A. Ph. van Aken was a Dutch colonial controller and administrative official who served as the Controller of Korintji (in the residency of Djambi) and participated in the 1913–1914 Administrative Reform Meetings. He is particularly notable for his detailed knowledge of local administrative structures in the highland region of Korintji and for contributing valuable ethnographic and administrative detail to discussions about how indigenous administrative units should be recognized and classified in the context of Dutch colonial governance.
Administrative Position
Van Aken held the position of Controller of Korintji, a highland administrative region within the larger residency of Djambi in Sumatra. The controller’s role combined inspection, administrative oversight, and advisory functions, requiring detailed knowledge of local conditions, indigenous leadership structures, and community organization.
Participation in the Reform Meetings
Van Aken participated in the 1913–1914 Administrative Reform Meetings at Medan (13 January–15 January 1914) and was present during discussions about how indigenous administrative units in various regions of Sumatra could be adapted to the proposed colonial reorganization scheme.
Contributions to the Discussions
The Structure of Korintji Administration
Van Aken provided detailed information about the complex administrative organization of Korintji, correcting misunderstandings held by Government Commissioner S. de Graaf and others about the region’s structure. He explained that:
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Doesoen federations: Korintji was organized into “doesoenfederaties” (village federations), each of which possessed its own treasury (kas)
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Historical collective representation: The entire region of Korintji had formerly represented itself externally through a college composed of the highest adat (customary law) heads—a collective body rather than a single chief or governor
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The problematic “district” designation: The Dutch colonial administration had mistakenly designated what Van Aken called these “doesoen communities” (doesoengemeenschappen) as “districts” (distrikten), a designation that obscured their actual character
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The “primus inter pares” structure: The district head (districtshoofd) did not stand hierarchically above the other heads but rather functioned as a “primus inter pares”—first among equals—in a collegial arrangement
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Autonomy of constituent units: The doesoen units that comprised these communities viewed themselves as completely self-governing, though they recognized some larger collective identity with neighboring doesoen in the same region
Reclassification of Indigenous Units
Van Aken’s detailed account prompted S. de Graaf to make an important conceptual point: Van Aken’s description indicated that the doesoen in Korintji were comparable to the desa (village administrative unit) on Java, and that what the Dutch had called a “district” in Korintji actually represented an administrative artifice rather than a true indigenous governing unit with historical roots.
Nevertheless, De Graaf acknowledged, the district structure in Korintji—despite being an administrative construct—did have a historical foundation in the form of the previous collective representation through federations of highest adat heads. This distinction between purely administrative constructs with no indigenous basis and administrative arrangements that built upon historical indigenous patterns became important to the broader discussion about whether existing units in various regions could serve as vehicles for autonomous or self-governing status under the new colonial reorganization.
Regional Expertise
Van Aken’s intervention illustrated the importance of field administrators’ detailed knowledge in shaping reform implementation. His ability to explain the actual local structures and hierarchies of Korintji provided crucial clarification for colonial administrators attempting to determine how the decentralization and self-governance principles should be applied in different regions. His work demonstrated that administrative categories and structures could not be uniformly imposed but needed to account for the actual institutional and social realities on the ground.
Account from Een strijd in Atjeh (1934)
Van Aken appears in the pamphlet Een strijd in Atjeh (1934) as the Governor of Atjeh and Dependencies who, in August 1933, directed the ophthalmologist Dr. J. Tijssen to the West Coast of Atjeh rather than to the North Coast where he had worked before.
Tijssen related that on 23 August 1933 he came again to Koeta Radja and travelled thence to Bakongan. “Toen ik in Koeta Radja overleg pleegde met den gouverneur, bleek deze erop gesteld, dat ik ditmaal naar de Westkust zou gaan. Gouverneur van Aken heeft een zwak voor dit gebied, waar hij lange jaren heeft gewerkt; misschien gaven ook politieke motieven den doorslag.” — When I took counsel at Koeta Radja with the governor, it appeared that he set store on my going this time to the West Coast. Governor Van Aken has a weakness for this territory, where he worked for long years.
The remark is the pamphlet’s only comment on Van Aken’s administration, and it records two things: that he had worked long years on the West Coast before his governorship, and that in Tijssen’s judgement political considerations may have entered into the choice of that district — a coast whose road was flanked by the mass graves of “de vele Atjehoorlogen en den opstand van ‘26,” — the many Atjeh wars and the rising of ‘26, and where, Tijssen observed, no officer went into a kampong without a soldier behind him carrying a loaded carbine.
The resulting tour is described at Tijssen’s journey to the West Coast of Atjeh and Simaloer (1933); among its cases were the seven juvenile cataracts between Meulaboh and Singkel. At Bakongan, Tijssen recorded, the administration paid the travelling costs of his patients when the distance was too great to be covered on foot.
See Also
- 1913–1914 Administrative Reform Meetings (Sumatra)
- Korintji
- Djambi
- Bestuurswezen reorganisatie
- Administrative Decentralization (Dutch East Indies)
- S. de Graaf
- 1913
- 1914
- Desa
- Marga
- Adat
Account from Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu
Book is dedicated to his memory (‘AAN DE NAGEDACHTENIS VAN MIJN VRIEND EN VOORGANGER WIJLEN GOUVERNEUR A. PH. VAN AKEN’). Mentioned as flying from Idi via Bireuën to Sabang on 6 October 1934 - the only aircraft to land at Sabang’s then-unused airfield.1932 to 1936. Photographed in the book.
Source: J. Jongejans, Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu (Baarn: Hollandia Drukkerij N.V., c. 1938), pp. 6, 25, 309.
Sources
Notulen der Bestuursvergaderingen ter Bespreking van de Verdere Voorbereiding eener Hervorming van het Bestuurswezen in Nederlandsch-Indië (Batavia: Landsdrukkerij, 1914), Medan session (13 January–15 January 1914), pp. 11–15.
Een strijd in Atjeh (Een oogarts op het oorlogspad), door Mr. C. Graadt van Roggen, met een voorrede van den heer H. Wanting, redacteur Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant (Rotterdam: N.V. Drukkerij Korteweg, uitgave van de Vereeniging „SIMAVI”, 1934), pp. 10–11.
Acknowledgement of sources. This article combines material from the publications cited above; the material newly added derives from Atjeh in de Tweede Kamer (Amsterdam: J. A. Fortuijn, 1897) and Een strijd in Atjeh (Rotterdam: N.V. Drukkerij Korteweg for the Vereeniging „SIMAVI”, 1934). Dutch passages are quoted in the original with an English rendering.
Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu, by J. Jongejans, Oud-Resident van het Gewest Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden, with a foreword by Dr. H. Colijn (Baarn: Hollandia Drukkerij N.V., c. 1938), pp. 6, 25, 309.