Kédjoerön Bédén was a minor child of a previously deposed Kédjoerön Pétiambang of Gajoland who, in 1904, was installed by the colonne of Gotfried Coenraad Ernst van Daalen as the legitimate territorial chief of Gajo Loeës, having been taken from his place of exile in Tamiang by his father and paraded through Koeta Radja to sign the Korte Verklaring — without the required consultation of the other rédjë’s of Gajo Loeës — and then carried back to his country under Dutch military escort to be acknowledged as Kédjoerön. De Buitenbezittingen treats the affair as a defining episode in the early Dutch administration of the Gayo lands: the start of “een volhardend streven onzerzijds om den rédjoerön ook de werkelijke macht van een centraal landsvorst te geven” — a persistent effort on our side to give the Kédjoerön also the actual power of a central territorial prince — and of the “hevig verzet der overige tjèqs tegen dit opgedrongen gezag der geminachte Kédjoeröns-familie” — the fierce resistance of the other tjèqs to this imposed authority of the despised Kédjoerön family.
The descent and the deposition
The Kédjoeröns of Pétiambang in Gajo Loeës held a theoretisch gezag over most of the other tjèq’s of the high plateau — a dignity that had, in practice, long since decayed. Repeated wars conducted by Pétiambang against the powerful Boekét clan had not enhanced the Kédjoerön’s authority; on the contrary, they had stripped him even of “de geringste fictie van oppermacht” — the slightest fiction of supremacy — and made him a plaything of the other tjèq’s, who would depose him at will and forget his overlordship entirely. In 1902 a Kédjoerön was again deposed after a short tenure; the deposed chief, who had previously taken refuge in Tamiang, had relations with the Dutch administration and used them to advance his son Bédén’s election as the new Kédjoerön.
The Koeta Radja installation
Shortly after Bédén’s election, his father brought the minor Kédjoerön heimelijk — secretly — out of the Gayo Loeës to Koeta Radja, “dus zonder het verplichte overleg met de overige rédjë’s der Gajo Loeës” — thus without the required consultation with the other rédjë’s of the Gayo Loeës — where he signed the Korte Verklaring. In 1904 the colonne of van Daalen carried this, “in naam wettigen, kédjoerön met zich mee naar zijn land en liet hem daar weder als zoodanig erkennen” — this, in name legitimate, Kédjoerön with it back to his land and let him be acknowledged there as such.
The regime and the assassination
The history of Dutch administration in the Gayo Loeës after 1904 became, De Buitenbezittingen records, “voortdurend een geweest van een volhardend streven onzerzijds om den rédjoerön ook de werkelijke macht van een centraal landsvorst te geven en van een hevig verzet der overige tjèqs tegen dit opgedrongen gezag der geminachte Kédjoeröns-familie.” The Kédjoerön’s family exploited Dutch support at the expense of the rights of the other tjèqs; the resentment grew. “Algemeen meende men in de Gajo Loeës, dat Bédén en zijn vader het land aan de ‘Kompeni’ verkocht hadden” — it was generally believed in the Gayo Loeës that Bédén and his father had sold the land to the “Kompeni” (the Company, i.e., the Dutch). In 1910 Kédjoerön Bédén was murdered — “werd in 1910 vermoord” — and a successor more acceptable to the other tjèqs was elected with their collaboration, which greatly improved the political situation.
See Also
- Gajoland
- Gajo Loeës
- Kédjoerön Pétiambang
- Kédjoerön Boekét
- G. C. E. van Daalen
- Colonne van Daalen naar de Gajolanden en Alaslanden (1904)
- Korte Verklaring
- Koeta Radja
- Tamiang
- 1904
- 1910
Source
De Buitenbezittingen, Deel II, Aflevering 2: Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden, bewerkt door het Encyclopaedisch Bureau, Mededeelingen van het Bureau voor de Bestuurszaken der Buitenbezittingen (Weltevreden: Landsdrukkerij, 1917), pp. 107–108.
Kédjoerön Bédén was a minor child of a previously deposed Kédjoerön Pétiambang of Gajoland who, in 1904, was installed by the colonne of Gotfried Coenraad Ernst van Daalen as the legitimate territorial chief of Gajo Loeës, having been taken from his place of exile in Tamiang by his father and paraded through Koeta Radja to sign the Korte Verklaring — without the required consultation of the other rédjë’s of Gajo Loeës — and then carried back to his country under Dutch military escort to be acknowledged as Kédjoerön. De Buitenbezittingen treats the affair as a defining episode in the early Dutch administration of the Gayo lands: the start of “een volhardend streven onzerzijds om den rédjoerön ook de werkelijke macht van een centraal landsvorst te geven” — a persistent effort on our side to give the Kédjoerön also the actual power of a central territorial prince — and of the “hevig verzet der overige tjèqs tegen dit opgedrongen gezag der geminachte Kédjoeröns-familie” — the fierce resistance of the other tjèqs to this imposed authority of the despised Kédjoerön family.
The descent and the deposition
The Kédjoeröns of Pétiambang in Gajo Loeës held a theoretisch gezag over most of the other tjèq’s of the high plateau — a dignity that had, in practice, long since decayed. Repeated wars conducted by Pétiambang against the powerful Boekét clan had not enhanced the Kédjoerön’s authority; on the contrary, they had stripped him even of “de geringste fictie van oppermacht” — the slightest fiction of supremacy — and made him a plaything of the other tjèq’s, who would depose him at will and forget his overlordship entirely. In 1902 a Kédjoerön was again deposed after a short tenure; the deposed chief, who had previously taken refuge in Tamiang, had relations with the Dutch administration and used them to advance his son Bédén’s election as the new Kédjoerön.
The Koeta Radja installation
Shortly after Bédén’s election, his father brought the minor Kédjoerön heimelijk — secretly — out of the Gayo Loeës to Koeta Radja, “dus zonder het verplichte overleg met de overige rédjë’s der Gajo Loeës” — thus without the required consultation with the other rédjë’s of the Gayo Loeës — where he signed the Korte Verklaring. In 1904 the colonne of van Daalen carried this, “in naam wettigen, kédjoerön met zich mee naar zijn land en liet hem daar weder als zoodanig erkennen” — this, in name legitimate, Kédjoerön with it back to his land and let him be acknowledged there as such.
The regime and the assassination
The history of Dutch administration in the Gayo Loeës after 1904 became, De Buitenbezittingen records, “voortdurend een geweest van een volhardend streven onzerzijds om den rédjoerön ook de werkelijke macht van een centraal landsvorst te geven en van een hevig verzet der overige tjèqs tegen dit opgedrongen gezag der geminachte Kédjoeröns-familie.” The Kédjoerön’s family exploited Dutch support at the expense of the rights of the other tjèqs; the resentment grew. “Algemeen meende men in de Gajo Loeës, dat Bédén en zijn vader het land aan de ‘Kompeni’ verkocht hadden” — it was generally believed in the Gayo Loeës that Bédén and his father had sold the land to the “Kompeni” (the Company, i.e., the Dutch). In 1910 Kédjoerön Bédén was murdered — “werd in 1910 vermoord” — and a successor more acceptable to the other tjèqs was elected with their collaboration, which greatly improved the political situation.
See Also
- Gajoland
- Gajo Loeës
- Kédjoerön Pétiambang
- Kédjoerön Boekét
- G. C. E. van Daalen
- Colonne van Daalen naar de Gajolanden en Alaslanden (1904)
- Korte Verklaring
- Koeta Radja
- Tamiang
- 1904
- 1910
Source
De Buitenbezittingen, Deel II, Aflevering 2: Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden, bewerkt door het Encyclopaedisch Bureau, Mededeelingen van het Bureau voor de Bestuurszaken der Buitenbezittingen (Weltevreden: Landsdrukkerij, 1917), pp. 107–108.