The Zelfbestuursverordening of 9 December 1926 (Lhoksoekon woeker) — printed in the 1930 compilation of Zelfbestuursverordeningen Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden as Regulation No. 1 — is the woeker (usury) verordening (ordinance) of the onderafdeeling (subdivision) Lhoksoekon in the afdeeling Noordkust van Atjeh (district North Coast of Atjeh), issued jointly by the three oeleebalang (territorial chiefs) of the onderafdeeling — Keureutoë, Hakim Kroeeng Peutoë, and Matang Koeli — for the bestrijding van den woeker (combating of usury) in the landschappen (territories) of the entire gewest (region). Approved by the Gouverneur van Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden (Governor of Atjeh and Dependencies) on 21 December 1926, it is the opening regulation of the compilation — the first of the twenty-three numbered regulations printed in the volume — and is the only regulation in the compilation addressed specifically to the suppression of riba (interest/usury) under Islamic and colonial law.
The regulation as opening entry of the compilation
Reg. No. 1 occupies the first pages of the compilation’s substantive content (pp. 1–2 of the printed book), opening the Justitie (Justice) section under which the Inhoud (table of contents) classifies it. The compilation’s Inhoud lists twenty-three numbered regulations under four headings — Justitie, Financiën (Finances), Bestuur (Administration), and Landbouw/Nijverheid/Handel (Agriculture/Industry/Commerce) — of which the Justitie section contains only Reg. No. 1. The regulation’s title, as garbled in the OCR but reconstructible, is:
“ZELFEESTURRSVEERRDDNNGG van 9 December 1926 tot bestrijding van den woeker in de landschappen der enderafdeeling Lhoksoekon (goedgekeurd door den Gouverneur van Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden op 21 December 1926).”
The three oeleebalang of the onderafdeeling Lhoksoekon — “Kami Oeleebalang Negeri: De Zelfbesturen van: Keureutoë Hakim Kroeeng Peutoë Matang Koeli” — are the same three territorial chiefs whose landschappen later, in 1925 and 1916, jointly issued Reg. No. 12 (the toezicht op Mohammedaansch godsdienstonderwijs — supervision of Mohammedan religious instruction) and Regs. 18a and 18b (the klappercultuur-verordening [coconut-cultivation ordinance] and its mantri-instructie [petty-official instruction]).
Prohibition on usury (riba)
The substantive provision is set out in the Eenig artikel — the single article of the regulation — which is modeled on the metropolitan anti-woeker statute, Staatsblad 1916 No. 643. The recital grounds the regulation explicitly in both colonial statute and Islamic legal tradition:
“Menimbang bahasa perloe oentoek sekalian pendoedoek negeri akan menetapkan satoe peratoeran oen- toek pentjegah riba seperti ditetap- kan dalam Stantshlad 1916 No. 643”
— “Whereas it is necessary for all the inhabitants of the negeri (territory) to establish a regulation for the pentjegah riba (prevention of usury) as established in Staatsblad 1916 No. 643.” The Malay term riba — the Quranic prohibition on interest, drawn from the same Arabic root (ribā) that underlies the metropolitan anti-woeker statute — is here invoked as the substantive object of the regulation. The Malay pentjegah (prevention/suppression) renders the Dutch bestrijding (combating/suppression) of the title. The regulation thus converts the metropolitan statute into a Zelfbestuur-level verordening directed at the indigenous anak negeri (subjects) of the onderafdeeling Lhoksoekon, with the riba-prohibition framed simultaneously in Islamic and colonial-statutory terms.
The Eenig artikel itself empowers the judge to matigen (mitigate) or nietig verklaren (annul) exploitative contracts — overeenkomstig (in accordance with) the regeling vermeld in Staatsblad 1916 No. 643 (regulation mentioned in Staatsblad 1916 No. 643). The exact text of the Eenig artikel, in the bilingual Malay-Dutch columnar form, is reproduced in the compilation’s pp. 1–2; the comparative table of GELIJKE VERORDENINGEN (Parallel Ordinances) on p. 14 of the compilation extends parallel anti-woeker regelingen (regulations) to the other onderafdeelingen of the Gouvernement in 1926 and 1927: Sigli, Meureudoe, Lammeulo, Idi, Tjalang, Gajo LoeBus, Alaslanden, the Zuidelijke Atjehsche landschappen, and Simeuloed.
Penalty structure and application to the entire gewest
The penalty-structure of Reg. No. 1 follows the model of Staatsblad 1916 No. 643: the woeker-contract is not itself criminalised, but is made nietig (void) or matigbaar (mitigable) at the instance of the indigenous judge — typically the moesapat negeri (village court) of the landschap. The regulation applies to the entire gewest of the onderafdeeling Lhoksoekon, covering all three of its landschappen (Keureutoë, Hakim Kroeeng Peutoë, and Matang Koeli). The comparative table of GELIJKE VERORDENINGEN on p. 14 of the compilation shows that the anti-woeker regeling was extended within months to most of the other onderafdeelingen of the Gouvernement, with parallel regelingen for Sigli, Meureudoe, Lammeulo, Idi, Tjalang, Gajo LoeBus, Alaslanden, the Zuidelijke Atjehsche landschappen, and Simeuloed all dated 1926–1927.
Significance
The Zelfbestuursverordening van 9 December 1926 opens the Zelfbestuursverordeningen compilation as the sole entry in the Justitie section, and is the only regulation in the compilation addressed specifically to the suppression of riba (usury). Its modelling on the metropolitan anti-woeker statute of Staatsblad 1916 No. 643 illustrates the typical mechanism by which a Netherlands-Indies statute was converted into a Zelfbestuur-level verordening binding on the anak negeri of the zelfbesturende landschappen: the metropolitan statute supplies the legal framework, the Zelfbestuur supplies the local jurisdiction, and the Gouverneur van Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden supplies the goedkeuring (approval) that brings the verordening into force. The regulation’s framing of the woeker-prohibition in terms of the Malay pentjegah riba — drawing on the Quranic ribā-prohibition that is itself foundational to Islamic contract law — also illustrates the dual Islamic-and-colonial legal register in which the Zelfbestuur’s verordeningen of Atjeh operated. The compilation’s placement of this regulation as Reg. No. 1, ahead of the financially-central Pantjang Alas regime of Regs. 2–4c, signals the compiler’s recognition that the woeker-problem was, in the late 1920s, the most pressing single issue of indigenous civil justice in the Gouvernement.
See Also
- Lhoksoekon
- Zelfbestuursverordeningen Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden
- Zelfbestuur
- Woeker
- Staatsblad 1916 No. 643
- Civiel en Militair Gouverneur van Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden
- Gouverneur van Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden
- Gouvernement Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden
- 1926
Source
Zelfbestuursverordeningen Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden, Serie A No. 9 of the Mededeelingen van de Afdeeling Bestuurszaken der Buitengewesen van het Departement van Binnenlandsch Bestuur, Weltevreden: Landsdrukkerij, 1930, Reg. No. 1 (Zelfbestuursverordening van 9 December 1926 tot bestrijding van den woeker), pp. 1–2 (with the comparative table of GELIJKE VERORDENINGEN on p. 14). OCR-filename: 20260719_030404_DLP-112-Zelfbestuursverordeningen_Atjeh_en_onderhoorigheden_Nemotron-OCR-v2_OCR.txt.