The Zelfbestuursverordening of 5 April 1912 (Meulaboh boschproducten) — printed in the 1930 compilation of Zelfbestuursverordeningen Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden as Regulation No. 2 — is the originating Pantjang Alas verordening (ordinance), by which the Kepala negeri (head of the territory) Meulaboh (Het Zelfbestuur van Meulaboh) levied a ten-per-cent tax on the forest products (boschproducten) of the landschap (territory) Meulaboh under authority of the 18 of the Civiel en Militair Gouverneur van Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden, who had himself been authorised for the levy by the Gouverneur-Generaal van Nederlandsch-Indië (Governor-General of the Netherlands-Indies) by telegram of the same date. It is the earliest-dated regulation in the compilation and the model on which all subsequent landschap-level Pantjang Alas verordeningen of the Gouvernement Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden were patterned.
Issuer and authorising besluit
The regulation is issued in the bilingual Malay-Dutch form that is standard throughout the compilation, with the Malay column headed “Kepala negeri Menlaboh” and the Dutch column headed “Het Zelfbestuur van Meulaboh.” The opening recital announces the authorising colonial act:
“Overwegende, dat blijkens het besluit van den Civiel en Militair Gouverneur van Atjeh en Onder- hoorigheden ddo. 12 April 1912 No. 247/18 de Gonverneur-Generaa van vergunning Nederlandsch-India heeft verleend eene belasting te heffen van eenige van de in het landsehap Meulaboh gewonnen boschprodueten”
— “Whereas, by the besluit (decree) of the Civiel en Militair Gouverneur van Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden of 12 April 1912 No. 247/18, the Gouverneur-Generaal of Nederlandsch-Indië has granted vergunning (permission) to levy a tax on some of the boschproducten (forest products) won in the landschap Meulaboh.” The Malay side renders the metropolitan authority as “jang maha moelia Tocan Besar Goonern tanah Hindia Belanda mengixinkan mendjalankan belusting” — “His Excellency the Governor-General of the Netherlands-Indies has granted permission to levy this tax.” The authorising besluit, Reg. No. 3 of the same compilation, is reproduced in full immediately after Reg. No. 2 and supplies the practical heffing- and innings-voorschriften (levy- and collection-instructions) for the Pantjang Alas across the whole Gouvernement.
The Pantjang Alas levy and the taxed products
The substantive provision is set out in the Malay Fatsal 1 (Article 1) and the parallel Dutch Artikel 1, again in bilingual columns: “Er wordt, onder den naam Pantjang Alas, eene belasting ge- heven van de navolgende, in het landschap Meulaboh gewonnen boschprodueten” — “There shall be levied, under the name Pantjang Alas, a tax on the following boschproducten won in the landschap Meulaboh.” The comparative table of GELIJKE VERORDENINGEN (Parallel Ordinances) on pages 17–18 enumerates the products for which the Meulaboh regeling (regulation) of 5 April 1912 was issued: “Meulaboh 5-4-1919 benzoë damar en andere gom- en harssoorten” — benzoë (the aromatic resin of the Styrax benzoin tree, native to the Sumatran highlands), damar (dipterocarpaceous resin), and other gum- and resin-types (gom-en harssoorten). The benzoë of the west coast — together with that of the Zuidelijke Atjehsche landschappen and Tapaktoean — was among the most valuable forest products of the residency, and its taxation furnished one of the principal local revenues of the zelfbesturende landschappen (self-governing territories).
The ten-per-cent rate
The rate of the levy is fixed in Fatsal 2 / Artikel 2: “De belasting bedraagt tien ten honderd van de waarde der in ar- tikel 1 bedoelde producten” — “The tax amounts to ten per cent of the value of the products mentioned in Article 1.” The identical rate of ten per cent was simultaneously authorised for every Zelfbestuur of the Gouvernement Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden, as the authorising telegram made clear: “de Zelf- besturen in het Gouvernement Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden onder den naam ,,,antjang Alas” cene belas- ting heffen, ten bedrage van 10%” — “the Zelfbesturen in the Gouvernement Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden may levy, under the name ‘Pantjang Alas’, a tax to the amount of 10%.” The valuation of the products on which the ten per cent was levied was set quarterly by the Hoofd van gewestelijk bestuur (Head of Regional Administration) (the Civiel en Militair Gouverneur) in overleg (in consultation) with the Zelfbestuur: “De waarde der artikelen waar-voor de belasting wordt geheven, wordt elke drie maanden door het Hoofd van gewestelijk bestuur na overleg met het Zelfbestuur vast- gesteld.”
The bilingual Malay-Dutch text form
The regulation is set throughout in two parallel columns — the Malay (in the orthography of pre-war Netherlands-Indies Malay, with archaic spellings such as peratoeran, didjalankan, boenga, hoeboeng, djoemlah) on the left and the Dutch on the right — with each Fatsal of the Malay paired with the corresponding Artikel of the Dutch. The Malay Fatsal (from Arabic faṣl, “chapter”) and the Dutch Artikel thus run in lock-step through the regulation. The signatory blocks likewise appear in parallel: the Malay “Kepala negeri Menlaboh” against the Dutch “Het Zelfbestuur van Meulaboh.” This bilingual Malay-Dutch form is the standard format of every regulation in the compilation, and reflects the constitutional practice of the *Zelfbestuur* (self-government) of the zelfbesturende landschappen of Atjeh under the Zelfbestuursregelen 1919 (Self-Government Regulations 1919) — the regulations are issued by the indigenous Zelfbestuur in their own Malay tongue and simultaneously in the Dutch of the colonial over-authority whose goedkeuring (approval) they require.
Significance
The Zelfbestuursverordening van 5 April 1912 is the originating act of the Pantjang Alas regime in Atjeh. The Gouverneur-Generaal van Nederlandsch-Indië’s vergunning of 12 April 1912, transmitted by the 1ste Gouvernements Secretaris (First Government Secretary) and embodied in the 18, opened the door for every Zelfbestuur of the Gouvernement Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden to levy a ten-per-cent tax on the forest products of its own landschap. Within the same month of April 1912 a series of parallel landschap-level Pantjang Alas regelingen followed — Idi (26 April), Langan and Tamiang (28 April), Tjulung, Tapaktoean (both 15 April), the Zuidelijke Atjehsche landschappen (30 April) — and the comparative table of GELIJKE VERORDENINGEN on pages 17–18 of the compilation lists each of these alongside the originating Meulaboh regeling. The Meulaboh regeling itself was later revised (the comparative table notes the revision date “Meulaboh 5-4-1919”), and the Pantjang Alas regime was eventually superseded for the afdeeling (district) Pidie by the comprehensive Reg. No. 4a of 27 Juli 1925, which repealed the earlier Pidië regeling of 28 April 1912 and established the most detailed of all the Pantjang Alas verordeningen.
See Also
- Zelfbestuursverordeningen Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden
- Pantjang Alas
- Meulaboh
- Zelfbestuur
- 18
- Civiel en Militair Gouverneur van Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden
- Gouverneur-Generaal van Nederlandsch-Indië
- Zelfbestuursverordening 27 Juli 1925 (Pidie Pantjang Alas)
- Staatsblad 1919 No. 822
- Westkust van Atjeh
- Tapaktoean
- Zuidelijke Atjehsche landschappen
- 1912
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. 2, pp. 3–6 (with the comparative table of GELIJKE VERORDENINGEN on pp. 17–18). OCR-filename: 20260719_030404_DLP-112-Zelfbestuursverordeningen_Atjeh_en_onderhoorigheden_Nemotron-OCR-v2_OCR.txt.