Wathé (Atjehnese; Malay hasil) was the general term in Atjeh for the revenues due to a territorial chief — import and export duties, produce dues, and other adat incomes — and the principal object of the oeléëbalang’s administrative attention.
Character of the revenue
D. W. N. de Boer described the zelfbestuurder (self-governing ruler) as a ruler whose attention was absorbed, besides by weightier political business, above all by “nauwgezette contrôle op de richtige binnenvloeiing van alle hem toekomende wathé’s” — scrupulous supervision of the correct inflow of all wathé due to him: import and export duties and other adat incomes. He referred for this to De Atjehers, Vol. I, p. 122, and to Van Vollenhoven’s Adatrecht, p. 164.
Effect on land policy
The chief’s fiscal interest shaped his attitude to settlement. Free immigration was desirable to him with a view to future growth of wathé; he had no need to screen and bind individual settlers, provided they contributed to the prosperity of the landschap and to the income of its head. Clearance was accordingly made as easy as possible, and agricultural credit was granted against a customary percentage of hasil, given willingly because — as De Boer remarked — it was one of the best investments available: “In Atjeh gaat het alleen om economische perspectieven, geenszins om idealistische.”
The prospect of future wathé also explains why the right of avail continued to assert itself against other spheres of avail wherever pepper, pinang or other plantations were laid out in frontier districts; most boundary disputes between the zelfbesturen (self-governing territories) arose from this.
Evidentiary use
In the self-governing territories, the continuing collection of wathé — together with the measuring-out under the haq radja taléë and the former boeët oemòng and adat glé levies — was one of the means by which the radja or his representative knew whether ground applied for still had an owner.
Specific wathé of the pepper economy
Under the pepper tariff the term appears in three specific forms: wathé pangkaj, wathé peutoeha (or wathé parang), and wathé oeléëbalang.
See Also
- Oeleebalang
- Wathé pangkaj
- Wathé oeléëbalang
- Beschikkingsrecht in Atjeh
- Haq radja taléë
- Taxation in Atjeh
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.