The subjugation of Keumala refers to the forceful reduction of the seat of the pretender-sultanate of Acheh — the village of Keumala (Kuta Keumala), where the fugitive royal house had established its wandering “court” after the fall of the Dalam — by the royal family itself, since the Sultan had at his disposal no troops but only a handful of personal followers. The episode, which belongs to the closing decades of the nineteenth century, illustrates better than any other single fact the curious paradox of the late Achehnese sultanate: that the prince in whose name the war against the Dutch was waged could not even command obedience in the village that served as his capital, and had to call upon his own kinsmen to subdue it by arms.
The flight to Keumala and the pretender’s court
When Sultan Mahmut Shah died shortly after the loss of the Dalam, it was not thought necessary even in so perilous a crisis to select from among the candidates for the succession 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. When once the fugitive “court” had found a safe place of refuge in Keumala, its establishment there gave to the place a sacral prestige which made it the goal of pilgrimages from uleebalangs on both sides of the Dutch “linie”, and the chancery from which the sarakatas with the ninefold seal continued to issue.
The impotence of the Sultan
The Sultan’s actual power, however, bore no proportion to his sacral dignity. The uleebalangs in his immediate neighbourhood used sometimes to wage war against him, compelling him to have recourse to the help of others, since he himself had no troops, but only a handful of personal followers at his disposal. Keumala, the seat of the sultanate, had in the first instance to be subdued by force by the royal family. The members of the royal family, though comparatively few in number, were far from living in harmony with one another in spite of the critical position of the country. Although the ties of kinship and the memory of former greatness were still strong enough to keep up a certain outward show of respect, in actual fact they were as much the rivals of one another as of the upstart chiefs whose growing power they beheld with envy.
Consequences for the pretender-sultanate
The impotence revealed by the need for a forceful subjugation of his own capital was to dog the pretender-sultanate to its end. Teungku Tiro submitted to no legal dictation from Keumala, nay even refused on more than one occasion to satisfy the Sultan’s demands for money contributions. Teuku Uma — the celebrated chief of the West Coast — was the man who from time to time propitiated the court by generous gifts, so that in his letters-patent a large portion of the West Coast was made over to him; but when some of the hereditary chiefs complained of this edict, it was pointed out to them that Teuku Uma was a vassal to be propitiated rather than commanded. He also both in word and deed yielded to the Sultan only as much as he chose, and looked on his sealed letters of appointment as a mere ornament that might at times give an official flavour to his pretensions.
The pretender to the sultanate was at length compelled, some years before the close of the century, owing to a quarrel with the local chiefs, to break up his “court” at Keumala and to settle first in one place and then in another. For the last three years (1896–1899), i.e. since the Dutch began to deal seriously with the government of Great Acheh and the subjugation of its dependencies, the pretender was obliged to lead a wandering life. He sought safety by constantly shifting his abode and found his asylum as a rule in the North-coast districts. The final act of the drama was his submission to the Dutch Government in January 1903.
See Also
- Keumala
- Tuanku Muhamat Dawot
- Submission of Tuanku Muhamat Dawot
- Teuku Uma
- Sarakata with chab sikureu’eng
- Acheh 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.