The haq radja taléë (Atjehnese, “the right of the radja of the rope”; taléë, Malay tali, “rope, cord”) was the small tariffed recognition payable in Atjeh by a clearer of waste land to the oeléëbalang in return for the grant (gunt) of the parcel he wished to open. Its name derived from the fact that the radja measured out, or caused to be measured out, the land to the clearer with a rope.
Nature and rationale
The payment, according to D. W. N. de Boer, served as compensation for the trouble and the costs of the radja and of the surveyor he sent; and this manner of issuing land brought the occupant the advantage of a registratie-in-memorie — an entry in the memory or informal register of the radja or his wakil (deputy). It was thus at once a fee, a survey charge, and a rudimentary act of registration of title.
Time of payment
From economic considerations the radja taléë was not always demanded in advance; it was rather customary that it should first be paid after the first harvest. The oeléëbalang did not wish to make the initial costs of clearance heavier than necessary, for fear that the application for clearance might be abandoned. That, De Boer observed, would mean loss — for “de Atjeher denkt wel aan den dag van morgen” (the Atjehnese does think of tomorrow) — namely the forfeiture of the emoluments that would fall to him yearly once the settler was permanently established.
This consideration had been of particular importance in the period when all oeléëbalangs, as sovereigns, also levied taxes: the boeët oemòng within the gampong boundaries, and the adat glé outside them.
Payment to the oeleebalang, not the village
That the radja taléë was paid to the oeléëbalang and not to the village head or another chief subordinate to him — the imeum, for example — was, in De Boer’s argument, further proof of the concentration of power in the landschap head. He supported this with De Atjehers, Vol. I, p. 91 ff.: “De oeleëbalangs zijn de heeren des lands, de territoriale hoofden bij uitnemendheid; zij worden dan ook in de boeken, zoowel als in de gesproken taal de radja’s van hun gebied genoemd” — the oeléëbalangs are the lords of the land, the territorial chiefs par excellence; they are accordingly called, in the books as in the spoken language, the radja’s of their territory.
Continued exaction under exemptions
Even where an oeléëbalang granted a newcomer exemption from the haq thiplah-tano obligation for the first three years, in order to promote immigration into the toenong or glé — the upper districts or highlands of his territory — the radja taléë was nevertheless collected on the occasion of the first harvest.
Measurement and boundary evidence
In the self-governing territories it was normally known to the radja or his representative, through the measuring-out of the land under the haq radja taléë and otherwise in connection with the former boeët oemòng or adat glé levies and the still-current wathé collection, whether land applied for by an immigrant or other clearer still had an owner, or had at least recently been someone’s property.
See Also
- Beschikkingsrecht in Atjeh
- Oeleebalang
- Thiplah tano
- Boeët oemòng
- Adat glé
- Milik
- Het recht op den grond in Atjeh (De Boer)
Source
Het recht op den grond in Atjeh, by D. W. N. de Boer, dated Scheveningen, November 1931, pp. 59-80. Offprint DLP-141, Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, ‘s-Gravenhage; Bibliotheek KITLV accession 0060 4460 60 081470 428.