Oeléebalang

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tagsconcept, institution, achehnese, title, administration, government, oeléebalang, landschap, adat, colonial, sagi, moekim, hacil, pangkai
aliasesOeléebalang

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The Oeléebalang — also written oelébalang, ulébalang — was the territorial chief of an Atjehnese landschap, the principal political institution of pre-colonial and early colonial Atjeh. The oeléebalang was at once the ruler, the judge and the military commander of his landschap; in Broersma’s phrase, ‘wie hen heeft, het volk heeft’ — who has them, has the people. The institution is the principal political fact with which the Dutch colonial government had to deal in the post-pacification period.

Etymology and Origin

The word is composed of oelèë (or uléë), meaning head, and balang, meaning army; the oeléebalang is thus literally the head of the army. The title oeléebalang tjoet — tjoet meaning small — designates the sub-chief of a moekim or other subdivision of a landschap. The oeléebalangs were of old the military commanders of their landschappen and were at the same time the administrators and judges over their people. The title tjhi — short for keutihi — was added to the personal name, as in Teukoe Tjhi Perlak or Teukoe Tjhi Peusangan.

The Oeléebalang and the Sultan

The oeléebalangs of the regions outside Groot-Atjeh acknowledged the sultan of Atjeh as their common over-lord, but without tangible rights on his part. The oeléebalang was, in his own landschap, an autocrat who would, if necessary, accept a letter of recognition from the sultan in Groot-Atjeh, but who otherwise governed his land according to his own insight. The political history of the regions outside Groot-Atjeh in the centuries after the Atjehnese expansion is the history of the gradual independence of the oeléebalangs from the sultan.

The Oeléebalang and the Pepper-Trade

The oeléebalangs were mostly men of business and have always been so. If they liked fine things, the merchant from outside — the Chinese of Penang or Singapore — knew what he had to offer. If he brought chiefs into debt, they had only to have the products of the land ready — pepper especially — to deliver at a favourable price. Pepper was the old stapel of the country. The oeléebalang was the privileged buyer of the pepper of his landschap; he was also the pangkaigever, the advance-capitalist of the pepper-planters, supplying the pangkai by which the planter lived in the years before his garden came into bearing.

The Wasé (Hacil)

The hacil or wasé — the heerlijk recht (lordly right) — was the due paid to the oeléebalang on each picol of pepper produced in his landschap. The wasé oeléebalang was a ground-right, and when ‘het landschap’ was instituted as a self-governing unit, the wasé oeléebalang belonged to the landschapskas. The hacil is now, in Broersma’s account, a guilder per picol; the pangkaigever — usually the oeléebalang or an oeléebalang tjoet — receives f 2.50 per picol, of which he gives the peutoeha f 0.50. The peutoeha — the eldest, the representative of the oeléebalang in pepper-affairs — has in the course of the years grown from the leader of the pepper-planters into the kepala kampong, the village-head.

The Oeléebalang and the Dutch Government

The Dutch government dealt with the oeléebalangs through the Korte Verklaring (1899)|Korte Verklaring of 1899, a short declaration in three articles which replaced the older Groote Verklaring in eighteen articles. By signing the Korte Verklaring, the oeléebalang acknowledged the suzerainty of the Dutch government and agreed to govern his landschap in accordance with the government’s instructions. The oeléebalangs were paid a salary from the landschapskas, ranging from f 100 to f 500 a month in the afdeeling Pidië, and were the indispensable collaborators of the colonial government in the post-pacification period.

The Verlichte Hoofden

The verlichte hoofden — the enlightened chiefs — of the new generation, like Teukoe Tjhi Mohamad Thajeb of Peureula and Mohamad Djohan Alamsjah of Peusangan, were the sons of oeléebalangs sent to Dutch schools in Java, who returned to rule their landschappen with Western habits and Dutch-speaking colleagues. Broersma treats them as the type of the new chief, and as the principal hope of the post-pacification reforms.

Significance

The oeléebalang is the principal political institution of pre-colonial and early colonial Atjeh, and the principal intermediary between the Atjehnese people and the Dutch colonial government. The institution is the political condition of the pepper-trade, of the petroleum-cijns, of the Korte Verklaring, and of the post-pacification reforms. The post-pacification history of Atjeh is, in large part, the history of the oeléebalangs’ adjustment to the new colonial order.

See Also

Source

Verkenningen in Atjeh, by Dr. R. Broersma (De Locomotief, October 1923), chapters V–VI, X, XIII, XVII, passim. Also Het Achehnese, by Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje (Leyden 1906), for the oeléebalang institution.

Source

Verkenningen in Atjeh, by Dr. R. Broersma (De Locomotief, October 1923); Atjeh Patchouli-Olie, by Ir. W. Spoon (1932), where applicable.

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