The “Uma” period was the name given by Snouck Hurgronje to the last three years of the Dutch “concentration” time in Acheh — roughly 1893 to 1896 — during which the adventurer Teuku Uma was strengthened by Dutch weapons and money and used his position to enrich the Achehnese war-party under the guise of serving the Government. The period began with the submission of Teuku Uma in 1893 and ended with his open defection in March 1896. It earned, in Hurgronje’s words, “an unhappy notoriety” as the nadir of Dutch policy in the war in Acheh, and its termination was the immediate cause of the resumption of offensive operations and ultimately of Joannes Benedictus van Heutsz.
The adventurer at the height of his influence
The “Uma” period takes its name from Teuku Uma (Umar), a chief who had come from the Meulaboh country and who 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.” By cunning and violence he had acquired “a commanding influence over the West Coast and in one of the three sagis of Great Acheh”. The “concentration” theory debarred any idea of depriving him of his ill-gotten authority; he was thus at once a troublesome enemy to the Dutch Government and, with prudent policy, a potentially useful ally.
The fatal confidence of the Governor
When, in 1893, 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 prudent management there would have been “much to gain and nothing to lose.” What made the episode catastrophic was the use to which the submission was put. It was “inexcusable”, 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, so that “civil war raged even after the Dutch power was established in Acheh”. 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 only apparent gain which Uma, now appointed a commander of friendly Achehnese forces and considered by the Governor as a trusty councillor, brought to his protector, was a “line” of greater extent than the original “concentrated” line — and this gain “was due to — and continued to depend on — the slender thread of his good-will.”
The end of the episode
The arrangement could not last. “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 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 defection of Teuku Uma — and the “Uma period” came to an end.
Although melancholy in itself, the episode indirectly exercised a healthy influence on 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.” In 1896 the war against the Achehnese, suspended since 1881 without any real resultant gain, was resumed, and from 1898 onwards “everything has been methodically done to make the necessary end, once and for all, of this insurrection.”
See Also
- Concentration Scheme
- Submission of Teuku Uma
- Defection of Teuku Uma
- Teuku Uma
- General Deykerhoff
- Van Heutsz’s governorship
- Achehnese 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.