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In your opinion, what could have prevented the Maria Hertogh riots in 1950? Give at least 2 suggestions.

The Maria Hertogh riots broke out over the custody battle of a 13-year-old girl, Maria Hertogh. This riot continued for three days and a curfew was imposed for two weeks, about 18 people were killed and 173 were injured during the riot.

During the Japanese Occupation, Maria's Dutch Catholic parents were imprisoned, thus she came under the care of Che Aminah and her husband. They brought her up as a Muslim and named her Nadra. In 1949, Maria's mother, Adeline Hertogh came to claim her daughter back and eventually, Maria's case was brought up to the High Court in Singapore.

In May 1950, the court ruled that Maria be returned to her natural parents. Che Aminah opposed the decision and sent an appeal. Two months later, the court returned Maria to Che Aminah.

Under Che Aminah's care, Maria went through a marriage ceremony with a Malay teacher at the age of 13. In November 1950, the battle for custody continued. The court ruled that Maria should be returned to her natural parents. However, the judge announced that the Dutch law did not recognise Maria's marriage as she was under-aged. This upset the Muslim community as they felt that the Muslim law was not respected.

Meanwhile, the court put Maria in the care of a Catholic convent in Thomson Road. Reporters and photographers were allowed to enter the convent to take pictures of Maria knelt in worship before the statue of Virgin Mary. This had inflamed the Muslim, as in their eyes, the worship of images of any kind is not acceptable.

On 11 December 1950, Che Aminah appealed again for the custody of Maria. Large crowds gathered outside the court at the Padang to know the verdict. Unfortunately, the judge rejected the appeal. The Muslim supporters of Che Aminah felt betrayed by what they saw the British taking sides with the Dutch, this caused a riot to start.

In my opinion, I felt that measures could be taken to prevent this riot. Initially, I felt that the court should not be so indecisive, to have Maria been returned to her parents then after 2 months returned to Che Aminah then once again returned back to her parents. This would have cause agony among the Muslim. If the court stand firm on their decision from the start, the riot might have been prevented.

Secondly, If the judge were more sensitive and sensible, they would know that Muslims, can worship no other than their God. Thus, they should do better than to put Maria in the care of a Catholic convent. By doing so, he angered the Muslim community and disrespected the Muslim law.

Thirdly, if troops of army and police forces were ordered to maintain the order outside the court beforehand or better even surround the Pandang court and forbid anyone to crowd near the court while the verdict was made, this would certainly reduce the chances of the riot from occurring.

In my conclusion, many precautions could have been taken to prevent the riot and thus, no injures, to both human and public, would have be done.