The arrest of Mat Saïd (8 May 1876) was the removal, on suspicion of collusion with the enemy, of Mat Saïd, the kampong head of Ketapan Doewa in the VI Moekims — the first “friendly” chief so arrested by the Dutch. It was described by H. F. Meijer in Atjeh van 26 December 1875 tot 4 September 1876 (1883).
Grounds for suspicion
At his submission Mat Saïd had undertaken to supply the materials for the bridge over the Kroeëng Daroe and to keep the Dutch informed of what went on among the enemy. The first promise was at first partly, later not at all fulfilled; his reports on the enemy were always of little value; and the safety in his district left much to be desired — many evil-disposed persons continually roamed the neighbourhood, as the attempt to creep up on the post at Ketapan Doewa showed. Repeatedly warned and called to account for the poor fulfilment of his obligations, Mat Saïd always protested his innocence and his best intentions; but the contrary could not easily be proved against him.
The arrest
When, in the first days of May, he left his kampong and spent several days in the IV Moekims, where he had no business whatever but large numbers of enemies were roaming, the Dutch gained almost full conviction that he was in league with the enemy. On the evening of 7 May he returned from the IV Moekims to Ketapan Doewa; the next day, 8 May, the post commander arrested him without the least difficulty and sent him to Kota Radja.
Mat Saïd’s information
At his arrest Mat Saïd declared that about 800 highlanders (orang oeloe, “people of the interior hills”) had gathered in the mountain regions of the IV Moekims with the intention of attacking one of the Dutch fortifications — he did not know, or did not wish to say, which. He said only: “the highlanders intend to attack a small fortification of the Government.” His information was partly confirmed by a report of the post commander at Djempit, who had learned from a spy that a numerous enemy band was moving northward through the IV Moekims along the foot of the eastern mountains. The civil and military commander informed the post commanders of the western line; other measures were judged unnecessary, because the posts were everywhere strong enough to repel an attack. No attack followed.
Significance
The arrest of Mat Saïd illustrates the deepest dilemma of the Dutch position in 1876: the chiefs of the submitted districts sat between two fires — the distrust of the Dutch on one hand and the vengeance of their hostile countrymen of the XXII Moekims (the orang toenong, as the submitted people called them) on the other. Meijer gave him as the first example of heads suspected of met den vijand te heulen (colluding with the enemy) while their proclaimed friendship was maintained officially — a pattern that reached its climax two weeks earlier at Lampagar before and, with more just results, on the same ground where Mat Saïd had ruled.
See Also
- Mat Saïd of Ketapan Doewa
- Ketapan Doewa
- Orang toenong
- Night attack on Lampagar (2-3 May 1876)
- Guerilla warfare in Groot-Atjeh
Source
Atjeh van 26 December 1875 tot 4 September 1876, door H. F. Meijer (Breda: P. B. Nieuwenhuijs, 1883), chapter VII, pp. 179–180.