This review article assesses Hans van der Jagt’s biography of the Dutch anti-revolutionary politician and colonial official Alexander Willem Frederik Idenburg (Engelen uit Europa, 2022). Van der Jagt incorrectly depicts Idenburg as the figurehead of the Dutch colonial ethical policy at the beginning of the early twentieth century, while unduly idealising this policy. As is argued in this review article, this ethical policy was in effect instrumentalised as camouflage, concealing the perpetuation of the colonial intent – enforcement of Dutch rule, including extensive exploitation of land and people. Deriving from social concern about the impoverishment of the Indonesian population, the vast wealth amassed was intended to reduce the cost of the colony and help empower its inhabitants. Although this political mission was not realised, persistently referring to it served to justify ongoing Dutch rule both in the late colonial and in the post-colonial eras. In this article, I bring the disenchanting practices of the parties involved and their interests in sharper focus and I evaluate the role of Idenburg as the political centrepiece of this ethical policy. In the high-ranking colonial offices entrusted to him, he represented the anti-revolutionary doctrine in the policy pursued. Other operators, advocates and opponents of ethical policy alike, along with their motives, are addressed here as well, from the slow, cautious start of the ethical policy until its early eclipse.