Other attributes of the Dutch-their "cleanliness" and their "disciplineHwere
called upon in ways that could similarly convey multiple meanings. People's
memories often seemed to gel around these catchwords, perhaps because
of the semantic density built into them. Ibu Rubi, for example, made Dutch
"cleanliness" the leitmotif of her account. She had worked in the 1930s and early
1940s for both Dutch and Indo employers, for Ambonese soldiers in the Dutch
army, and, both before and after Independence, for Chinese-Indone~ians."S~h e
said of working in a Dutch home, "everything was clean and healthy, [one had]
a strong body. I lucked out."94 But this apparent endorsement became less selfevident
as her repeated statement that the Dutch were "clean" accumulated
weight through her interviews, transforming a seemingly straightforward assessment
into something else