Editing Multatuli (section)

=== Natal, Sumatra ===
[[File:Stamboek van Oost-Indische ambtenaren- Inschrijving van Eduard Douwes Dekker (Multatuli), 1839-1887 - Register of East-Indies officials- Entry for Eduard Douwes Dekker (Multatuli), 1839-1887 (4600959516).jpg|thumb|Register of Dutch East Indian officials: Registration of Eduard Douwes Dekker (Multatuli), 1839–1887]]
[[File:Natal clinique 1.jpg|thumb|The hospital of [[Natal, North Sumatra]], formerly the office and residence of Multatuli as ''[[comptroller|controleur]]'']]
In 1838, he left on one of his father's ships for [[Batavia, Dutch East Indies|Batavia]] (present-day [[Jakarta]]) in the [[Dutch East Indies]], where over the next two decades he held a series of colonial government posts.<ref name="Britannica"/><ref name=Memory1/><ref name=MM-Y/> Initially employed in the general accounting department,<ref name=MM-Y/> he was promoted in the following years to administrative officer, although he disliked financial work.<ref name=MM-Y/>

In 1842, he was appointed comptroller<!--"Controleur", redlinked in Dutch Wiki--> of the troubled district of [[Natal, North Sumatra|Natal]], [[North Sumatra|Noord Sumatra]], [[Dutch East Indies]] (now part of [[Indonesia]]).<ref name=MM-DEI/>

In 1843 a 13-year-old girl, Si Oepi Ketch, a member of a Sumatran noble family, was offered to Douwes Dekker. Douwes Dekker later described her as "one of my first loves". A lock of hair, which Douwes Dekker kept with him all his life, is still kept at the Multatuli Museum. Back then it was very common to match young native women with single Dutch civil servants.<ref>''De nieuwe koloniale leeslijst'', Saskia Pieterse & Lisanne Snelders, blz. 35, Das Mag, De groene Amsterdammer, Amsterdam 2021</ref><ref>DBNL [https://www.dbnl.org/tekst/_med003mede01_01/_med003mede01_01_0187.php  biographical details Eduard Douwes Dekker]</ref>

Financial irregularities and a deficit in funds – at least some of which dated to before his time in office – led to a serious reprimand from the governor of [[Sumatra]]'s west coastal region, [[General]] [[Andreas Victor Michiels]], and to a temporary suspension.<ref name=MM-DEI/> Aggrieved, he wrote a revenge play ''De Oneerbare'' (The Dishonorable Man), later published as ''De bruid daarboven'' (The Upstairs Bride). He would later include a version of this episode in his satirical novel ''[[Max Havelaar]]''.

Although the general was later shown to have been in the wrong in the matter of the reprimand, Douwes Dekker himself acknowledged that he was not well suited to administrative work.<ref name=MM-DEI/> He annoyed his colleagues not solely by his errors and delays but by not adhering to the unwritten rules of the local civil service. Eventually, after refunding the deficit out of his own pocket, he was put on temporary leave and then transferred elsewhere.<ref name=MM-DEI/>