Pang Bintang was the Acehnese band-leader known as “the unfindable robber chief” (“the unfindable robber chief”) of Pidië and, latterly, of the XXII Moekims in Groot Atjeh, hunted by the Kompeuni from 1905 and killed by pure chance in July 1913 in a wholly quiet, directly administered part of Groot Atjeh.
The long evasion
In 1911 Pang Bintang was responsible for one of the setbacks of the year in Pidië. A brigade of infantry sent from its bivouac in gampong Biheuë — “squarely against the regulations” — seven soldiers, half its strength, to nearby Kalé to forage. The unfindable Pang Bintang stood in relation to the keutjhi’ (village head) of Kalé, who likewise enjoyed the confidence of the Kompeuni (“the Company (the Dutch power)”). The keutjhi’ was thus able to lure four of the seven soldiers to a distant part of the gampong. While they were there, haggling over rice with the village head’s wife, they were suddenly attacked and wounded by the keutjhi’ and five members of Pang Bintang’s band. But the wounded soldiers hit back hard, killed the keutjhi’ and one band member, and drove off the other four. The keutjhi''s revolver even remained in their hands, though a carbine disappeared. A patrol went out at once, recovered the carbine and overtook the four fugitives, all of whom proved severely wounded. The object of the attack, it appeared, had been to obtain firearms: “the bands were becoming alarmingly short of firearms.”
In 1913 Pang Bintang twice took a knock, losing five kawans and one rifle. He remained on the list of the principal unsubmitted band-leaders of Pidië, alongside T. Dagang, the remnants of the Tirò band under Tgk. Ma’ Aréh di Lam Goet, and the Tjoebo-bende.
Death, July 1913
The end came, as du Croo put it, “and at last, in July, and in the wholly quiet, directly administered territory of Groot Atjeh at that.” Overste W. B. J. A. Scheepens, then Civil and Military Authority at Sigli, described it in one of his last letters to H. J. Schmidt before his death in October:
“…you will surely already have heard that Pang Bintang and his little troop are no more. His capture was such a stroke of luck as I have seldom seen. At last, after the transfer of controleur Roos van Raadshoven, there was to be patrolling in the XXII Moekims as well. Van Andel, since posted at Lam Meulò, got the first patrol and was to begin scouring about with one brigade in the V Moekims Mon Tasië’ and the adjoining hills.”
Swart had earlier, in his letter to Schmidt of 26 September 1911, instructed Scheurleer to gather information about Pang Bintang, attaching him for form’s sake to the Provincial Bureau at Koeta Radja so that he could go wherever he himself thought necessary.
Significance
Pang Bintang’s twelve years of evasion and the accidental manner of his death illustrate both the difficulty of the “needles in the haystack” phase of the pacification and the ambiguity of Dutch authority in areas reported as entirely quiet: his hiding-place lay three-quarters of an hour from a gampong and was connected to it by a well-worn path. Scheepens’s remark that “de grootste dieven vrij blijven” records the frustration of the administration at the complicity that sheltered such men.
See Also
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 XI, pp. 107–108; Chapter XII, pp. 117–118; Chapter XIV, p. 141.