The kerapatan — the groote raadsvergadering, or great council meeting — was the supreme adat assembly of the Alaslanden, convened under native custom to decide the most important public affairs of the two landschappen of Batoe Mboelan and Bambél. De Buitenbezittingen records that, “volgens de adat,” important matters were treated in the kerapatan, “waaraan deelnemen de Kedjoeron, met den Radja moeda, de Si-empats met hunne moeda’s en wakéls, en Pengoeloes soekoe voor hun eigen persoon.” Its best-documented convocation was the 1914 session that ratified the territorial reorganisation of the Alas valley under Dutch supervision.
Composition and procedure
The kerapatan embodied the pyramid of Alas adat authority. At its head sat the Kédjoerön of each landschap, accompanied by his deputy the Radja moeda. Next came the four Si-empat — the members of the Rijksraad — each accompanied by his own moeda and wakél. Finally the Péngoeloes soekoe, the genealogical heads of the constituent lineages, attended in person. The assembly thus represented, in a single body, every layer of the constitution: territorial overlordship, the council of four, and the genealogical heads of the soekoe. Decisions taken in this forum carried the legitimacy that no individual chief could confer alone.
The 1914 territorial reorganisation
When the Dutch administration sought to bring the verwarde, tweeslachtige bestuurs- — confused and ambiguous administrative — conditions of the Alas valley into a rational territorial shape, it did so through the kerapatan. The handbook records that, “in overeenstemming met de zelfbestuurders en andere hoofden der Alaslanden,” a solution “kort daarna in de kerapatan (groote raadsvergadering) der beide landschappen” was found for the desired territorial reorganisation, “welke sedert geheel werd ingevoerd.”
The settlement had three main elements. First, the border between the two landschappen was fixed precisely, ending the anomalous position of Radja Tjèq of Batoe Mboelan, whose territory had straddled both; he was transferred to Bambél, where he was enrolled as a Péngoeloe si-émpat under the title Radja Tjèq Batoe Mboelan, while his namesake landschap was merged into Bambél. Second, the Kédjoerön of Batoe Mboelan moved his residence to Poeloe Nas and signed a new Korte Verklaring for the landschap of that name. Third, each landschap was divided into four mérga’s under salaried Péngoeloe si-émpat — eight territorial units in all, replacing the older genealogical patchwork.
Significance
The kerapatan of 1914 demonstrates how the Dutch chose, in the Alaslanden, to work through the native constitution rather than around it. The handbook notes that the territorial organisation, “welke in de Gajö-landschappen nog als een betrekkelijk ver verwijderd desideratum moet worden beschouwd,” had in the Alaslanden “reeds haar beslag gekregen” — had already been settled — precisely because the kerapatan could be convened to legitimate it. The same instrument continued, in attenuated form, to serve as the venue for the disposition of the many minor hoofden, wakéls en andere autoriteitjes whose genealogical titles were allowed to lapse on death but not be transferred — a slow, adat-sanctioned extinction that completed the consolidation.
See Also
- Alaslanden
- Batoe Mboelan
- Bambél
- Poeloe Nas
- Radja Tjèq of Alas
- Kédjoerön
- Péngoeloe Si-émpat
- Radja moeda
- Péngoeloe soekoe
- Korte Verklaring
- Colonne van Daalen naar de Gajolanden en Alaslanden (1904)
Source
De Buitenbezittingen, Deel II, Aflevering 2: Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden, bewerkt door het Encyclopaedisch Bureau, Mededeelingen van het Bureau voor de Bestuurszaken der Buitenbezittingen (Weltevreden: Landsdrukkerij, 1917), pp. 122–125.