The Padi-snijden on the Langkroek sawah (1874) was the concession granted by opperbevelhebber van Swieten in February–March 1874 to the bevolking of Langkroek — a kampong adjacent to the Pedir-dijk — to cut their ripe padi (rice crop) on the Langkroek sawah, on condition that they “de geweren aflegden” (lay down their rifles), with Dutch schildwachten ordered not to shoot — a measure van Swieten “dreef de gemoedelijkheid zelfs zoo ver” (carried mildness even so far) as to grant, which produced a brief lull in the fighting while the harvest was gathered, and an immediate and violent resumption of hostilities the moment “het laatste bundel was geoogst” (the last bundle had been harvested), the Atjehneezen returning “weder van alle zijden” and “behoorlijk met hunne zware geweren gewapend” to open a “levendig vuur” on the bivouak. Borel treats the episode as a textbook illustration of the futility of van Swieten’s passive system.
The Concession
The Langkroek sawah, lying adjacent to the Pedir-dijk along the Atjeh-rivier, held a standing crop of ripe padi in February 1874. The bevolking of Langkroek — nominally hostile, but eager to save the harvest on which their winter’s food depended — applied for permission to cut the crop. Van Swieten, in a gesture Borel describes as the limit of “gemoedelijkheid” (mildness, good-nature), granted the request. The condition was that the harvesters “de geweren aflegden” — should lay down their rifles. The schildwachten of the nearest Dutch posts were ordered not to fire on the reapers. For the duration of the harvest, the line of the Pedir-dijk was to be a kind of truce-ground.
The Lull
The concession produced its intended effect. “Zoolang het padi-snijden duurde, werd werkelijk geen schot op het bivouak gelost” — so long as the padi-cutting lasted, no shot was in fact fired on the bivouak. The Atjehneezen of Langkroek came out to work their fields, the Dutch looked on, the rice was gathered in. To van Swieten and his supporters this was proof that the enemy was weary of the war, that with a little patience and a little generosity the country could be pacified without further bloodshed. Borel’s dry comment is that the Atjehneezen, as the event would prove, had merely been busy with the harvest.
The Resumption
The moment “het laatste bundel was geoogst” — the last bundle had been harvested — the picture changed. The Atjehneezen of Langkroek “weder van alle zijden kwamen opdagen, ditmaal behoorlijk met hunne zware geweren gewapend” — reappeared from every side, this time properly armed with their heavy rifles — and opened a “levendig vuur” (lively fire) on the bivouak. The lull had been nothing more than the interval needed to bring in the crop. Far from demonstrating a weariness of war, the padi-snijden had merely given the enemy the time to feed himself for the coming campaign.
Borel’s Judgement
The episode, in Borel’s account, is the perfect emblem of the afwachtende houding. Van Swieten, having “stak het zwaard voor goed in de scheede” after the expedition to Ketapang Doewa of 15 February 1874, had committed himself to a policy of “werken met schop en spade” — work with spade and shovel — in place of “vechten met den vijand.” The padi-snijden concession was the civil analogue of the military passivity. It presupposed an enemy who would respond to generosity with gratitude. What it produced was an enemy who used the respite to gather his food, collect his arms, and resume the war the moment his own business was done. The Atjehnees, Borel insists, was “uit eene geheel bijzondere stof gekneed” — kneaded from an entirely peculiar dough — and the suggestion that “grootmoedigheid” would be repaid in kind was, as the expedition to Bital had already shown, a sentimentalist’s error.
See Also
- Second Aceh Expedition (1873–1874)
- Padi-snijden
- Langkroek
- Pedir-dijk
- Sawah
- Afwachtende houding
- Expedition to Ketapang Doewa (15 February 1874)
- Expedition to Bital (12 February 1874)
- Jan van Swieten
- Van Swieten declares the Aceh War ended (1874)
- 1874
Source
Onze vestiging in Atjeh, critisch beschreven, by G. F. W. Borel, Kapitein der Artillerie. ‘s-Gravenhage: D. A. Thieme, 1878. pp. 52–54.