Sri Tengkoe Abdoel Hamid Orangkaja Sri Maharadja Mangkoe Boemi was the oeléebalang of the small landschap of Lho’ Seumawé — a landschap whose head, despite its smallness, was of old a respected prince, bearing the title maharadja and the further honorifics Orangkaja Sri Maharadja Mangkoe Boemi. The title points to his former standing with the sultan of Atjeh and in the whole of Atjeh. He signed the Korte Verklaring in 1904.
The Wilde Woesteling of 1873
About fifty years before Broersma’s visit — that is, in the years around 1873 — a representative of the Netherlands government had wished to meet the maharadja and had come ashore from his ship in the bay to do so. The maharadja awaited him, leaning against a tree, trotsch — proud. He and many of the chiefs stood with loaded revolvers in their belts; the signs of submissiveness were far off. A still-living witness, quoted by J. A. Kruyt, described him as ‘een ruw woesteling’ — a rough savage — ‘hij was groot en zwaar, liep met lange loshangende haren en was gekleed in een zwart jasje met gouden sovereigns als knoopen’ — he was large and heavy, walked with long loose-hanging hair, and was dressed in a black jacket with gold sovereigns as buttons.
Income and Influence
His landschap may be small, ‘daarentegen is zijn invloed in het heele gewest zoo groot als zijn titel’ — but his influence in the whole gewest is as great as his title. From the landschap and from the indemnification of the government he receives a monthly income of well over f 1.000, in addition to the income from his own possessions and trade.
Sarikat Islam
In the Afdeeling Noordkust van Atjeh — comprising the onderafdeelingen Lho’ Seumawé, Bireuen and Lho Soekon — the Sarikat Islam showed a vigorous life after 1918. Traders, school-teachers — ‘laat ons zeggen de intellectueelen’ — but also several chiefs were members and took part. A chief of Samalanga had joined by way of a move on the political chessboard on which he was playing against the influential Maharadja, who had also become a member of the Sarikat Islam in order to strengthen his chances of retaining a landschap Plimbang. Having taken the advice of an oelama — a Mohammedan jurist — that joining might be called a good deed, the Samalangan chief formed an afdeeling S.I. The movement in Lho’ Seumawe, however, took the direction of bringing the distinction between believers and unbelievers to the fore, of undermining the Dutch government, and of working towards a union of oeléebalangs. Three chiefs of Lho’ Seumawe were banished in 1922, an intervention Broersma describes as ‘geen dag te vroeg gekomen’ — not a day too soon.
Significance
The Maharadja of Lho’ Seumawé is the type-figure of the great titular oeléebalang of the north coast — small in landschap, great in invloed — whose career spans the entire transition from the ruw woesteling of 1873 to the political intriguer of the Sarikat Islam years. His tenure of Plimbang was contested and his influence on the politics of the Afdeeling Noordkust van Atjeh was, in Broersma’s judgement, second to none.
See Also
- Lho Seumawe
- Oeléebalang
- Maharadja (title)
- Korte Verklaring (1899)
- Sarikat Islam in Atjeh
- Verbanning van drie hoofden uit Lho Seumawe (1922)
- J. A. Kruyt
- Verkenningen in Atjeh (1923)
- 1873
- 1904
- 1918
- 1922
Source
Verkenningen in Atjeh, by Dr. R. Broersma (De Locomotief, October 1923), chapter IX, ‘In het oude rijk Samoedra’, pp. 61–63. Also Atjeh en de Atjehers, by J. A. Kruyt (Leiden 1877), p. 62, note 1, for the witness-description of the maharadja in 1873.