The Oath of Loyalty and Confirmation Act of 30 September 1893 — preserved among the official documents gathered in the Annexes of Kruisheer’s ATJEH ‘96 — was the formal act by which Teuku Umar (as Toekoe Djohan Pahalawan) and fifteen of his war leaders swore loyalty to the Government of Nederlandsch-Indië at Koeta Radja on 30 September 1893. The act was the operational counterpart to the Government Resolution of 5 September 1893 No. 1 geheim that authorised Umar’s appointment as Panglima Prang Besar of the Government. Together, the two documents constituted the legal foundation of Umar’s two-and-a-half-year career as a Dutch ally and, by extension, of the defection of 29 March 1896 that brought that alliance to an end.
Background
By the late summer of 1893 the Dutch position in Groot-Atjeh had reached a stalemate that the policy of seeking peace through native alliance was designed to break. Teuku Umar had rendered good services to the Kompeni in August 1893 by the zuivering der XXV Moekims — the “cleansing” of the XXV Moekims. The Civiel en Militair Gouverneur proposed his formal appointment as Panglima Prang Besar of the Government, and the Government Resolution of 5 September 1893 No. 1 geheim authorised the appointment under the new name Toekoe Djohan Pahalawan. The Conferral of office, however, required a public act of subjection — an oath of loyalty sworn by the new Panglima Prang Besar in the presence of his subordinate panglima, by which both he and they bound themselves to the Government.
The choice of date — 30 September 1893 — was the formal date of Umar’s subjection to the Dutch administration. The ceremony was performed at Koeta Radja before the Governor of Atjeh, with Umar and the fifteen panglima of his legioen in attendance. The Confirmation Act is the official record of that ceremony.
Content
The Confirmation Act records that on 30 September 1893, Teuku Umar — now formally designated Toekoe Djohan Pahalawan — swore an oath of loyalty to the Government of Nederlandsch-Indië as Panglima Prang Besar. The oath was not sworn by Umar alone: the act records that fifteen of his panglima swore with him, binding themselves collectively to the Government and, by implication, to Umar as their commander. This collective form was an explicit Dutch recognition of the feudal structure of Umar’s authority: the legioen was not an impersonal military unit but a personal following whose loyalty ran through its chief.
The act also records the confirmation of Umar’s titles, ranks, and emblems as Panglima Prang Besar. Kruisheer’s text preserves, in summary form, the formal record of the ceremony: Umar received the titels and titles and insignia appropriate to his new rank; the panglima received the formal recognition of their subordination to him and, through him, to the Government. The Confirmation Act is, in effect, the legal constitutive act of the Dutch-Umar alliance, of which the Resolution of 5 September 1893 had been the authorisation.
Reception and Aftermath
The immediate aftermath of the Confirmation Act was the rapid rise of Umar’s power within Groot-Atjeh. On 21 October 1893 — three weeks after the act — T. Djohan was given the leadership of the XXVI Moekims; on 30 November 1893 his legioen conquered Ana’ Galoeng for the Dutch. Thereafter, throughout 1894 and 1895, Umar’s legioen operated in the V Moekims Montassik and the Lamkrak mukims in support of Dutch operations — notably at Tjot Goeë on 9 May 1895 — and received continuous supplies of Dutch weapons, munitions, opium, and money.
The act’s legal force was terminated by the 11, which dismissed Umar from the office of Panglima Prang Besar and from the hoeloebalang of Lepong conferred by the Resolution of 19 January 1896. The collective loyalty of the fifteen panglima who swore with Umar in 1893 did not survive the defection: most followed Umar into rebellion in March 1896, and their signatures on the Confirmation Act became evidence of their perfidy.
Significance
The Oath of Loyalty and Confirmation Act of 30 September 1893 is the foundational diplomatic document of the Dutch-alliance phase of the Atjeh-oorlog. Its collective form — Umar and fifteen panglima swearing together — reveals the feudal structure of the alliance the Dutch were purchasing. Its brevity and its survival only in the Bijlagen of ATJEH ‘96 should not obscure its importance: every Dutch weapon, every Dutch dollar, every Dutch operation conducted with Umar’s legioen between 1893 and 1896 rested on this act. Its abrogation on 26 April 1896 closed the alliance and opened the conventional military phase of the war under Vetter.
See Also
- Teuku Umar
- Gouvernementsbesluit of 5 September 1893, No. 1 geheim
- Gouvernementsbesluit of 19 January 1896, No. 9
- 11 (Bijlage VI)
- Subjection of Teuku Umar (30 September 1893)
- Defection of Teuku Umar (29 March 1896)
- Panglima Prang Besar
- Koeta Radja
- 1893
- 1896
Source
ATJEH ‘96, door A. Kruisheer, Kapitein der Infanterie O.I.L., met 2 kaarten en 4 portretten (Weltevreden: N.V. Boekhandel Visser & Co, 1913). Instituut Kern, Leiden. OCR-filename: 20260715_163243_DLP-89-Atjeh_96_Met_2_kaarten_en4_DOORA_KRUISHEER_Kapiteinder_Infanterie_nemoretriever-ocr-v1_OCR.txt, pp. 19, 20, 346.