Named in memory of the great Dutch writer Multatuli (“I have suffered much”, pseudonym of Eduard Douwes Dekker, 1820-1887). In 1838 he went to the Dutch East Indies, where he held a number of governmental posts. In 1856 he resigned as assistant commissioner of Lebak, Java, because he was not supported by the government in his struggle to protect the Javanese from exploitation by their own chiefs. Back in Europe, he soon became internationally known with his novel Max Havelaar (1860), which enabled him to plead for justice in Java and to satirize the Dutch middle-class mentality. Name proposed by the discoverer, endorsed by C.-~F. Merks and J. Meeus.