Raja Moehamad — also written Radja Moehamad, R. Moehamad — was, in the Encyclopaedisch Bureau’s survey of the Outer Possessions, the Siak sultan whose disputes with his brother Raja Alam over the Siak succession were the immediate occasion of the Dutch East India Company’s (the Oost-Indische Compagnie’s) 1755 establishment of the Poelau Gontong post on the Siak River, and whose 1759 destruction of that post was the immediate occasion of the long Dutch intervention in the Siak succession.
The dispute with Raja Alam
The Bureau records Raja Moehamad’s dispute with his brother Raja Alam in a single, dense footnote. “In 1755 verleende de O. I. C. hulp aan Radja Moehamad, in zijne twisten met zijn broeder R. Alam, over de opvolging in Siak” — “In 1755 the O. I. C. gave help to Radja Moehamad, in his disputes with his brother R. Alam, over the succession in Siak.” The dispute was, in the Bureau’s framing, a fraternal succession dispute — the standard form of Siak dynastic conflict — and the Compagnie’s support for Raja Moehamad was, in return for the right to establish the Poelau Gontong post, the first Dutch intervention in the Siak succession.
The 1755 establishment of the Poelau Gontong post
The Compagnie’s support for Raja Moehamad was, the Bureau records, immediately rewarded by the establishment of the Poelau Gontong post. “Als loon voor deze hulp werd in 1755 toestemming tot het oprichten van eene loge met versterking op Poelo Gontong in de Siakrivier verleend” — “As reward for this help, in 1755, permission for the erection of a lodge with fortification on Poelo Gontong in the Siak River was granted.” The 1755 establishment was, in the Bureau’s framing, the formal beginning of the Dutch commercial presence on the Siak River — the foundation that would, within four years, be destroyed by the very sultan it had been meant to support.
The 1759 destruction of the post
The Poelau Gontong post was destroyed in 1759 by Raja Moehamad. The Bureau records: “Waarschijnlijk oorzaak van het verraad van 1759, was onoordeelkundig optreden der Compagnie’s gevolmachtigden, toen dezelfde R. Moehamad den geheelen post liet uitmoorden” — “Probable cause of the treachery of 1759, was unjudicious conduct of the Compagnie’s envoys, when the same R. Moehamad had the entire post massacred.” The Bureau’s attribution of the destruction to “onoordeelkundig optreden” — “unjudicious conduct” — of the Compagnie’s envoys is the principal explanation recorded for the sultan’s act.
The death and the succession
Raja Moehamad died, the Bureau records, in 1760. “Deze laatste overleed in 1760, doch zijn opvolger Radja Ismail, werd in 1761 overwonnen en verdreven naar Pelalawan” — “This latter [Radja Moehamad] died in 1760, but his successor Radja Ismail, was in 1761 overcome and driven out to Pelalawan.” Raja Moehamad’s death, in other words, opened the Siak succession to his successor Raja Ismail, who was in turn overcome and driven out by the Dutch-backed Raja Alam in 1761.
Significance
Raja Moehamad is, in the Encyclopaedisch Bureau’s survey, the Siak sultan whose reign spans the 1755 establishment and the 1759 destruction of the Poelau Gontong post — the political event that inaugurates the long Dutch intervention in the Siak succession. His destruction of the post in 1759 was, in the Bureau’s framing, the archetypal instance of the Dutch East India Company’s “onoordeelkundig optreden” on the East Coast, and the political event that transformed the Siak sultanate from a Dutch client state into an independent polity — a transformation that would, in turn, be reversed by the Dutch-backed restoration of Raja Alam in 1759–1761.
See Also
- Siak
- Raja Alam
- Sultan Ismail of Siak
- Poelau Gontong
- Pelalawan
- Acheh
- atjehsche-overheersing-der-noordelijke-kuststaatjes
- Timeline of Aceh History
- 1755
- 1759
- 1760
- 1761
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).
De Nederlanders in Siak en Djohore, by E. Netscher, in Verhandelingen van het Bataviaasch Genootschap, XXXV (1870).