page_title: Hok Hoei Kan
section_title: Political career
hierarchical_section_title: Hok Hoei Kan / Political career
caption_attribution_description: Nederlands: Repronegatief. Opening van de Volksraad door gouverneur-generaal Van Limburg Stirum op 18 mei 1918 op Java.
context_page_description: Kan Hok Hoei Sia, generally known as Hok Hoei Kan or in short H. H. Kan, was a prominent public figure, statesman and patrician landowner of Peranakan Chinese descent in the Dutch East Indies.
  He was the founding president of Chung Hwa Hui, a centre-right Chinese-Indonesian political party, and sat as its leading parliamentary representative in the Volksraad. He advocated cooperation with the Dutch colonial state in order to attain racial and legal equality for the colony's Chinese community, but — even in the colonial era — was criticised for his pro-Dutch sentiments and perceived elite indifference to poorer Indonesians.
context_section_description: His political career began in the Municipal Council of Batavia and a number of Chinese chambers of commerce (Siang Hwee). When the Volksraad, Indonesia's first legislature, was convened by the Governor-General for the first time, Kan accepted appointment to the newly founded legislative body in 1918. He did so despite widespread opposition to the colonial parliament from many Chinese and indigenous subjects of the Dutch East Indies, many of whom refused to cooperate with the colonial government and campaigned for outright independence. Kan remained a member of the Volksraad until its dissolution by the Japanese, who invaded the colony in 1942 during the Second World War.
  In 1928, Kan presided — as founding President — over the formation of Chung Hwa Hui (CHH), a political association that attracted the support of mainly Dutch-educated ethnic Chinese. Together with the likes of his distant cousin, Han Tiauw Tjong, and Loa Sek Hie, who were both on the Executive Committee of CHH, Kan pleaded for legal equality of the Chinese with Europeans under Indies law. Kan also opposed some of the legal disabilities that had been imposed on the Chinese of the colony, such as limitations on ownership of agricultural land and excessive taxation. Nonetheless, CHH was dubbed the 'Packard club' by the colonial press for the expensive cars used by the party's leadership, and was criticised as too elitist and removed from the day-to-day concerns of other Chinese-Indonesians. 
  Kan's relationship with Indonesian nationalists was also ambiguous. In 1927, Kan voted against expanding the franchise for elections to the Volksraad as he feared domination of the legislature by indigenous Indonesians. His pro-Dutch attitude even drew the criticism of Phoa Liong Gie, a leader of CHH's more liberal and pro-nationalist younger faction. Following an open conflict over Kan's apparent dominance of CHH, Phoa resigned from the party and sat as an independent in the Volksraad when eventually appointed to it in 1939. Notwithstanding supposed pro-Dutch sympathies, Kan supported the ill-fated Soetardjo Petition in 1936, which requested Indonesian Independence within ten years as part of a Dutch commonwealth.
  In 1932, representing Chinese-Indonesian private enterprises, Kan went on a tour of China, and became close to the Chinese Consul-General to the Dutch East Indies. In 1934, the colony's Chinese chambers of commerce federated, and offered the Consul-General the position of honorary president, and Kan that of inaugural president. This drew the ire of the then Governor-General due the federated group's perceived closeness to the Republic of China, a foreign power, leading to Kan's resignation of his presidency of the chamber. In 1935, Kan went to the Netherlands to promote better relations between the Chinese-Indonesian community and the Dutch authorities. 
  Kan was made an Officer of the Order of Orange-Nassau in 1921, and a Knight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion in 1930 in recognition of his service to the Dutch Crown.
caption: A session of the Volksraad.
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