The death of Tuanku Asem (Hashim) in January 1897 at Padang Tiji in the Mukims VII removed from the shadow court of Keumala the ablest and most intelligent member of the Achehnese royal house, and the guardian and regent of the young Sultan Muhamat Dawot. Snouck Hurgronje records the event in a bracketed addition in the English edition: “Tuanku Asem, [died January 1897 at Padang Tiji in the Mukims VII]” — a laconic notice that nonetheless marks a decisive moment in the disintegration of the pretender sultanate.
The guardian of the child-sultan
When Sultan Mahmut Shah died shortly after the loss of the Dalam, Snouck Hurgronje writes, “it was not thought necessary even in so perilous a crisis to select from among the candidates for the succession to the throne a man before all things. They contented themselves with a child, Tuanku Muhamat Dawot; and though his guardian Tuanku Asem (Hashim) was a man of royal blood most bitterly hostile to the Dutch Government, even he preferred to watch the contest with interest from a distance rather than himself to take a serious share in it, much less to enter the lists as a leader.” Tuanku Asem thus figures, from the moment of his ward’s accession, as the central figure of the shadow court — the man who kept alive the semblance of a royal government after the loss of the Dalam, but who never himself took the field.
Character and attainments
Tuanku Asem, “according to all who know him”, is described by Hurgronje as “an exception to the majority of the men of royal blood in Acheh”. He speaks Malay and a little Arabic, understands something of English, and can discuss the religious books or kitabs as well as the traditions of his country. “This last must however be taken cum grano salis, as Achehnese ears can be charmed with the purest nonsense on such topics.” He is capable of fixing his attention on a single subject for a considerable time, is a strict observer of his chief religious duties, plays chess, and exhibits in all his utterances “a deep hatred for the Gompeuni, based on events antecedent to the Achehnese war.” Like all estimates of individual worth, Hurgronje adds, that which can be formed respecting Tuanku Asem is relative only. The Achehnese, accustomed to hear no sensible language from the lips of tuankus, is inclined to give a wide significance to any intelligent utterance of a member of the royal family, and to exaggerate the mental insight of the speaker.
Quarrels with the Sultan
Those who knew Keumala, however, were well aware that Tuanku Asem did not confine himself to quarrelling with his royal ward over the latter’s licentious life and neglect of his religious duties. He also exhibited much jealousy of the Sultan in regard to the receipt of presents; he bargained in the pettiest spirit in his name and in conjunction with him as to the market value of royal deeds of appointment, for which the aspirants to such honours were obliged to pay cash; while his political genius, apart from its expression in high-sounding learned phrases, “revealed itself especially in the desire to turn everything into hard cash for the benefit of the ‘court’.” Under the influence of Tuanku Asem, correspondence was kept up on the part of the court with such men as Teungku Tiro and Teuku Uma in regard to money matters and circumstances closely affecting the friends or protégés of the Sultan, “but beyond this Keumala exercised but little influence on the actions of these two individuals, who in their turn rarely held consultations with one another.”
The mutual distrust and the death
Although the ties of blood relationship within the royal family were strengthened by marriage alliances — the Sultan, for instance, having wedded a daughter of Tuanku Abdomajet — the family of Kuala Batee was on bad terms with the court. When it is perceived that Tuanku Asem (Hashim) and his former ward were on terms of mutual distrust, Hurgronje concludes, “we are forced to the conclusion that even if there were no Gompeuni in the question, unpleasant relations would still have arisen with this other branch of the reigning house.” Tuanku Asem died in January 1897 at Padang Tiji in the Mukims VII — an event noted in brackets by Hurgronje in the English edition. The death occurred in the same year as the defection of Teuku Uma and the resumption of the Dutch offensive, and it left the shadow court of Keumala without its ablest member. The pretender Sultan was henceforth a wanderer, “obliged to lead a wandering life. He seeks safety by constantly shifting his abode and finds his asylum as a rule in the North-coast districts”, until his eventual submission under Joannes Benedictus van Heutsz.
See Also
- Tuanku Asem
- Tuanku Muhamat Dawot
- Death of Sultan Mahmut Shah
- Keumala
- Padang Tiji
- Mukims VII
- Teungku Tiro
- Teuku Uma
- Achehnese War
Source
The Achehnese, Vol. I, by Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje, translated by A.W.S. O’Sullivan, indexed by R.J. Wilkinson. Leyden: E.J. Brill, 1906.