Stories from Deli

Szekely, 1920s

There  is a great difference between one worker and   another.   The    contract   coolie,  the   so-called orang kontrak,   who  is  imported   from   China   or Java, hires himself  out for years at a stretch, receives an advance, draws a cross under a piece of  paper and, from then on, ceases to be a free man. He  is now an orang kontrak, a  despised,  excommunicated  pariah. He  has no freewill now and may not leave the planta­ tion  for  a  single  second.  In  the  morning,  when  the tom-tom  sounds,  he  must  get  up,  must  go to  work, must  take  quinine,  castor  oil,  oleum  chinopodium; from morning till night there is nothing for  him but “must.”  If  that  does  not  suit  him,  he  can  be  compelled. That’s what  the tjentengs  are there for.

But with  the free  coolies  enrolled  in Sumatra  the case  is  different.  Such  a  coolie  is  a  free  man,  orang preman,  he  does  occasional  work.  If it  does not suit him, he can clear out; he cannot be compelled to work.

From Tropical fever by Ladislao Szekely