumed that this novel was 
not accepted by Balai Pustaka since it used Sundanese Language. Observed further, 
however, this novel contained nationalism with desire to escape colonial confinement. 
Finally, this novel was published in the Netherlands with assistance of Du Peron who 
both opposed colonialism with title in Dutch language, Buiten het Gareel 
(Djojopoespito, 1946). Besides giving support, Du Peron also wrote a preface on this 
publication (Sadim, 2018). This showed that the script selection process by Balai 
Pustaka was adjusted to Balai Pustaka’s objective of preserving the Dutch Colonial 
Government’s power, while scripts which did not conform to the policy would not be 
accepted. 

Rinkes did not only designate Nota Rinkes to restrict the movement of the native 
Indonesians, he was getting more famous after searching for and suing some of SI 
members. This was because SI’s movements were deemed overly frontally attacking 
he government through press media or their publisher. Therefore, some SI members 
were convicted persdelict, just like what was experienced by Mas Marco Kartodikromo 
and others. 
 
Production Policy 
The policy of production stage created by Balai Pustaka was script editing. Its intention 
was that the scripts published conformed to the moral standard and did not contain 
any opposing elements and degrade the image of the Dutch Colonial Government and 
Dutch and Indo people. The realization of the rule can be observed from the statement 
of an author who sent his/her script to Balai Pustaka as follows. 

Meskipoen bahasanja (kalimat and kata-kata) boekoe itu ada bagoes tetapi berapa %kah 
dari kebagoesan itoe hak pengarang, berapa % poela hak pegawai Balai Poestaka dari 
pangkat jang rendah sampai jang tinggi jang memperbaikinya? Diseboet demikian 
karena memang ada boekoe B.P. jang 90% dari isinja ialah boeah tangan si pemperbaiki. 
Nah orang jang membatja timbangan ini tentoe akan menjaga bahasa boekoe. Kalau ta’ 
oentoeng paling koerang 89% boekan hak pengarangnya. (“Kaoem Iboe Dalam 
Mengarang”, 1937). [Although some of the book’s language (sentences and 
words) of are good, but how many % of correction is the author’s right, and how 
many % is the right of Balai Pustaka employees, from low to high positions who 
corrected it? it is so since there are indeed books of Balai Pustaka whose 90% of 



 
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the content is the result of editing. Well, those reading this consideration will 
certainly maintain a book’s language. In case of out of luck, at least 89% is not the 
author’s right.]  

 
From the statement, we may observe that Balai Pustaka did not only edit language, 
but also content. Besides the author, this matter was also stated by Nur St. Iskandar 
who was an editor of Balai Pustaka.  

Djangan kata mengubah djalan Bahasa itu, agak mirip kepada bahasa Djawa and Sunda 
umpamanja, hal itu lebih sulit lagi. Kepada direktur jang sengadja agak menjeleweng 
boleh dikenakan tjap: ongeschik! [sic!] Tidak tjakap! Ja, akan memakai kata bias sadja, 
yang berarti dapat dan kata bikin jang bermakna perbuat, bukanlah perkara jang mudah. 
Apalagi kata-kata jang dipandang Belanda berbau politik, seperti kata Indonesia, adalah 
tabu (pantangan) bagi mereka (Farid, 2018). [Not to mention changing the way of 
Language, just slightly similar to Javanese or Sundanese language, for example, 
it will be more difficult. To director who intentionally deviates will be marked: 
ongeschik! [sic!] Incompetent! Yes, will use bias words instead, which means it is 
okay and words, make them having meaning of what is done, is not something 
easy. Moreover, words which the Dutch people deem political related, such as 
the word Indonesia, is taboo (prohibition) for them.] 

 
She revealed that editing was important not only regarding language, but also the 
content of the script. Balai Pustaka’s publications must use language of high morality 
of Balai Pustaka version and could not contain any nationalist language. This shows 
that script editing policy is a political strategy conducted by Balai Pustaka. An example 
of script editing by Balai Pustaka can be observed in the novel Salah Asoehan by Abdoel 
Moeis (Moeis, 2009). Not only the script’s language, its content was also changed by 
Balai Pustaka. In the original script, a Dutch female character, Corrie, was described to 
be extravagant. Besides becoming Hanafi’s wife, she also cheated with other man. 
Then, Hanafi felt he could not stand it, leading to their divorce. Corrie fell into 
obscenity and sold herself to pay her debt to an Arab and had a regular of ship captain 
and became common prostitute (Mahayana, 1994). However, the script edited and 
published by Balai Pustaka told a good image of Corrie, in which she was a good 
woman, and died because of cholera in her service in Semarang. In the publication by 
Balai Pustaka, the story of “Batavia Doctor” was also removed (Moeis, 2009). 
 The strict control applied by Balai Pustaka caused emergence of some private 
publishers. Balai Pustaka called the result of production of the private publishers as 
Wild Readings. Most of Wild Readings had content contradictory to Balai Pustaka’s 
political view and language principle and other rules applied by Balai Pustaka. The 
government opposing readings were mostly socialist realism, such as the verse Sama 
Rata dan Sama Rasa and Hikayat Kadiroen by Semaoen. 

Most of narrations built by the literary works published by Balai Pustaka 
contained customs. Generally, the main characters in the works were Dutch people or 
government officials who were familiar with Dutch Education. In the narrations, 
Dutch people were the protagonists with good character, were forgiving and so on. 
Meanwhile, in the narrations built by Wild Readings, Dutch people were commonly 



 
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depicted as those who love to get drunk, gambling, polygamy, and others, thus Balai 
Pustaka’s sensor function were focused more on the effort to show that Western people 
were the representation of colonial culture with good image and high morality, by 
making counter discourse against the wild reading narrations. 
 
Postproduction Policy 
After production process is done, the next policy conducted by Balai Pustaka in the 
postproduction stage was expanding the distribution of the books by establishing 
libraries, using sales agents, and using advertisement agents. When it was still the 
Commission for People’s Reading, as the means of book distribution, Rinkes asked the 
government to open libraries. The government granted the request with decition to 
establish Taman Pustaka on 13 October 1910. Based on the decision, some Taman 
Pustaka were built in Java, Sunda, and Malay. The libraries were specifically for the 
native Indonesians (Harahab et al., 1977). Besides libraries for the native Indonesians, 
the government also built libraries for Dutch people at 170 locations.  

On 1912 there were 700 locations of Taman Pustaka, which were distributed 
only in Java and Sunda. After the commission changed to Balai Pustaka in 1917, 75 
Taman Pustaka were opened in Madura, and in 1918, 371 Taman Pustaka were 
established in Sumatera (Harahab et al., 1977, p.11). Taman Pustaka were located in 
villages and schools. Taman Pustaka were made available by Balai Pustaka. From 1916 
and henceforward, in Holandsch Inlandsche Scholen Taman Pustaka was provided with 
readings in Dutch language issued by Balai Pustaka. In addition, there were also 
readings in Malay, Javanese and Sudnanese languages. Jedamski (1992, p.27) also 
explained that the development and arrangement of Taman Pustaka were conducted 
by schools.  

The books produced by Balai Pustaka were also distributed using sales agents. 
Balai Pustaka had 10 sales agents in 1917 and 58 agents in in 1925 including five 
European and four Chinese people. In that year, cars were operating to sell books in 
Sumatra, Sulawesi, and Kalimantan (Balai Pustaka, 1948). The book distribution could 
not be separated from the low price offered by Balai Pustaka, thanks to the subsidy 
from the government and Balai Pustaka having its own printing press and paper 
bought in a large number (“Balai Poestaka”, 1927, p. 342). In 1930 Balai Pustaka 
expanded its distribution overseas. This was realized since as the government’s organ, 
Balai Pustaka was not subject to tax and other regulations. 

In addition, Balai Pustaka also sued some authors who opposed the government, 
like what Rinkes did to Marco Kartodikromo. Sarotomo’s newspaper on 10 November 
No.142 contained Mas Marco’s publications which was deemed wrong and as an 
opposition against the colonial government, thus Haji Samanhoedi as SI leader 
received a letter from D.A. Rinkes which was released in Doenia Bergerak newspaper 
entitled “Marco Pro of Contra Dr. Rinkes!?” The letter written by Rinkes showed the 
mistake written by Marco Kartodikromo regarding Welvaart Commissie (W.C.), that 
those made W.C. were people of Dutch nationality with no proficient knowledge of 
Java land. Rinkes also mentioned that Marco Kartodikromo blamed the Native 



 
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Indonesians trusted by Gouvernement, and the Native Indonesians were deemed as 
blood sucker (Kartodikromo, 1914, pp. 2-8). The publications of socialist realism which 
promoted justice and equality were deemed harful to the European capitalists. 
 
Conclusions 
Based on the result of discussion above, we may conclude that the Dutch Colonial 
Government needed Balai Pustaka with its function to maintain the stability of 
intellectuals’ politics in the Dutch East Indies. Therefore, Balai Pustaka as a publishing 
agency also had policies to operate that function. The policies made by Balai Pustaka 
and its implementation were 1) preproduction policy, script acceptance rules as 
contained in Nota Rinkes and the policy of employee selection with Balai Pustaka’s 
standard, the policy implementation can be observed from the script selection process 
and rejection of some scripts sent to Balai Pustaka, 2) production policy, that is the 
editing policy. The editing made by Balai Pustaka did not only cover Language editing, 
but also content editing. This can be observed in the Novel Salah Asoehan in which the 
character Corrie was changed to one with high morality as Western representation, 3) 
postproduction policy, in the form of distribution policy. To widen Western moral 
values, Balai Pustaka extend the book distribution network, both using agent and 
schools.  
 
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