Mr. S. M. Amin was a former lawyer at Kuta Radja, known for his competence and moderate nationalism, who was appointed Governor of North Sumatra on 20 October 1953 — in the midst of the government’s reconquest of Atjeh from the Negara Islam Indonesia rebellion — and whose appointment Henri J. H. Alers’s Om een rode of groene Merdeka judges to have been “less fortunate” than hoped.
A contested appointment
Alers describes Mr. S. M. Amin as a former Kuta Radja lawyer whose capability and moderate nationalist credentials were widely acknowledged. But, Alers notes, during his time working for the official Dutch information journal “Penjoeloeh Ra’jat,” Amin had drawn upon himself the hostility of the resistance movement active during the Japanese advance — the same movement, in essence, that had by 1953 aligned itself with the Negara Islam Indonesia. Amin took up his new post on 20 October 1953. Atjèhnese newspapers were sceptical: the Mestika doubted whether his appointment was really a successful way of resolving Atjeh’s difficulties, and the Mimbar Umum voiced a similar view, quoting ministers as offering only the stern-sounding but empty formula that “violence must be met with violence,” while wondering openly why Kahar Muzakkar in South Celebes, but not Teungkoe Moehamad Daoed Beureu-éh in Atjeh, was offered a chance to surrender on honourable terms.
Alers’s assessment
Alers suggests two reasons for this discrepancy: the Djakarta government did not come to the Atjeh problem with entirely clean hands, given its own record in the South Celebes guerrilla conflict, and international considerations weighed more heavily in Atjeh’s case — South Celebes carried little international risk, but Atjeh, given its strategic position, did. He notes as telling that President Sukarno, speaking at Bone in South Celebes on 14 October 1953, accused Kartosuwirjo of having sought aid from the United States — an accusation Alers judges could only plausibly concern Atjeh, not the strategically marginal South Celebes.
See Also
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,” pp. 273–274.
Mr. S. M. Amin was a former lawyer at Kuta Radja, known for his competence and moderate nationalism, who was appointed Governor of North Sumatra on 20 October 1953 — in the midst of the government’s reconquest of Atjeh from the Negara Islam Indonesia rebellion — and whose appointment Henri J. H. Alers’s Om een rode of groene Merdeka judges to have been “less fortunate” than hoped.
A contested appointment
Alers describes Mr. S. M. Amin as a former Kuta Radja lawyer whose capability and moderate nationalist credentials were widely acknowledged. But, Alers notes, during his time working for the official Dutch information journal “Penjoeloeh Ra’jat,” Amin had drawn upon himself the hostility of the resistance movement active during the Japanese advance — the same movement, in essence, that had by 1953 aligned itself with the Negara Islam Indonesia. Amin took up his new post on 20 October 1953. Atjèhnese newspapers were sceptical: the Mestika doubted whether his appointment was really a successful way of resolving Atjeh’s difficulties, and the Mimbar Umum voiced a similar view, quoting ministers as offering only the stern-sounding but empty formula that “violence must be met with violence,” while wondering openly why Kahar Muzakkar in South Celebes, but not Teungkoe Moehamad Daoed Beureu-éh in Atjeh, was offered a chance to surrender on honourable terms.
Alers’s assessment
Alers suggests two reasons for this discrepancy: the Djakarta government did not come to the Atjeh problem with entirely clean hands, given its own record in the South Celebes guerrilla conflict, and international considerations weighed more heavily in Atjeh’s case — South Celebes carried little international risk, but Atjeh, given its strategic position, did. He notes as telling that President Sukarno, speaking at Bone in South Celebes on 14 October 1953, accused Kartosuwirjo of having sought aid from the United States — an accusation Alers judges could only plausibly concern Atjeh, not the strategically marginal South Celebes.
See Also
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,” pp. 273–274.