Lebak Regency

Lebak Regency is a regency of Banten province, Indonesia. It has an area of 3,044.72 km² of 19 districts and 320 villages and an official intercensal estimated population of 1,219,033 in 2007^[1] Rangkasbitung is the capital of the regency. Pandeglang Regency lies to the west, Serang Regency to the north, Tangerang Regency to the north-east, and Bogor Regency and Sukabumi Regency of West Java to the east.

The regency is subdivided into 28 subdistricts.

The Lebak Regency is the Regency where Eduard Douwes Dekker (Multatuli) was appointed in 1856 assistant resident. Douwes Dekker observed that the local regent exploited the local population and requested his removeal. He made a few mistakes in this. He bypassed his direct chief and overlooked the size of abuse by the regent. The regent being of local nobility but paid the colonial government was regularly in poor circumstances having to keep up with demands of patronage for his large family, according to the adat, the traditional law. Bad practices were known and condoned to a certain extent by the colonial administration. Governmental research that same year showed however more serious abuse by the lesser local officials. The Governor-General disapproved of Dekkers tactless conduct and ordered his replacement, which Dekker refused. He resigned after three months of duty in Labak. Home he published four years later 'Max Havelaar, or the Coffee Auctions of the Dutch Trading Company', a pamphlet-novel, which had great influence on later administrators,less by force of analysis than by the vigour of its language, setting a new standard for Dutch literature.

References

Rob Nieuwenhuys, Oost-Indische Spiegel, Amsterdam, 1978. Rob Nieuwenhuys, De mythe van Lebak, Amsterdam,1987.

External links

• Official Site