The Maria Hertogh Saga....Final Part 8, Pulitzer Prize Winner James A Michener wrote about Mansor Adabi

Tribute : JAMES A MICHENER ( Source: Wikipedia )
On the evening of September 14, 1998, the Raffles Hotel in Singapore named one of their suites after the illustrious author, in memory of his patronage and passion for the hotel. Michener first stayed at the Singapore hotel just after World War II in 1949, and in an interview a decade before his death he said it was a luxury for him, a young man, to stay at the Raffles Hotel back then, and had the time of his life. It was officially christened by Steven Green, then Ambassador of United States to Singapore, who noted the writer's penchant of describing 'faraway places with strange-sounding names' to his American book readers. His last stay was in 1985 when he came to Singapore for the launch of the book Salute to Singapore, for which he wrote the foreword. He was so fond of his last stay in Raffles that he took the hotel room key home with him as a souvenir. The suite contains a selection of Michener's works, like Caribbean, The Drifters and Hawaii, as well as two photographic portraits of the author taken at the hotel and in Chinatown in 1985. After his death, the Michener estate corresponded with the hotel management to return the room key, and from there the idea to name the hotel room after him, came into fruition. The souvenir key was duly returned to the hotel, and now on display in the Raffles Hotel Museum
James A. Michener Art Museum

James Michener was one of the literary great of American literature. At the age of 40, and with his first book, "Tales of the South Pacific", he was awarded the 1948 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. He was a roving reporter covering many parts of Asia, the Pacific and the world. He was also a prolific writer having written more than 40 books.
He died at the age of 90 and was greatly honoured for all his achievements, accomplishments and great charity. He has been featured on USA stamps too.

The reason why I chose to highlight him here in this final Mansor Adabi and Maria Hertogh saga story is because few people anywhere would know about this fact today...... James Michener actually came to Singapore in 1950 to look for Mansor Adabi whom he wish to interview for his published column " Tales of South Asia " in the Milwaukee Journal ( a daily newspaper ).
When Michener asked around, in December 1950, just after the riots had passed and things have quietened down, he was advised, probably by those in the know...not to pursue or locate Mansor Adabi. His detractors felt the subject was perhaps too sensitive to touch on in the open.
Obviously, the great man felt otherwise.
He did locate Mansor Adabi and conducted a face to face interview with him about the whole saga.
In his most intriguing report Michener said, " Mansor Adabi was one of the most provocative and yet winning persons I was to meet in Asia" ( 1950 interview ).

Visitors of my blog can click on the link below to read the FULL story at the Milwaukee Journal of May 2 1951. This is a live, free digital online journal and you can enlarge the text, scroll up and down, turn pages, zoom in or out etc.
The Heading of the story : "Tells of Thwarted Love that led to Fatal Riots ".


http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1499&dat=19510502&id=sAMaAAAAIBAJ&sjid=iyMEAAAAIBAJ&pg=4945,292817

Mansor Adabi and Maria (Nadrah)...part3

During the months before the scheduled Court Hearing on 20 November 1950, Maria was mostly kept away in seclusion, away from the gathering storm clouds outside. News of this dramatic case had circulated worldwide. The media coverage was on a global scale with several countries pledging financial and moral support for those on Mansor and Aminah's side. They saw the saga as part of the historical struggle between the Christian and Muslim world. In fact, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and others declared that, " any further move by the Dutch Government to separate the couple will be regarded as an open challenge to the Muslim world."


The Court Hearing - 20 November 1950
Again, a large crowd had formed outside the courthouse. The session was presided by Justice Brown ( I think he was the Chief Justice T.A. Brown ). Justice Brown had to consider 2 major points of contention:-
1. Was there a proper and legal adoption in the case of Maria ?

2. Was the purported marriage acceptable under the law?

Maria's natural mother Adeline Hertogh flew over from the Netherlands to attend the hearing. All the parties were present including Mansor Adabi, Che Aminah and Maria herself...and their counsels.
Under Dutch laws, the minimum age for a girl for marriage was 16 years.
However, our colonial English law in Singapore then recognised the marriage laws of the subjects' country of domicile. So, Maria being still a 13 year old minor of Dutch citizenship was under Dutch laws.
In the case of Mansor Adabi, an exception to the above could not be made out because Mansor was born in Kelantan and whether he was domiciled in Singapore could not be established. As for Maria the Court could not consider her a Muslim by law, since she was still a minor and therefore her father who had the legal right over her, had the same right to control her religion.
Her father, who was a Roman Catholic, had stated that he would never have allowed her to convert to Islam.

The Court Verdict
1. The short-lived marriage was overruled.
2. The Court awarded custody of Maria to the Hertoghs. Maria was ordered to be returned to
her natural parents with immediate effect.

Below....from the pages of Wikipedia...a detailed account describing the scene from the Court verdict of 20 November 1950 to early December 1950, before the Final Hearing and the riots.

Stay at the convent ( source: Wikipedia )
When policewomen came to take Maria away, she wept and clung to Aminah and Mansoor. Aminah fainted on the spot and a doctor standing by had to attend to her. Mansoor advised Maria to concede for the time being and promised that he and others would carry on the legal fight. Thus Maria allowed herself to be brought away into a car. Outside, the

police, including a Gurkha contingent,

held back a crowd of several hundred.

The car delivered Maria to the Roman Catholic Convent of the Good Shepherd in Thomson Road. Mrs. Hertogh stayed at another address for a few days, from where she visited Maria daily, before moving in to the convent herself. According to an official of the Netherlands Consulate-General, such arrangement was because of "greater convenience" while the stay of execution pending appeal was in effect. But it proved to be the falsest step, the spark that lit the fuse of the subsequent riots.
First and foremost, the press was not barred from entering the convent grounds. Nor were they

restricted in any way in their approach to the incident, which had been nothing shy of sensational. On 5 December, the Singapore Standard published on its front page a photograph of

Maria standing holding hands with the Reverend Mother. There were several more pictures on

page 2, under the headline: Bertha knelt before Virgin Mary Statue. The Malay press retorted.

The Utusan Melayu published on 7 December three photographs of Maria weeping and being comforted by a nun, as well as articles about Maria's "lonely and miserable" life in the convent.
These pictures, whether presenting Maria as happy or sad, mostly showed Maria surrounded by symbols of Christian faith. The Muslims, who looked upon Maria as one of their own, were deeply offended by such pictures, not to mention the sensational reports, some of which explicitly labelled the case as a religious issue between Islam and Christianity.
On 9 December, an organization calling itself the Nadra Action Committee was formally constituted under the leadership of Karim Ghani, a Muslim political activist from Rangoon.

This extreme organization solicited support among local Muslims by distributing free copies of its newspaper, the Dawn (not the Dawn, an English paper published in Pakistan). Karim Ghani had also made an open speech at the Sultan Mosque on 8 December in which he mentioned jihad as a final resort.
In the light of these potent signs of a great disturbance, the Criminal Investigation Department

sent a memo to the Colonial Secretary suggesting moving Maria back to York Hill to avoid further inciting Muslim anger. The Secretary did not agree on grounds that he had received no such representations from Muslim leaders, nor did he have the authority to remove Maria without further court orders - weak excuses since Maria could be relocated with her mother's consent. Nonetheless, it cannot be said definitively that moving Maria out of the convent at such a late stage could have averted the riots.

There were even more widespread reports in regional and newspapers around the world after the VERDICT was delivered.

Activists and nationalists in Singapore, Malaya and Burma took advantage of the situation in the hope of further weakening the colonial government as they were also fighting for independence for their respective countries.

The FINAL Hearing of the Court to consider the legal appeal by Mansor Adabi and Che Aminah's side was scheduled for December 11 1950.

It was to be a day Singaporeans and Singapore would never forget!

Mansor Adabi and Maria Hertogh (Nadrah)..part 2

For those who are keen on the nitty-gritty details of the Maria Hertogh saga and all the relevant reports, just check them out on the internet. There are countless websites and other links to occupy one for a very long time.
However what I am doing in these posts is providing a recapitulation of the main threads of this enduring story about Mansor Adabi and Maria ( Nadrah) and Che Aminah. Much later, what happened in the aftermath of the wedding, the hearings in November and December 1950, the riots and the ensuing years.

Dramatic turn of events
Mansor and Maria (Nadrah) were married on August 1 1950 as seen in this photo which included Aminah.
After the wedding, Maria returned to stay with Aminah and slightly later, was under the guardianship of the President of Muslim Association ...M.A. Majeed. The marriage was never consummated.

There were some perceptions that the wedding was a manoevre by Che Aminah to prevent the return of Maria to her natural parents...who had served legal notice to return their daughter by August 10.
When the deadline passed with no sign of Aminah or Mansor yielding an inch, the Hertoghs went to court again on 26 August and took out an original summons under the
"Guardianship of Infants Ordinance".
You will recall that Maria was then only 13 years of age...when she married Mansor Adabi. Under European laws this was not legally acceptable. But they were not married under European or even British laws ( Singapore was a British crown colony then)...but under Muslim customs which permitted marriage if the muslim girl had reached puberty by then( as was the case with Maria).
Meanwhile the Hertoghs argued that they were the legal and biological parents of Maria, their daughter, and they would never have given their permission either for her to be converted to the Muslim religion or to be married off at 13.

The first challenge to the 'appropriateness' of the marriage actually came from within the Muslim community itself. On August 10, a Muslim leader wrote to the Straits Times voicing some concerns about the marrying age of such a young girl.
However, he concluded that Muslims would have no objections to such a marriage per se.

The photos showed the scene on May 17 1950 after the High Court ruled that Maria must be returned to her natural parents pending an appeal and a stay of execution for 2 months.

Before the High Court ruling, Maria had made it very clear that she wanted to stay with Aminah and did not wish to be returned to her natural parents.
As Maria and Aminah exited the courthouse via the backdoor, a car from the consulate was waiting to take Maria away. Maria refused to enter the car and clung to Aminah...both shouting in Malay that they would rather kill themselves than be separated. A large crowd had formed outside the court.
It was only after much persuasion that the duo parted in tears and Maria was transported to the Girls Homecraft Centre at York Hill.

Next,the court hearing of 20 November 1950 to deliver its verdict about Maria's custody.
So from August, for nearly 4 months, the whole saga hung in deep suspense.
Tensions were starting to boil and they would explode and culminate in one of the darkest chapters of our history.

Al Mansor Adabi and Maria Hertogh aka Nadrah

In my previous post on meeting up with BP's grandson and Mansor Adabi, I posed a question..."who was Mansor Adabi and what significant role did he play in one unforgettable chapter of Singapore's history?". Click HERE to read that post.

Al Mansor Adabi was the one-time husband of Maria Hertogh whom he married on 1st August 1950 in Singapore. He was then 22 years old and she was only 13. Maria, born near Bandung, Java of Dutch parents in 1937, was separated from her family during the Japanese occupation. She was brought up as a Muslim girl in Kemaman, Trengganu by her foster mother Che Aminah, a friend of her Dutch parents. Her new name was Nadrah Maarof.
After the war ended, her biological parents went in search of her, hoping to reunite the family. She was eventually traced to a malay kampong in Kemaman.
In early 1950, Che Aminah was persuaded to bring Maria to Singapore where legal representations had been made for the girl to be returned to her natural parents.
Photo: Maria Hertogh alias Nadrah 1950

On 17 May 1950, the High Court ruled that Maria must be returned to her Dutch parents. Che Aminah's side lodged an appeal and the court ordered a stay of execution pending the outcome for a period of 2 months. Maria was taken to the Social Welfare quarters of York Hill for temporary safekeeping. It was here that Al Mansor Adabi, a young school teacher then, first met Maria in person. He was engaged to tutor her in English as Maria only spoke Malay, Javanese and a little Chinese but no Dutch. It was "love at first sight" according to the young Mansor. He proposed, she accepted and the very public marriage was held on August 1 1950.

Photo credit: Fatini Yaacob
[Fatini Yaacob is the author of a new book about Nadrah and her touching life story. She's based in Malaysia.]

This photo became the most famous wedding picture from 1950 onwards. It showed a clearly young Mansor and even younger Nadrah dressed in traditional Muslim wedding attire on their wedding day.

The appeal by Che Aminah against the earlier court ruling was heard on 28 July 1950. There was good news and incredible joy for both Aminah and Maria. The court overturned the earlier ruling on "technical" grounds and custody returned to the status quo. In response, lawyers for her natural parents served a legal writ on all three ...Aminah, Mansor ( her husband ) and Maria herself that she had to be returned by August 10 or else....

They ignored the deadline. The High Court fixed the next hearing for November 20. During this period, Maria stayed with the President of the Muslim Welfare Association, M. A. Majid.
Photo: Unk Dicko's archives

The late Al Mansor Adabi in a blue long sleeved batik shirt, 3rd from right. This 1988 photo was the last picture that I had with him.
It was in that same year on 15 October that our dear, dear Mansor passed away rather suddenly of a heart attack. He was 60. If he had lived, he would be 82 today.
Read the actual 1988 Straits Times Report on his death HERE.
More to come....