Badan Keinsjafan Rakjat (B.K.R.) was an association formed by the surviving oelèëbalang class of Atjeh in the early 1950s, under the leadership of Teuku Mohammed Ali Samalanga, as the oelèëbalangs took new heart from the central government’s efforts, following the merger of Atjeh into the province of North Sumatra in 1951, to restore non-Poesa and oelèëbalang-class officials to positions of administrative influence. Henri J. H. Alers’s Om een rode of groene Merdeka presents its programme as aimed squarely at unwinding the results of the 1945–46 social revolution.
Formation and programme
Alers records that the new resident-coordinator of Atjeh, the Javanese Danubroto, attempted to place loyal Atjèhnese — chiefly of the oelèëbalang class — and non-Atjèhnese officials into positions that Poesa members had held since the revolution. Emboldened by this shift, the oelèëbalang class organised the Badan Keinsjafan Rakjat under Teuku Mohammed Ali Samalanga. Its programme called for the abolition of the Madjelis Penimbang, the replacement of the Poesa-dominated civil-service corps, and the holding of general elections.
The government’s assessment
The central government regarded the B.K.R.’s demands concerning the return of confiscated oelèëbalang property as “very moderate,” since the oelèëbalangs asked only for enough land to support themselves. Alers cautions, however, against reading this moderation as evidence of weak intent: had the Poesa’s grip on the administrative, judicial, and police posts of Atjeh been broken as the B.K.R. urged, the oelèëbalang class might well, he argues, have been able to undo the entire social revolution of 1946 with comparative ease. Sociologically, Alers situates the B.K.R.’s confrontation with the Poesa within the same broader pattern he traces throughout Atjeh’s post-war history: the Poesa in the position of “republicans,” the oelèëbalang class of “feudal-federalists,” and the central republican government occupying, in its dealings with both, something of the position the former Netherlands Indies government had once held.
See Also
- Teuku Mohammed Ali Samalanga
- Danubroto
- Madjelis Penimbang
- Poesa
- North Sumatra
- Ulama–Uleëbalang social revolution in Atjeh (1945–1946)
- 1951
Source
Om een rode of groene Merdeka: Tien jaren binnenlandse politiek Indonesië, 1943–1953, by Henri J. H. Alers (Eindhoven: Uitgeverij Vulkaan, 1956), Chapter VII §35 “De Negara Islam Indonesia in Atjeh,” p. 268.
Badan Keinsjafan Rakjat (B.K.R.) was an association formed by the surviving oelèëbalang class of Atjeh in the early 1950s, under the leadership of Teuku Mohammed Ali Samalanga, as the oelèëbalangs took new heart from the central government’s efforts, following the merger of Atjeh into the province of North Sumatra in 1951, to restore non-Poesa and oelèëbalang-class officials to positions of administrative influence. Henri J. H. Alers’s Om een rode of groene Merdeka presents its programme as aimed squarely at unwinding the results of the 1945–46 social revolution.
Formation and programme
Alers records that the new resident-coordinator of Atjeh, the Javanese Danubroto, attempted to place loyal Atjèhnese — chiefly of the oelèëbalang class — and non-Atjèhnese officials into positions that Poesa members had held since the revolution. Emboldened by this shift, the oelèëbalang class organised the Badan Keinsjafan Rakjat under Teuku Mohammed Ali Samalanga. Its programme called for the abolition of the Madjelis Penimbang, the replacement of the Poesa-dominated civil-service corps, and the holding of general elections.
The government’s assessment
The central government regarded the B.K.R.’s demands concerning the return of confiscated oelèëbalang property as “very moderate,” since the oelèëbalangs asked only for enough land to support themselves. Alers cautions, however, against reading this moderation as evidence of weak intent: had the Poesa’s grip on the administrative, judicial, and police posts of Atjeh been broken as the B.K.R. urged, the oelèëbalang class might well, he argues, have been able to undo the entire social revolution of 1946 with comparative ease. Sociologically, Alers situates the B.K.R.’s confrontation with the Poesa within the same broader pattern he traces throughout Atjeh’s post-war history: the Poesa in the position of “republicans,” the oelèëbalang class of “feudal-federalists,” and the central republican government occupying, in its dealings with both, something of the position the former Netherlands Indies government had once held.
See Also
- Teuku Mohammed Ali Samalanga
- Danubroto
- Madjelis Penimbang
- Poesa
- North Sumatra
- Ulama–Uleëbalang social revolution in Atjeh (1945–1946)
- 1951
Source
Om een rode of groene Merdeka: Tien jaren binnenlandse politiek Indonesië, 1943–1953, by Henri J. H. Alers (Eindhoven: Uitgeverij Vulkaan, 1956), Chapter VII §35 “De Negara Islam Indonesia in Atjeh,” p. 268.