Sidi Tahil was a merchant from Priaman on the west coast of Sumatra who had traded for many years with the Acehnese and was well acquainted with Groot-Atjeh. He was engaged by Government Commissioner Nieuwenhuizen as an intermediary during the diplomatic exchanges of March 1873 preceding the First Aceh Expedition, and was tasked with carrying the Commissioner’s letters to and from Sultan Mahmud Shah. His mission — the first and most critical diplomatic contact between the Dutch and the Acehnese court in the crisis of 1873 — was ultimately judged to have been counterproductive, though Van Swieten noted that Sidi Tahil had done his best from his own standpoint.
Background
Sidi Tahil was a Muslim merchant based at Priaman who had conducted trade with the Acehnese for many years. He was familiar with Groot-Atjeh, its ports, and its leading figures. He accompanied Controleur Kraaijenhoff as part of the latter’s entourage when Kraaijenhoff joined the Government Commissioner’s staff at Pinang on 16 March 1873.
The Missions to the Sultan
First Mission (22 March 1873)
When the Commissioner’s squadron arrived on the roadstead of Groot-Atjeh on 22 March 1873, Nieuwenhuizen decided to send his first letter to the Sultan via Sidi Tahil rather than through a European official. Sidi Tahil was given the letter and — additionally — a verbal message from the commander of the {{HMS Citadel van Antwerpen}}, Captain Binkes, to the effect that the Dutch would salute the Acehnese flag with twenty-one shots if assured of a return salute.
Sidi Tahil travelled in a prauw crewed by Acehnese boatmen from an intercepted vessel, towed as far as the river mouth by a steam launch and then paddled upstream. He went first to Kwala Tjangkoel, where he met Malilla, another Priaman man living at Maraksa, who guided him through the lagoon to the shore and then to kampong Djawa, where Toekoe Nek, the panglima of the XXV Moekims, resided.
The Panglima Dalam promised to deliver the letter to the Kraton. Sidi Tahil waited in the roemah pandjang (audience hall) by the Kraton gate. After an hour and a half, he was brought inside the Kraton, where the Sultan — a young man of about seventeen — received him without honours in the balei, surrounded by about eighteen mantries.
Sidi Tahil handed the letter to the Sultan, who opened the envelope and passed it to a mantrie, then told Sidi Tahil to return to kampong Djawa, where the royal answer would be sent. Sidi Tahil ventured to express hope that matters would end well, but the mantries grew angry. One said the Sultan should not listen to him, and the Panglima Dalam escorted him out.
Sidi Tahil also reported having heard salute shots on this occasion. The next afternoon, the Panglima Dalam delivered the Sultan’s written reply in Malay — which contained none of the requested clarifications. Nor was the offer of a reciprocal salute addressed.
Second Mission (24 March 1873)
Sidi Tahil carried the Commissioner’s second letter on 24 March, this time daring not to enter the Atjeh river directly because of the large number of armed Acehnese there. Instead, he went to Kwala Tjangkoel and found Malilla again, who guided him through the lagoon. He found some chiefs of the XXV Moekims at the Missigit of Maraksa, gave the manifesto to one of them, and returned to kampong Djawa, where Toekoe Nek received him.
Accompanied again by the Panglima Dalam, he entered the Kraton and was brought before the Sultan — this time without honours. The Sultan took the letter, gave it to a mantrie, and told Sidi Tahil to go back to kampong Djawa. Sidi Tahil again hoped aloud for a peaceful resolution, and again the mantries grew angry.
The following day, the Panglima Dalam brought him the Sultan’s written answer. Sidi Tahil immediately hired an Acehnese sampan and floated down the river, delivering the letter to the Commissioner. On both banks he observed large numbers of armed men with rifles, lances, and klewangs.
Third Mission (delivering the war declaration)
After the formal declaration of war on 26 March 1873, Sidi Tahil carried the manifesto to the shore, again via Kwala Tjangkoel. Malilla warned him that they wanted to kill him. On foot, they went to the Missigit of Maraksa, where he found some chiefs and gave the document to one of them with a request to pass it to the Sultan. He then returned to the ships.
Van Swieten’s Assessment
Van Swieten acknowledged that Sidi Tahil had done his best from his own standpoint: “SIDI TAHIL has from his standpoint done what he could to obtain a peaceful solution.” But Van Swieten questioned whether Sidi Tahil was a suitable person to plead the interests of the Indies Government before the Sultan of an independent realm and a people that bore the Dutch a traditional hatred:
“Could the Sultan fittingly enter into consultation with him about the intentions of the Indies Government, ask him for clarification about the contents of the Commissioner’s letters, which he perhaps had not understood?”
The central criticism was not of Sidi Tahil personally but of the decision to use a native merchant rather than a European official for a diplomatic mission of such importance. The failure to send Kraaijenhoff — who had offered to go himself — was, in Van Swieten’s judgment, the critical error.
Account from Vijftig jaren economische staatkunde in Atjeh (1923)
Sidi Tahil was the interpreter sent ashore by Government Commissioner Nieuwenhuizen in March 1873 to deliver the Netherlands Indian Government’s letters to the Sultan of Atjeh, in the days immediately preceding the Dutch declaration of war on Atjeh.
Role in March 1873
Sidi Tahil was “the same who at former visits of warships had acted as interpreter”. When the Government Commissioner arrived in the roadstead of Atjeh on 22 March 1873 with four warships, the interpreter was forthwith sent ashore with a letter to the Sultan. For his conveyance to the Atjehnese coast use was made of a prauw stopped at sea, because the temper in Atjeh toward the Hollanders made it inadvisable to send the men in Dutch sloops. On the evening of 23 March the interpreter placed the Sultan’s answer — the famous evasive sentence “Ware het ook niet zoo naar den wensch van het gouvernement, het is twee-maal mijn wensch!” — in the hands of Nieuwenhuizen; after a second letter had been answered equally insufficiently, war was declared.
See Also
- First Aceh Expedition (1873)
- The Naval Bombardment and Declaration of War (March 1873)
- F. N. Nieuwenhuizen
- Th. E. R. Kraaijenhoff
- Toengkoe Kadli Malikoel Adil
- Sultan Aladin Mahmoed Shah
- Toekoe Nek Radja Moeda Setia
- Malilla
- Aceh War
- Nieuwenhuizen’s mission to Atjeh and the declaration of war (March 1873)
- Sultan Machmoed Sjah
Source
De waarheid over onze vestiging in Atjeh, door den Luitenant-Generaal J. van Swieten, Zalt-Bommel, Joh. Noman en Zoon, [1879], pp. 17, 24–27, 31–32.
Vijftig jaren economische staatkunde in Atjeh, by Joh. Langhout (The Hague: N.V. Boekhandel v/h W. P. van Stockum & Zoon, 1923), pp. 19–20.