Why didn't the Dutch build windmills in its former colonies?

The windmills were built in the Netherlands to mostly assist in the drainage of large areas of low lying easily floodable land. I'm not sure that was a factor in the hillier Indonesia where they were mostly interested in trading spices.

First you have to understand the area. Along the coast of the Netherlands there is a prevailing breeze off of the North Sea day in and day out. It only changes once in while when there is drastic weather change like a major storm. Beyond that it always returns to the prevailing breeze off the North Sea. Second the windmills were put in to pump the water out of the low lying areas along the coast, to create more land for agriculture. Over a quarter of the Netherlands is literally below sea level. Finally in Indonesia there is no need to pump water out of a low lying area, its all well above sea level, and it rains 60 inches a year so they don't need to pump water out of the ground. So why put up windmills?

The two main functions of windmills are to pump water and to grind grain. Neither reason really existed in the Dutch East Indies, which had a different kind of agriculture, but there were windmills in New Amsterdam.

There were two windmills on the Onrust Island, a small island with a fortress and shipbuilding facilities in the Jakarta Bay. Both windmills were used for woodcutting. Captain Cook on his voyage to the South Pacific mentions these windmills in his ship diary and also Francois Valentijn, a Dutch pastor and historian in his book about Java, published in 1726. The Onrust Island was considered the perfect shipbuilding and ship repair facility in the whole Southern hemisphere.

You build for a reason. The ubiquitous Dutch Windmill was for grinding grain and pumping water out to drains.

Indonesia grows produce that rarely requires milling, wheat must be milled but rice does not.

Mills were also built to provide industrial power - by the time industrialisation reached Indonesia the power systems were steam.

It a case of understanding why the Dutch built windmills in the first instance.

Most were built to pump water from the dykes and polders and were part of

a land drainage scheme.

Very few were actual flour mills such as those in England.

Why should they ? Those in the Nerherlands anot actually "mills, but water-pumps, draining land which is below ses-level.