Malay States and South Thailand well into the late 19th century, and the
far-reaching impact of kongsi government after th is , are, however, a
story that should be told elsewhere.
2. Kongsi : its. Place in History
One can hardly exaggerate the s i g n if ic a n c e o f the emergence o f kongsi federations in West Borneo, which was to shape Chinese l i f e in
Southeast Asia f o r one and a h a l f centuries. But as a p o l i t i c a l s tr u c tu re , what is i t ? Is i t as a wide range o f scholars such as Veth, De Groot,
Schlege, and Lo Hsiang-1 in see i t , some form o f federal republic? Or, is i t merely a large p o l i t i c a l group in the mining d i s t r i c t s , as those who r e j e c t the f i r s t view would pre fer to have i t ? To answer t h i s one..
know what is democracy, and furthermore, what form o f democracy the kongsi is and what form i t is not? I think a controversy o f t h i s kind is f u t i l e . However, while avoiding the comparison o f the kongsi with modern republicanism and 'democracy1, I should also point out tha t the second view which leaves kongsi federations in a limbo o f vagueness and ambiguity, is no s o l u ti o n e i t h e r .
Therefore, I suggest a t h i r d approach, which re jec ts western ter mi nology f o r th i s completely Chinese model o f a modern p o l i t i c a l state. In other words, we should not t r y to f i t kongsi government to western te r m i nology, nor to western models o f h i s t o r y - the c h i e f point o f o r ig i n s f o r
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western t e m P o g y . And indeed, i t is a l l too often misleading to tr a n s la te h i s t o r i e s very d i f f e r e n t from th a t o f the West in to western terminology. More e s p e c i a l l y , his to ria n s who u n c r i t i c a l l y apply western models o f h i s to ry to other parts o f the world, would in so doing, remind one o f a Chinese proberb which says: "Cutting the fe e t in order to f i t the shoes."
«
Nor do I advocate an u n c r i t i c a l acceptance o f the autonomy o f Asian h i s t o r y , es pe ci all y not to the exclusion o f some convergence o f both Asian and European h i s t o r i e s , such as trade and c u l t u r a l contacts which go f a r back in time. But kongsi government, such as i t was, was b u i l t by the
Chinese who were uninfluenced by western ideas and experience. Nevertheless, whether kongsi government is uniquely Chinese in West Borneo, or might be
found in other parts o f the world in h i s t o r y , is a question which I prefer to leave open.
Most ea rly w r i t e r s on t h i s subject were impressed by the democratic r i g h t s o f the members in a kongsi. Not s u r p r i s i n g l y , th e y fre el y compared kongsi with republics. Temminck, f o r example, wrote in 1847: "These market- towns kongsi o f Borneo Chinese which are known as kongsis, vary in size o f
population; . . . Jhese l i t t l e republics formed in the common in t e r e s t o f adventurers obliged to defend themselves against the Dayak hordes, and the Mohamedan princes."'*' Kongsi government, lik e w is e , struck Veth as something o f a re p u b lic which arose, undoubtedly, from the hope o f the Chinese to gain strength by th is vehicle in t h e i r resistance against Malay e x to rtio n and the Dayaks who i n i t i a l l y f e l t h o s tile towards these fo re ig n e rs , who came
2 by repeated in flu x e s in to t h e i r midst.
De Groot holds a s im ila r view. Furthermore, he t r i e s to in t e r p r e t the term kongsi as a synonym f o r republicanism in Chinese:
"Already the term kongsi i t s e l f , o r, according to the Hakka d i a le c t , koeng-sji o r kwoeng-sze, ind ica te s p e rfe c t republicanism. I t means exa ctly a d m in is tra tio n (Si_) o f something which is o f c o lle c t iv e or common i n t e r e s t ( kong).
I t has, th e re fo re , also been used by large corporations and commercial firm s . But when used as the term f o r the p o l i t i c a l organisations in West Borneo, i t should be in te rp r e te d as
meaning an o rgan isation f o r governing the re p u b lic ,
o
or the res pub)i c q"
Elsewhere, in the Beknopte Encyclopaedie Van Nederlandsche O o s t-In d ie , the term is c le a r ly defined as government by a general p u b lic or a d m in is tr atio n o f a f f a i r s th a t belong to common in t e r e s t . ^ Of course, th a t is not a l l . Both the encyclopaedia and Veth have pointed out th a t kongsi i s , at the same time, a t i t l e used by a d m in istra to rs who were elected by ordinary
5 members in the kongsi.
As has been shown in the f i r s t s e c t io n o f t h e t h i r d chapter, the usage o f kongsi has been found in the ships o f the Cheng regime, as e a rly as 1683.
The term i t seems, re fe rre d to ship o f f ic e r s who shared cargoes among them selves, as d i s t i n c t from the Mu-shao, the s a ilo r s who again shared t h e ir s .
. . . ,
1. Temminck, Coup-doeil General sur les Possessions NeerlandaisA swr V Inde ArchipelagTque, Tome 2, (L e id e n .1847), p.167-174.
2. Veth, V o l.2 , p.305, 306. 3. De Groot, p . 138.
4. Beknopte Encyclopaedia Van Nederlandsche-Indid (Leiden, 1921), p.254. 5. Veth, Vol , 1, p.319.