Djahat — Malay/Indonesian for “malicious one” or “resistance fighter” — was the term used by the colonial army in Aceh for the Acehnese resistance fighter: the man who, “like a wild animal pursued and hunted through the ‘blubber’ [mud] of the coastal regions and the inhospitable wildernesses of Atjeh’s hinterland, never gave up and fought to the utmost.” In Oost-Indisch Journael by Merac (1947), the djahat is the central figure of the Verzet in Lhong (Resistance in Lhong) and of the book’s argument about the paradise-death: the djahats “do not hope for victory either. They know in advance that they must lose, do not therefore shun the fight, but rather seek death. Their eye is not on the present, but on the hereafter.”
The djahat and the prang sabil
The djahat is the Acehnese resistance fighter of the prang sabil. “In those raw days of yore, much happened that one would seek in vain in the military regulations. This and that gave rise to a contest in cruelty. It happened, for example, that the corpse of a great band-leader — whom one had long pursued in vain before laying him low — was paraded by the whole troop: that is, each in his turn gave it a cut with the klewang. In reprisal, the enemy killed captured soldiers and forced labourers in a gruesome manner, or mutilated them.” In those raw days of yore, much happened that one would seek in vain in the military regulations. This and that gave rise to a contest in cruelty. It happened, for example, that the corpse of a great band-leader — whom one had long pursued in vain before laying him low — was paraded by the whole troop: that is, each in his turn gave it a cut with the klewang. In reprisal, the enemy killed captured soldiers and forced labourers in a gruesome manner, or mutilated them.
“But the Hollander in whom the blood of the Beggars — the Dutch revolt against Spain — still speaks, has always felt admiration for the courage and perseverance of the djahat, who, like a wild animal pursued and hunted through the ‘blubber’ of the coastal regions and the inhospitable wildernesses of Atjeh’s hinterland, never gave up and fought to the utmost, while knowing that no harm would come to him from the moment he voluntarily came to report himself.” But the Hollander in whom the spirit of the Dutch Revolt still speaks has always felt admiration for the courage and perseverance of the djahat, who, like a wild animal pursued and hunted through the mud of the coastal regions and the inhospitable wildernesses of Atjeh’s hinterland, never gave up and fought to the utmost, while knowing that no harm would come to him from the moment he voluntarily surrendered.
The djahat and the paradise-death
“Such djahats also do not hope for victory. They know in advance that they must lose, do not therefore shun the fight, but rather seek death. Their eye is not on the present, but on the hereafter.” Such djahats also do not hope for victory. They know in advance that they must lose, do not shun the fight, but rather seek death. Their eye is not on the present, but on the hereafter — the paradise-death that is the goal of the prang sabil.
The book’s argument — voiced by Musket — is that the colonial army, by killing the djahats in combat, had allowed them to achieve their goal: the paradise-death. “Especially for Atjeh this was true, because by [taking them alive] one would prevent the achieving of the goal that underlies all resistance on any scale: the paradise-death. Instead, the shameful imprisonment would await the resistance-perpetrators.” Especially for Atjeh this was true, because by taking them alive one would prevent the achieving of the goal that underlies all resistance on any scale: the paradise-death. Instead, shameful imprisonment would await the perpetrators. The djahat who was killed in combat achieved the paradise-death; the djahat who was taken alive suffered shameful imprisonment. The colonial army’s failure — in Musket’s argument — was to allow the djahat the paradise-death.
The djahat-partij (resistance party)
The djahat-partij — the resistance party — is the collective form of the djahat. In the Keumala incident at the elephant transport, the book notes that the attacker “belonged, further, also not to the so-called ‘djahatpartij’.” The djahatpartij is therefore the organised resistance: the djahat who attacked the elephant transport at Keumala was not a member of the organised resistance, but a djahat of the paradise-death — a man who sought death without the ordinary motives of the djahatpartij.
The djahat and the klewang fight
The djahat’s weapons are the klewang (the native sword) and the parang (the machete). In the Verzet in Lhong, the djahats “broke out with the bare weapon in the fist, and seven of the eight escaped in the half-confusion of the klewang fight.” In the Keumala incident, the attacker “heavily wounded and crawling, managed to deliver a parang-blow to the patrol commander, Sergeant Vogelensang, in his leg.” The djahat’s parang-blow — delivered while crawling, heavily wounded — is the book’s marker of the djahat’s fanaticism: the man who, even when struck down and heavily wounded, still delivered a parang-blow.
Significance
The djahat is significant in Oost-Indisch Journael as the central figure of the book’s Aceh content: the Acehnese resistance fighter of the prang sabil who sought the paradise-death. The book argues that the colonial army, by killing the djahats in combat, had allowed them to achieve their goal (the paradise-death), and that the colonial army had failed to use modern methods (tear-gas grenades) that would have taken the djahats alive and reduced them to shameful imprisonment. This is the book’s clearest example of the inter-war colonial critique of the old methods. The djahat thus serves as the book’s marker of the Acehnese resistance: the “malicious one” who was, in the Dutch imagination echoing the spirit of their own revolt against Spain, also an object of admiration for his courage and perseverance.
Account in du Croo’s Generaal Swart (1943)
At Lho’ Seumawè in 1908 H. N. A. Swart pointed out to the assembled oelèëbalangs that in various landschappen there were again djahats, whereupon one of the chiefs answered: “not only are there evildoers everywhere, but we ourselves are evildoers too!” Snouck Hurgronje’s prescription required that the Acehnese peasant be restrained by fear “from maintaining any relation whatever with the Acehnese evildoer.” By 1914 the attraction had gone: “the attraction of life as an evildoer in the jungle did not tempt the quiet farmer and no longer held anything alluring for him.”
See Also
- Musket
- Oost-Indisch Journael
- Verzet in Lhong
- Prang sabil
- Paradijs-dood
- Atjeh-moord
- Sloebers
- Klewanggevecht
- Keumala
- Vogelensang
- Atjeh-oorlog
- H. N. A. Swart
- General Swart, Pacifier of Atjeh (1943)
- Pacificatie van Atjeh
- Atjeh
Account from Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu
Term for rebels/evildoers who used the underground passages and caves in the randgebergte around the Laoet Tawar lake as hiding places in earlier times.
Source: J. Jongejans, Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu (Baarn: Hollandia Drukkerij N.V., c. 1938), pp. 76.
Source
Oost-Indisch Journael: Palaver om de tafel met het gat, by Merac, Toekan-Serie no. 2, ed. G. L. Tichelman (Haarlem: De Gulden Pers, 1947), chapter Sloebers and chapter Atjeh’s Transport-Olifanten.
Generaal Swart, Pacificator van Atjeh (“General Swart, Pacifier of Atjeh”), by M. H. du Croo, Colonel K.N.I.L. (retired), with the collaboration of H. J. Schmidt, Titular Colonel K.N.I.L. (retired), with a foreword by His Excellency Lieutenant-General K.N.I.L. (retired) G. K. Dijkstra (Maastricht: N.V. Leiter-Nypels, 1943), Chapter III, IX, XI, XII.
Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu, by J. Jongejans, Oud-Resident van het Gewest Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden, with a foreword by Dr. H. Colijn (Baarn: Hollandia Drukkerij N.V., c. 1938), pp. 76.