Nja’ Ali — also Si Ali of Oenga — was the Acehnese who murdered the Civil Authority W. van Kregten and two soldiers at Lam No on 20 May 1914 and thereby became, in a few weeks, a band-head of reputation in the Daja country. He was killed by lieutenant C. A. Snell at the holy grave near the mouth of the Daja-rivier on 5 August 1914.
Motive
H. N. A. Swart’s own investigation, conducted personally in a district he knew through and through, established the cause: “a certain Si Ali of Oenga had long had good reason to be aggrieved at the oelèëbalang of Lambeusdë, because the latter stood in an illicit understanding with Ali’s wife. More than once matters had come to an outburst between the two, and the fact that Si Ali did not proceed to an attack on this chief earlier must be attributed to the fact that an Acehnese does not readily raise his hands against a territorial chief.”
Shortly before the murder he had been dismissed, at the instigation of the Civil Authority Van Kregten, from his post as mandoer of a coconut garden; at the inspection which led to that dismissal he must have been pointed to his duty somewhat roughly by the Civil Authority. Du Croo added the note: “Van Kregten was a quiet, calm, well-balanced man.”
“Taking the Acehnese national character into account, he now needed to let nothing restrain him from playing his own judge.”
The band
The easiest way to play his own judge was to gather about him a band of men who likewise had grievances against the administration or their chiefs. He found them in Tgk. Machmoed van Lam No, a former teungkoe-meunasah who had quarrelled with his oelèëbalang over his share in the zakat; in Si Seuna, whose wife had shortly before been unlawfully taken from him by the same oelèëbalang; and in Pang Abaih, a former band-head “for whom the life of the jungle still evidently held a certain attraction.” The four gathered some youths, also kaom-fellows, about them.
The murder of 20 May 1914
The plan to withdraw had already been formed when, in the night of 19–20 May, the extremely careless manner in which the Civil Authority and his escort chose and occupied their night quarters on the keudé at Lam No — the weapons of both soldiers, who were in two different unwalled rooms, lying on the floor — gave them a fine chance to make a name and to provide themselves with weapons.
That night the band held a meeting, and in the early morning of 20 May, about half past five, when the soldiers had even left their weapons unguarded to go and drink coffee and lieutenant Van Kregten was innocently winding his puttees, Si Ali, Tgk. Machmoed, Pang Abaih, Si Seuha and a certain Pang Hitam suddenly attacked him “with the well-known result.”
After the murder of the Civil Authority and the two soldiers, Si Ali sought the oelèëbalang of Lambeusdë, who had hidden himself so well that he was not found and escaped.
The band fled to the mountains with the weapons of the murdered soldiers and was pursued by several brigades.
Reputation and death
The two clashes in the Daja country between the marechaussée patrols and the murderers cost the Dutch two killed and seven wounded against six of the band laid low and one severely wounded brought in; three band members reported themselves. That action, du Croo observed, “had not been an unqualified success — they had suffered heavy losses and lost several carbines, whereby the band leader Si (Nja’) Ali at once acquired a great reputation, and that is and was in Atjeh a dangerous and highly contagious phenomenon.”
His reputation drew Nja’ Asém and the Lhong band to him. On 5 August 1914 lieutenant Snell, after a carefully prepared action, surprised the united bands at the holy grave near the mouth of the Daja river; fifteen band members fell, among them both band-heads Nja’ Ali and Nja’ Asém, and the repeating carbines lost by the Daja column and the overseer’s Mauser rifle were recaptured.
See Also
- Resistance in Daja and Lhong (1914)
- W. van Kregten
- Nja’ Asém
- Teukoe Mamat
- C. A. Snell
- Daja
- Lam No
- H. N. A. Swart
Source
Generaal Swart, Pacificator van Atjeh (“General Swart, Pacifier of Atjeh”), by M. H. du Croo, Colonel K.N.I.L. (retired), with the collaboration of H. J. Schmidt, Titular Colonel K.N.I.L. (retired), with a foreword by His Excellency Lieutenant-General K.N.I.L. (retired) G. K. Dijkstra (Maastricht: N.V. Leiter-Nypels, 1943), Chapter XII, pp. 123–126.