Cabang Atas

[1][2] Their institutional control of the Chinese officership declined with the colonial Ethical Policy of the early twentieth century, but their political, economic and social influence lasted until the Indonesian revolution (1945-1950).

[7] The oldest families of the Cabang Atas traced their roots in Indonesia back to early Chinese allies and compradores of the Dutch East India Company, in a period that lasted until the latter's bankruptcy in 1799.

[7] In addition, most families of the Cabang Atas owned particuliere landerijen or private domains in the Ommelanden (rural hinterland) of Batavia (now Jakarta); or appanage leaseholds in the Javanese princely states.

[8][11] The economic foundation of the Cabang Atas, as pointed out by the American historian James R. Rush, was their monopolistic control of the colonial government's pachten (revenue or tax farms), in particular the highly lucrative opium pacht.

[2] Menghong Chen highlights, however, that among some more established Cabang Atas families, commercial activities as represented by the revenue farms were looked down upon, hence a gradual shift towards landownership and agriculture.

[9] In the early twentieth century, in keeping with their so-called 'Ethical Policy', the Dutch colonial authorities made a concerted effort to appoint government officials, including Chinese officers, based on merit rather than family background.

[17] Another important organization was the charity foundation Ati Soetji, headed for many decades by the women's rights activist Aw Tjoei Lan, better known as Njonja Kapitein Lie Tjian Tjoen, who as the wife, daughter and daughter-in-law of Chinese officers came from the ranks of the Cabang Atas.

[19] CHH's chairman was none other than Majoor Han Tjiong Khing's distant cousin, the Dutch-educated landlord H. H. Kan, a doyen of the Cabang Atas and landowning gentry of Batavia.

CHH representatives in Indonesia's first legislature, the Volksraad, were largely scions of the Cabang Atas: presided by Kan, they included Jo Heng Kam, Lieutenant der Chinezen, Loa Sek Hie and Han Tiauw Tjong.