The official investigation fixated on logistics rather than the protest’s political grievances

Evidence

By order of the newly convened Indies’ Supreme Court, on 29 May Rochussen instead ordered Van Rees to provide “a detailed account of what happened on 22 May,” to mount an investigation, and to report as quickly as possible on four questions: (l) By what means and by whom were the so called Inlandsche kinderen informed about taking part in the assembly? (2) Is it true that many of those who came were armed with daggers and sticks and that the latter were sold to them by Chinese? (3) Who took care of the arrangement of the Hall and who paid the expenses for the lighting? (4) Is it true that wanton violence against the Indies Advisory Council member, J. C. Reijnst, was carried out on that day and by whom? — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 489

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: The official investigation’s deflection from substance to trivia parallels the modesty-panics article’s point about how moral/administrative framing displaces actual concerns.