The Maréchaussée-vocabulaire was the set of Acehnese titles which the Korps Maréchaussée adopted from its Acehnese opponents and applied to its own ranks — a usage recorded by W. J. Mosselman in the 1930 jubilee number as evidence of how completely the corps had taken the enemy as its model.
The equivalences
Mosselman wrote that “ons model is de dappere en in dien krijg volleerde vijand geweest en in ons onderling vocabulaire hadden wij zelfs zijn eigen titels overgenomen” — our model has been the brave enemy, fully accomplished in that warfare, and in our mutual vocabulary we had even taken over his own titles. The equivalences were:
- Oeleuhbalang — the officers
- Toekoe — the European non-commissioned officers
- Panglima — the indigenous sergeants
- Keutjih — the corporals
- Kawan — the maréchaussées themselves
- Toeangkoe — the divisiecommandant
The chain of command expressed in these terms
One Toeangkoe or division commander had under him three Oeleuhbalangs; each Oeleuhbalang four Toekoes; and each Toekoe disposed of one Panglima, one Keutjih and seventeen Kawans.
Other terms of the corps
Mosselman’s memoir and the editorial matter of the jubilee number preserve further corps usages: bloedvingers for the collar trimming of the uniform; djahat (evil-doer) for an armed opponent; patrouille for the operating party; colonnezak for the men’s pooled spending money; and Manisé for the corps song. Mosselman also spoke of the corps having its own adat — a customary law and manner of housekeeping which outsiders, notably officers and cadre of the infantry corps, did not understand, and interference with which “als regel tot min of meer ernstige botsingen aanleiding gaf” — as a rule gave rise to more or less serious collisions.
Significance
The borrowing is a compact illustration of the corps’s method. Raised to fight a guerrilla war “met zijn eigen tactiek” — with the enemy’s own tactics — and required at its foundation to make itself acquainted with “taal en adat” (language and customary law) of the country in order to win confidence and obtain reliable intelligence, the Maréchaussée assimilated the terminology of Acehnese territorial authority into its own internal order.
See Also
- Korps Maréchaussée te voet in Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden
- W. J. Mosselman
- Brigade (Maréchaussée)
- Divisie (Maréchaussée)
- Oeleebalang
- Adat
Source
Het Korps Maréchaussée in Atjeh: De Atjehsche Garde, 1890 - 2 April 1930, Extra Jubileum-nummer of Het Nieuws van den Dag voor Nederlandsch-Indië issued for the fortieth anniversary of the corps (1930), pp. 1-16. Offprint DLP-143, Bibliotheek KITLV, accession 621 116 794.