Radja Ketjil — the early-eighteenth-century Malay adventurer who, claiming to be an illegitimate son of a former Sultan of Djohore, drove Djohore out of Siak and briefly made himself master of the throne of Djohore — was, in the Encyclopaedisch Bureau’s survey of the Outer Possessions, the founder of the independent Sultanate of Siak. Radja Ketjil’s revolution — recorded by the Bureau as the closing act of the long Djohorese presence at the Siak River mouth — was, in the Bureau’s framing, the political event that transformed Siak from a Djohorese dependency into an independent sultanate, and that inaugurated the long Siak-Atjeh rivalry over the East Coast that would persist into the nineteenth century.
The claim and the conquest of Siak
The Bureau records Radja Ketjil’s claim and the conquest of Siak in a single, dense sentence: “In het begin der 18de eeuw werd Djohore uit Siak verjaagd door den bekenden Radja ketjil, die zich uitgaf voor een onechten zoon van een der vroegere Djohore’sche sultans. Met behulp van den vorst van Pagarroejoeng veroverde hij eerst Siak” — “In the beginning of the 18th century Djohore was driven out of Siak by the well-known Radja Ketjil, who gave himself out as an illegitimate son of one of the former Djohorese sultans. With the help of the prince of Pagarroejoeng he first conquered Siak.”
Radja Ketjil’s claim to be “een onechten zoon van een der vroegere Djohore’sche sultans” — “an illegitimate son of one of the former Djohorese sultans” — was, in the Bureau’s framing, the legitimating fiction of his revolution. The claim gave him a dynastic right to the Djohorese succession, and hence to the Sabah Aoer station that the Sultan of Djohore had established at the mouth of the Siak River in the early sixteenth century. The collaboration of the prince of Pagarroejoeng — the legendary Minangkabau kingdom in central Sumatra — gave Radja Ketjil the Minangkabau military support that he needed to make good his claim.
The conquest of Djohore (1717)
Radja Ketjil’s conquest of Siak was followed, in 1717, by his conquest of the throne of Djohore. The Bureau records: “en maakte zich daarna zelfs meester van den troon van Djohore (1717)” — “and thereafter even made himself master of the throne of Djohore (1717).” The conquest of the Djohorese throne was, in the Bureau’s framing, the high-water mark of Radja Ketjil’s revolution: the illegitimate son of a former Djohorese sultan had made good his claim to the entire Djohorese inheritance.
The loss of Djohore and the consolidation of Siak
Radja Ketjil’s mastery of the Djohorese throne was, however, short-lived. The Bureau records: “Deze laatste verloor Radja Ketjil echter spoedig weer, doch in Siak wist hij zich te handhaven, zoodat dit sedert dien tijd onafhankelijk was van het rijk Djohore” — “This latter [the Djohore throne] Radja Ketjil, however, soon lost again, but in Siak he managed to maintain himself, so that from that time it [Siak] was independent of the realm of Djohore.” Radja Ketjil’s loss of the Djohore throne and his consolidation of an independent Sultanate of Siak was, in the Bureau’s framing, the political event that closed the long Djohorese-Atjehnese arrangement at the Siak River mouth and inaugurated the independent Sultanate of Siak.
The Compagnie and the afstand of 1745
The Bureau records, in a footnote, the abortive Dutch attempt to acquire Siak from Djohore in 1745. The footnote records that, in 1745, “Siak geheel door Djohore aan de Compagnie afgestaan” — “Siak was entirely ceded by Djohore to the Compagnie” — “in de hoop daardoor onze medewerking tegen Radja Ketjil te verkrijgen” — “in the hope thereby of obtaining our co-operation against Radja Ketjil.” The cession was, however, never formally accepted: “Omdat de Compagnie hier huiverig voor was, werd deze afstand nimmer formeel aanvaard” — “Because the Compagnie was hesitant about this, this cession was never formally accepted.” The abortive cession of 1745 was, in the Bureau’s framing, the first Dutch approach to the Siak question — an approach that would, in the 1750s, bear fruit in the establishment of the Poelau Gontong post and the long Dutch-Siak alliance.
Significance
Radja Ketjil is, in the Encyclopaedisch Bureau’s survey, the founder of the independent Sultanate of Siak. His revolution closes the long Djohorese presence at the Siak River mouth (which had begun in the early sixteenth century, after the Atjehnese destruction of Gasip), and it inaugurates the independent Sultanate of Siak that would, in turn, impose its own overlordship over the East Coast statelets under Ismail and Said Ali. Radja Ketjil’s revolution thus closes the long Djohorese-Atjehnese arrangement at the Siak River mouth and opens the long Siak-Atjeh rivalry over the East Coast that would persist into the nineteenth century.
See Also
- Siak
- Djohor
- Pagarroejoeng
- Sabah Aoer
- Acheh
- rijk Gasip
- atjehsche-verovering-van-gasip-(begin-16e-eeuw)
- atjehsche-overheersing-der-noordelijke-kuststaatjes
- Sultan Ismail of Siak
- Sultan Said Ali
- Poelau Gontong
- Timeline of Aceh History
- 1717
- 1745
Source
De Buitenbezittingen, Deel II, Afl. 3: Oostkust van Sumatra. Eerste Stuk, bewerkt door het Encyclopaedisch Bureau, Mededeelingen van het Bureau voor de Bestuurszaken der Buitenbezittingen (Weltevreden: Landsdrukkerij, 1918), p. 103 n. Universiteitsbibliotheek Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, shelfmark LS.08781.
Nota omtrent het Rijk van Siak, by H. A. Hijmans van Anrooy, in Tijdschrift van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië, dl. XXX (1885).