[1] In executing these responsibilities, the Kong Koan had its own administrative staff, headed by the First Secretary or Toa Tju, and at the height of its power also had its own police force.
[1] Among the Chinese Councils of colonial Indonesia, the Kong Koan of Batavia was — in the words of Mary Somers Heidhues — "primus inter pares, first founded, longest serving and most powerful".
[2] This led in 1742 to the reconstitution of the capital's informal Chinese community organisation as the Kong Koan of Batavia, an official government body within the Dutch colonial bureaucracy.
[2][4] The High Government (Hoge Regering) provided the newly recognised council with its first Kong Tong or tribunal at Jalan Tiang Bendera in Batavia's Old Town.
[1] In 1809, Tan Peeng Ko, Kapitein der Chinezen of Batavia set up a subsidiary office on the southern side of the city, closer to Glodok, the Chinese quarter, to simplify the implementation of the council's day-to-day activities.