The passenstelsel was the pass system introduced in Atjeh alongside the prohibition on the carrying of weapons, as a measure against the overvallen (surprise attacks) that followed the concentratie of 19 August 1884 — and whose insufficiency was one of the immediate reasons for raising the Korps Maréchaussée in April 1890.
Introduction and purpose
The 1930 jubilee number records that after the concentration decision small bands crept inside the line, attacked convoys and destroyed engineering works, and that surprise attacks occurred “met schier verbijsterende regelmaat” — with almost bewildering regularity. “Om daaraan een einde te maken, werd het dragen van wapens voor de Atjehsche bevolking strafbaar gesteld en een passenstelsel ingevoerd, waarmede het kwaad echter niet was bestreden” — in order to put an end to this, the carrying of weapons by the Atjehnese population was made punishable and a pass system introduced, by which, however, the evil was not overcome.
Consequence
Because these measures proved insufficient, “een afzonderlijk korps, de Maréchaussée, werd onder nadere goedkeuring des Konings opgericht” — a separate corps, the Maréchaussée, was established under the further approval of the King, to which the ultimate task would fall of taking so important a part in the pacification of the restless region.
Additional detail from the jubilee number
Under the policy, carrying weapons of any kind—including traditional Acehnese daggers (rencong) and swords (klewang)—was strictly criminalized for the Acehnese population residing within or entering the concentrated military ring around Kuta Raja. Civilians were required to register with the authorities and carry written travel passes (passen) issued by the administration or monitored by the Korps Maréchaussée.
Despite rigid enforcement, the pass system failed to prevent guerrilla infiltration due to widespread civilian sympathy for the resistance and the difficulty of monitoring densely vegetated terrain. The system was supplemented after 1896 by active mobile counter-insurgency patrols.
Account from H. F. Meijer (1883) — the early pass system of 1875–1876
H. F. Meijer, in Atjeh van 26 December 1875 tot 4 September 1876 (1883), shows the first year of the system in Groot-Atjeh: in the territory under Dutch rule every Atjehnese who did not wish to be regarded or treated as an enemy had to be provided, when travelling from one kampong to another, with a pass — at first good only for a couple of days, later for a week and then a month, ever through the control post of Pakan Badak on the road between the IV Moekims and Olehleh. Persons with firearms were confiscated; persons found with side-arms outside their villages were arrested — unless identified by the guide or the people as quiet inhabitants of the district.
Its weakness was the same as that of every colonial paper watch in the guerilla war: passes of friendly Atjehnese were lent or passed to hostile ones, against whom no control existed. Meijer cites the proof from the battlefield: among the papers on the bodies of the Atjehers fallen on 17 July 1876 between Boekit Daroe and Ketapan Doewa were found two passes — one dated Olehleh, 25 March 1876, permitting travel from Lampasei to Djempah, another dated Boekit Seboen, 6 July 1876, good for six days from Anaq Paja over Pakan Badak, Sinangri and Olehleh to Lampasei — and it could never be established whether the fallen had been the same persons to whom those passes had been issued.
See Also
- Concentratiestelsel
- Korps Maréchaussée te voet in Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden
- Geconcentreerde linie
- 1884
- 1890
- Concentratie-Stelsel
- Binnenlandsch Bestuur in Atjeh
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.