Poesa — the Persatoean Oelama-Oelama Seleroeh Atjèh, or All-Aceh Union of Ulemas — was the religious-political association founded in 1939 in Bireuën under the high patronage of Teukoe Hadji Tjhi’ Moehamad Djohan Alam Sjah, self-governing authority of Peusangan, which became, in Piekaar’s words, “for the first time in the history of Aceh” the form in which “the religious life and striving of the Acehnese found its own form.” Conceived as a counterweight to the modernist Moehammadijah currents that were “foreign to Acehnese religious life,” Poesa united the conservative oelama’s with the more militant youth of the gampóng, and within three years of its foundation it had built up a following “of an extent unknown to Aceh throughout the entire residency” — providing the Fujiwara-kikan with one of its most effective channels into Atjèhnese society when the Japanese invasion of Atjèh of 12 March 1942 came.
Foundation and purpose
The Poesa “or P(ersatoean) Oe(lama-oelama) S(eloeroeh) A(tjèh) was founded in 1939 in Bireuën under the high patronage of Teukoe Hadji Tjhi’ Moehamad Djohan Alam Sjah, self-governing authority of Peusangan.” It was “intended as a counterweight to the modern currents of the Moehammadijah movement” and “should, under the leadership of Aceh’s most prominent oelama’s, become the bearer of the typically Acehnese, fanatically orthodox religious life.” The ambition was to revive Aceh’s old reputation as “sramoë Meukah” — the “forecourt of Mecca.” Membership was not limited to the oelama’s; “anyone who could identify with the objectives could join the association,” and “a political slant, let alone an anti-Dutch tendency, seemed foreign to this plan.”
The youth wing and the scout movement
The movement rapidly acquired a militant edge through its youth organisation, the Pemoeda Poesa, to which a scout body called Kasjafatoel Islam was attached. “Soon one then saw uniformed Poesa youths everywhere in Atjèh,” notably at the installation of Teukoe Panglima Pólém Moehamad Ali as honorary chairman of the Twenty-Two Moekims in 1940. This youthful militancy lay, in Piekaar’s reading, “the germ of the resistance action” — the youth wing would prove to be the bridge between Poesa’s religious agenda and the armed insurgency of 1942.
The estrangement from the oelèëbalangs
“What finally caused both the conservative oelama and the progressive, younger generation, having outgrown adat authority, to form a united front against the adat legal authority of the oelèëbalang” was a deepening conflict over religious jurisdiction, marriage regulations, and the administration of hoeköm. “Also in the relationship between the Poesa and the loyal oelèëbalangs, who possessed somewhat deeper insight, a gradual cooling developed.” The movement’s anti-Dutch evolution was sharpened by figures such as Teukoe Moehamad Hasan of the Atjèh Shimbun, who “sought rapprochement with the Poesa, whose anti-Dutch development” he guided, and who would later be removed from the editorship under Japanese pressure.
The Japanese occupation
Under the Japanese, Poesa was institutionalised. Its leaders sat on the central board of the Maibkatra — Teungkoe Moehamad Daoed Beureu-éh and Teungkoe Moehamad Hasbi served as deputy chairmen — and Poesa-affiliated oelama’s were systematically placed on the Atjèh Council. Yet the relationship was always instrumental: the Resident “lino” noted in his installation speech for the Maibkatra on 10 March 1943 that the oelama’s must “advise the people ‘not to interfere in matters concerning the administration of the country.’” When Poesa was finally absorbed, along with PETA and the Kapal Oedara Atjèh, into the mass body Permai on 20 January 1945, its apparatus — by then a force of more than 5,000 armed Poesa-inspired youths in the volksleger — survived as the political-military instrument that would destroy oelèëbalang authority in the 1945 “social revolution.”
See Also
- Teukoe Hadji Tjhi’ Moehamad Djohan Alam Sjah
- Teungkoe Moehamad Daoed Beureu-éh
- Teukoe Moehamad Hasan
- Bireuën
- Peusangan
- Maibkatra
- Permai
- Fujiwara-kikan
- Atjèh Council
- 1939
- 1942
Source
Atjèh and the War with Japan, by Dr. A. J. Piekaar, translated from the Dutch original Atjèh en de oorlog met Japan (1949) (‘s-Gravenhage/Bandung: N.V. Uitgeverij W. van Hoeve; English edition), Introduction, Chapter I § 3, Chapter III §§ 1–3, Chapter VI, Chapter VII §§ 2–4, Chapter IX.
Poesa — the Persatoean Oelama-Oelama Seleroeh Atjèh, or All-Aceh Union of Ulemas — was the religious-political association founded in 1939 in Bireuën under the high patronage of Teukoe Hadji Tjhi’ Moehamad Djohan Alam Sjah, self-governing authority of Peusangan, which became, in Piekaar’s words, “for the first time in the history of Aceh” the form in which “the religious life and striving of the Acehnese found its own form.” Conceived as a counterweight to the modernist Moehammadijah currents that were “foreign to Acehnese religious life,” Poesa united the conservative oelama’s with the more militant youth of the gampóng, and within three years of its foundation it had built up a following “of an extent unknown to Aceh throughout the entire residency” — providing the Fujiwara-kikan with one of its most effective channels into Atjèhnese society when the Japanese invasion of Atjèh of 12 March 1942 came.
Foundation and purpose
The Poesa “or P(ersatoean) Oe(lama-oelama) S(eloeroeh) A(tjèh) was founded in 1939 in Bireuën under the high patronage of Teukoe Hadji Tjhi’ Moehamad Djohan Alam Sjah, self-governing authority of Peusangan.” It was “intended as a counterweight to the modern currents of the Moehammadijah movement” and “should, under the leadership of Aceh’s most prominent oelama’s, become the bearer of the typically Acehnese, fanatically orthodox religious life.” The ambition was to revive Aceh’s old reputation as “sramoë Meukah” — the “forecourt of Mecca.” Membership was not limited to the oelama’s; “anyone who could identify with the objectives could join the association,” and “a political slant, let alone an anti-Dutch tendency, seemed foreign to this plan.”
The youth wing and the scout movement
The movement rapidly acquired a militant edge through its youth organisation, the Pemoeda Poesa, to which a scout body called Kasjafatoel Islam was attached. “Soon one then saw uniformed Poesa youths everywhere in Atjèh,” notably at the installation of Teukoe Panglima Pólém Moehamad Ali as honorary chairman of the Twenty-Two Moekims in 1940. This youthful militancy lay, in Piekaar’s reading, “the germ of the resistance action” — the youth wing would prove to be the bridge between Poesa’s religious agenda and the armed insurgency of 1942.
The estrangement from the oelèëbalangs
“What finally caused both the conservative oelama and the progressive, younger generation, having outgrown adat authority, to form a united front against the adat legal authority of the oelèëbalang” was a deepening conflict over religious jurisdiction, marriage regulations, and the administration of hoeköm. “Also in the relationship between the Poesa and the loyal oelèëbalangs, who possessed somewhat deeper insight, a gradual cooling developed.” The movement’s anti-Dutch evolution was sharpened by figures such as Teukoe Moehamad Hasan of the Atjèh Shimbun, who “sought rapprochement with the Poesa, whose anti-Dutch development” he guided, and who would later be removed from the editorship under Japanese pressure.
The Japanese occupation
Under the Japanese, Poesa was institutionalised. Its leaders sat on the central board of the Maibkatra — Teungkoe Moehamad Daoed Beureu-éh and Teungkoe Moehamad Hasbi served as deputy chairmen — and Poesa-affiliated oelama’s were systematically placed on the Atjèh Council. Yet the relationship was always instrumental: the Resident “lino” noted in his installation speech for the Maibkatra on 10 March 1943 that the oelama’s must “advise the people ‘not to interfere in matters concerning the administration of the country.’” When Poesa was finally absorbed, along with PETA and the Kapal Oedara Atjèh, into the mass body Permai on 20 January 1945, its apparatus — by then a force of more than 5,000 armed Poesa-inspired youths in the volksleger — survived as the political-military instrument that would destroy oelèëbalang authority in the 1945 “social revolution.”
See Also
- Teukoe Hadji Tjhi’ Moehamad Djohan Alam Sjah
- Teungkoe Moehamad Daoed Beureu-éh
- Teukoe Moehamad Hasan
- Bireuën
- Peusangan
- Maibkatra
- Permai
- Fujiwara-kikan
- Atjèh Council
- 1939
- 1942
Source
Atjèh and the War with Japan, by Dr. A. J. Piekaar, translated from the Dutch original Atjèh en de oorlog met Japan (1949) (‘s-Gravenhage/Bandung: N.V. Uitgeverij W. van Hoeve; English edition), Introduction, Chapter I § 3, Chapter III §§ 1–3, Chapter VI, Chapter VII §§ 2–4, Chapter IX.