The Zelfbestuursverordening of 2 July 1917 (Meulaboh tjemara) — printed in the 1930 compilation of Zelfbestuursverordeningen Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden as Regulation No. 19 — is the tjemaraboomen-verordening (casuarina-tree ordinance) of the onderafdeeling (subdivision) Meulaboh in the afdeeling Westkust van Atjeh (district West Coast of Atjeh), issued by the ten individually-named oeleebalang (territorial chiefs) of the onderafdeeling, regulating the cutting (kappen) of tjemaraboomen (casuarina trees, Casuarina equisetifolia) along the strandwegen (coastal roads) of the afdeeling (district). Approved by the Gouverneur van Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden (Governor of Atjeh and Dependencies) on the same date, it took effect immediately — without the typical inwerkingtreding-delay (entry-into-force delay) of one or more months — and is the only regulation in the compilation whose signatory-clause names individual oeleebalang in sufficient number to form a ten-person collective.
The ten named oelebalang signatories
The signatory-clause of Reg. No. 19 opens “Kami kepala Pemerintah dalam negeri jang terseboet jaitoe” — “We, the heads of government in the named landschappen (territories), namely” — and proceeds to list, in both the Malay and the Dutch columns, the ten individually-named oeleebalang of the onderafdeeling Meulaboh:
- T. Mohamad Oesensjah of Wojla / Kendjroeen Rajen’ — “T. Mohamad Oesensjah dari Wojla” / “T. Mohamad Oesensjah van Wojla Kendjrocen Rajen’” (the T. is the Acehnese title Teuku).
- Nja’ Radja of Boebon — “Keudjroeen Rajen’ Nja’ Radja van Boebon” / “T. Mahmood dari LhoBoebon” (the Nja’ is the Acehnese honorific for an elder).
- T. Mahmoed of Lho’ Boebon — “T. Mahmoed van Lho’ Boebon” / “T. Mahmood dari LhoBoebon”.
- T. Tjhi’ Mohamad Ali Aknhar of Kaway XVI — “T. Tjhi’ Mohamad Ali Aknhar van Kaway XVI” (the Tjhi’ is the learned religious rank Teungku Chik).
- Keumangan of Seunagan — “Keumangan dari Seunagan” / “T. Keumangan van Seunagan” (named by his dynasty-title alone).
- Potjoet Baren of Toengkoh — “Potjoct Baren dari Toengkoh” / “Potjoet Baren van Toengkob” (the Potjoet is the Acehnese royal title Cut).
- Mohamad Ali of Tripa — “Mohamad Ali dari Tripa” / “T. Mohamad Ali van Tripa”.
- Peutoea Benngga of Seuneu’am — “Peutoea Benngga dari Seuneu’am” / “Peutoen Beungga van Seuneuam” (the Peutoea is the elder title Peutua).
- Radja Ila of Pamen — “Radja Ila dari Pamen” / “Radja Ila van Pamen”.
- T. Tjoet Achmad of Beutong — “Tjoet Achmad dari Beutong” / “T. Tjoet Achmad van Beutong”.
These ten oeleebalang — each named personally, in the title-and-place format characteristic of the Meulaboh onderafdeeling — form the largest individually-named signatory-collective in the compilation. Reg. No. 19’s recital is issued in overleg met den Besturenden Ambtenaar der onderafdeeling Meulaboh (in consultation with the Administering Official of the subdivision Meulaboh) — the standard consultative requirement that gives the local Dutch district officer a veto-right over the Zelfbestuur’s regulations.
Protection of casuarina trees on coastal roads
The substantive provision is set out in Fatsal 1 / Artikel 1 (Article 1), which prohibits the felling or burning of tjemaraboomen along the shore and in the strandmoerassen (coastal marshes). The regulation’s title gives the protective motive in full — “tot verbod van het kappen van tje- maraboomen wier behoud noodig is voor natuurschoon en voor beschaduwing der strandwegen” — “for the prohibition of the felling of casuarina trees whose preservation is necessary for natuurschoon (natural beauty) and for the beschaduwing (shading) of the strandwegen.” The tjemara — Casuarina equisetifolia, the ironwood-pine-like shore tree — is the characteristic tree of the Acehnese coast, where it forms a wind-break and shade-canopy along the strandwegen and stabilises the strandmoerassen against erosion. Reg. No. 19 is the only regulation in the compilation that names natuurschoon — landscape aesthetics — as an explicit motive; the only other regulation in the compilation to address the protection of a defined tree-species on aesthetic or hydrological grounds is the Serbeudjadi Rafflesia natural-monument regulation of 1 January 1921 (Reg. No. 21).
Penalty structure
Fatsal 2 / Artikel 2 sets the penalty for any violation at a maximum of twenty-five guilders or one month’s arbeidstelling (public-works labour) — among the lowest maxima in the compilation. The standard maximum is f 100 or three months’ hechtenis (detention), and the lowest — f 10 or three days’ hechtenis — is that of Reg. No. 14 (the heerendienst-regeling of Bireuën). The f 25 / one-month maximum of Reg. No. 19 reflects the regulation’s preventive rather than punitive character: the tjemara-protection is a matter of natuurschoon and beschaduwing, not of revenue or public safety, and the penalty is calibrated accordingly. Fatsal 3 / Artikel 3 sets the inwerkingtreding immediately — without the typical inwerkingtreding-delay of one or more months. No comparative table is given — Reg. No. 19 is unique to the onderafdeeling Meulaboh, and is the only regulation in the compilation that is not extended, in parallel GELIJKE VERORDENINGEN, to other onderafdeelingen of the Gouvernement.
Significance
The Zelfbestuursverordening van 2 July 1917 is the only regulation in the compilation that addresses the protection of a single tree-species on a defined infrastructure-corridor — the strandwegen of the afdeeling Westkust van Atjeh. The choice of natuurschoon and beschaduwing as the explicit protective motives — rather than the revenue-protective, hydrological, or fire-preventive motives that dominate the other agricultural verordeningen of the compilation — marks Reg. No. 19 as an early instance of the colonial state’s recognition of the aesthetic and infrastructural value of the Acehnese coastal landscape. The regulation’s ten individually-named oeleebalang signatories — the largest individually-named signatory-collective in the compilation — also make Reg. No. 19 a uniquely well-documented regulation in respect of the indigenous ruling class of the Meulaboh onderafdeeling in the late 1910s; the names, titles, and landschap-affiliations of these ten oeleebalang are otherwise almost absent from the documentary record of the Gouvernement outside this verordening. The immediate inwerkingtreding — and the absence of any parallel-regelingen comparative table — further mark Reg. No. 19 as a one-off intervention, prompted by a particular local threat to the tjemara-canopy of the Meulaboh strandwegen in the summer of 1917.
See Also
- Meulaboh
- Zelfbestuursverordeningen Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden
- Zelfbestuur
- Oeleebalang
- Westkust van Atjeh
- Gouverneur van Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden
- Zelfbestuursverordening 5 April 1912 (Meulaboh boschproducten)
- Zelfbestuursverordening 1 Januari 1921 (Serbeudjadi Rafflesia)
- 1917
Source
Zelfbestuursverordeningen Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden, Serie A No. 9 of the Mededeelingen van de Afdeeling Bestuurszaken der Buitengewesten van het Departement van Binnenlandsch Bestuur, Weltevreden: Landsdrukkerij, 1930, Reg. No. 19 (Zelfbestuursverordening van 2 Juli 1917, tjemaraboomen-verordening), pp. 122–124. OCR-filename: 20260719_030404_DLP-112-Zelfbestuursverordeningen_Atjeh_en_onderhoorigheden_Nemotron-OCR-v2_OCR.txt.