The Sarikat Islam in Atjeh (1918–1922) was the vigorous post-war life of the Sarikat Islam political and religious movement in the afdeeling Noordkust van Atjeh and especially in the onderafdeeling Lho’ Seumawé, in the years after 1918. The movement was significant enough to require the banishment of three chiefs of Lho’ Seumawe in 1922, an intervention Broersma describes as ‘geen dag te vroeg gekomen’ — not a day too soon.
The Movement in the Afdeeling Noordkust van Atjeh
In the whole afdeeling Noordkust van Atjeh with its three onderafdeelingen — Lho’ Seumawé, Bireuën and Lho Soekon — the Sarikat Islam showed a vigorous life after 1918. Traders, school-teachers — ‘laat ons zeggen de intellectueelen’ — but also several chiefs were members and took part. A chief of Samalanga had joined by way of a move on the political chessboard on which he was playing against the influential Maharadja of Lho’ Seumawé, who had also become a member of the Sarikat Islam in order to strengthen his chances of retaining a landschap Plimbang. Having taken the advice of an oelama — a Mohammedan jurist — that joining might be called a good deed, the Samalangan chief formed an afdeeling S.I.
The Direction in Lho’ Seumawe
The movement in Lho’ Seumawe took the direction of bringing the distinction between believers and unbelievers to the fore, of undermining the Dutch government, and of working towards a union of oeléebalangs. There were public meetings, even secret meetings. Three chiefs of Lho’ Seumawe were banished in 1922 — the Verbanning van drie hoofden uit Lho’ Seumawe (1922). Broersma comments: ‘Tot bedaring is men gekomen, toen verleden jaar drie hoofden uit Lho’ Seumawe zijn verbannen, een ingrijpen dat geen dag te vroeg is gekomen.‘
The General Pattern
Young chiefs are often too susceptible to new slogans, Broersma writes; religious advisers are always ready to enhance their own importance by adding religious zeal and religious hatred as a factor; and as the movement becomes more general, older chiefs let themselves be drawn into participation. If one lets it come so far in an afdeeling, the resistance revives. In Lho’ Seumawé and Samalangan, vigilance is highly necessary.
Significance
The Sarikat Islam episode of 1918–1922 is the principal political crisis of the early civilian period in the Afdeeling Noordkust van Atjeh, and the banishment of the three chiefs of Lho’ Seumawe is the most forceful intervention of the colonial government against an Atjehnese political movement in the post-pacification period. The movement is also the type-case of the alliance between oeléebalangs and oelama that the colonial government feared most, and of the use of the Sarikat Islam as a vehicle for chiefly rivalries — the Samalangan chief and the Maharadja playing political chess with the movement as a piece.
See Also
- Sarikat Islam
- Lho Seumawe
- Bireuen
- Lho Soekon
- Samalanga
- Sri Tengkoe Abdoel Hamid Orangkaja Sri Maharadja Mangkoe Boemi
- Verbanning van drie hoofden uit Lho Seumawe (1922)
- Oelama
- Oeléebalang
- Plimbang
- Verkenningen in Atjeh (1923)
- 1918
- 1922
Source
Verkenningen in Atjeh, by Dr. R. Broersma (De Locomotief, October 1923), chapter IX, ‘In het oude rijk Samoedra’, pp. 62–63.
Source
Verkenningen in Atjeh, by Dr. R. Broersma (De Locomotief, October 1923), passim.