The submission of Teuku Uma in 1893 marked the moment at which the celebrated Achehnese chief Teuku Uma (Umar)—then at the height of his influence over the West Coast and one of the three sagis of Great Acheh—formally tendered his submission to the Dutch Government, asking forgiveness for his past offences. The submission was accepted under the so-called “concentration” policy, which since 1881 had sought to reduce the Achehnese War to a defensive containment of the insurgents within a fixed “line” around the capital. From the point of view of that policy, the acceptance of Uma’s submission “could not be censured,” since even if the fickle chief changed his mind, the Dutch would be no worse off than before.
The “concentration” period and the “Uma period”
The “concentration” period of the Achehnese War had begun in 1881, after the failure of the offensive policy of Governor-General Van der Heyden (1877–1881). It was nominally based on the theory that Acheh would ultimately submit of its own accord. The last three years of this concentration time earned an unhappy notoriety under the name of the “Uma”-period. The adventurer, as Snouck Hurgronje described him, came from the Meulaboh country; he was a typical Achehnese in his complete untrustworthiness and in his slavery to opium and gambling, but he differed from most Achehnese headmen in his energy and consummate tact in his relations with all sorts and conditions of men. He had acquired a commanding influence over the West Coast and one of the three sagis of Great Acheh by cunning and intrigue and by violence of all sorts; the concentration theory debarred any idea of depriving him of his ill-gotten authority, so that he was at once a troublesome enemy to the Dutch Government and, by prudent policy on the part of those in authority, a potentially useful ally.
The acceptance and its consequences
It was true that Uma had many crimes standing to his debit and had more than once been guilty of double-dealing; but these were offences which could be laid to the charge of all “friendly” Achehnese chiefs, and although in Uma’s case the proportions in both respects were greater than in the case of other treacherous allies, this was only due to the fact that the others were less subtle and energetic than he. Thus in 1893 when Uma, intending to advance his own interests, had repeatedly asked for the forgiveness of his past offences, the acceptance of his submission could not be censured from the point of view of the concentration scheme. With a prudent endeavour to reconcile Uma’s private interests with those of peace and order throughout the territories he ruled, there would have been much to gain and nothing to lose.
The fatal confidence of the Governor
What made the submission catastrophic was not its acceptance but the use to which it was put. It was inexcusable, Snouck Hurgronje insists, that a Governor absolutely unacquainted with native affairs—General Deykerhoff—should, immediately after Uma’s submission, have given his entire confidence to this adventurer, and in defiance of all warnings should have persisted in strengthening Uma by generous subsidies of Dutch weapons and Dutch money. Thus assisted, Uma overcame his own enemies in partisan struggles; civil war raged even after the Dutch power was established in Acheh; and under the guise of fighting against the foes of the Dutch regime, he dealt out, as his own, plentiful subsidies to his friends in the War-party, and tried by all means in his power to acquire the maximum of influence both over the Dutch and their opponents.
The end of the episode
This could not go on for long. As soon as it ceased to be possible for Uma to continue to combine the satisfaction of the wishes of the War-party with the appearance of advancing the interests of the Government, the barrel would burst—and there was not much doubt on which side Uma would elect to be. In March 1896, Uma thought that the time had come to remove the scales from the eyes of the blindly-trusting General Deykerhoff. He had then sufficient money and arms to play a leading part among the insurgents, and the burden of the obligations imposed upon him began to be burdensome. His secret opposition to Dutch rule thus changed to open hostility—the event known as the treachery of Teuku Uma against the Dutch—and the “Uma period” came to an end. The Uma episode, however melancholy in itself, indirectly exercised a healthy influence upon the management of Achehnese affairs: its termination opened all eyes to the need of vigorous action if one did not wish to abandon altogether the subjugation of Acheh.
Additional account from The Achehnese, Vol. I — Submission of Teuku Uma to the Dutch Government
The submission of Teuku Uma to the Dutch Government in 1893 marked the moment at which the celebrated Achehnese chief — then at the height of his influence over the West Coast and one of the three sagis of Great Acheh — formally tendered his submission, asking forgiveness for his past offences. The episode is treated in detail above; the present note records the reference to it which occurs in a footnote at p. 188 of The Achehnese, Vol. I, in connection with the public life of the ulama Teungku Kutakarang.
The reference in Vol. I
Snouck Hurgronje, at the close of his account of the politico-religious pamphlets of Teungku Kutakarang — the author of the Tadkirat-ar-rakinut — remarks in a footnote that “after the submission of Teuku Uma to the Dutch Government, Teungku Kutakarang withdrew to a great extent from public life and died in November 1895.” The juxtaposition is significant. The Tadkirat-ar-rakinut, with its fiery denunciation of the Dutch as outcasts of humanity and its appeal for concerted jihad under a single treasury, was conceived in the heroic phase of the resistance, when Teuku Uma’s raiding power on the West Coast still gave some ground for hoping that the infidel might be expelled. Once the strongest of the secular champions had gone over to the Gompeuni, the ulama of the printed word could no longer pretend that the nation was advancing; he withdrew into privacy, and within two years was in his grave.
The “concentration” period
The acceptance of the submission by the Dutch authorities belongs to the larger story of the concentration policy, which since 1881 had sought to reduce the Achehnese War to a defensive containment of the insurgents within a fixed “line” around the capital. From the point of view of that policy, the acceptance of Uma’s submission “could not be censured”, since even if the fickle chief changed his mind, the Dutch would be no worse off than before. The last three years of this concentration time earned an unhappy notoriety under the name of the “Uma period” — a period during which, under Governor Deykerhoff, the adventurer was strengthened by generous subsidies of Dutch weapons and Dutch money, until in March 1896 he threw off the mask and turned his Dutch-supplied arms against his patrons in the treachery of Teuku Uma.
Outcome
The submission, in short, is the prelude to the betrayal; and the death of Teungku Kutakarang in 1895, recorded at the same moment, is the symbol of the closing of the heroic age of the ulama-pamphleteers. The account above provides a fuller discussion of the political, military, and personal circumstances of the submission; this section is confined to its place in Vol. I’s account of the religious propagandists of the resistance.
See Also
- Treachery of Teuku Uma against the Dutch
- Teuku Uma
- General Deykerhoff
- Governor Van Heutsz
- Prang sabi (Holy War)
- Tadkirat-ar-rakinut
- Teungku Kutakarang
- Dutch policy of ‘concentration’
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.