Teukoe Hadji Tjhi’ Moehamad Djohan Alam Sjah was the oelèëbalang — self-governing authority — of the landschap Peusangan in the subdistrict Bireuën, and one of the most prominent and progressive of the Atjèhnese self-governing rulers under Dutch rule, whose high patronage of the founding of the Poesa in 1939 gave the All-Aceh Union of Ulemas the political legitimacy it needed to take root. Piekaar’s Atjèh and the War with Japan describes him as “undoubtedly the most gifted figure” among Atjèh’s self-governing rulers, “tall and stately in build, a good fifty years old, this engaging personality … a regent in the truest sense of the word.”
Personal profile
Piekaar’s portrait of Teukoe Tjhi’ Peusangan emphasises his combination of traditional authority and modern orientation. He was, Piekaar writes, “one of the most loyal supporters of Dutch authority, without being blind to the shortcomings of this authority.” His patronage of the Poesa was, in this sense, not a departure from his loyalty to the Dutch but an extension of his regental role: “a better guarantee for the purity of the organization’s objectives could hardly be conceived.” The alliance between the progressive oelèëbalang and the religious movement represented, in Piekaar’s reading, the kind of political compact that the Dutch administration had long sought to encourage.
The Peusangan house
The Peusangan oelèëbalang house was one of the most prominent in Atjèh. Among the other members of the Tjhi’ family who held self-governing authority were Teukoe Tjhi’ Moehamad Daoed Sjah of Idi Rajeu’ in the subdistrict Idi — the same family name (Tjhi’) appearing across multiple landschap suggests a network of related houses. The Peusangan branch was the senior line; its head, Teukoe Hadji Tjhi’ Moehamad Djohan Alam Sjah, was the most prominent figure of the family.
Patronage of Poesa
The Poesa — P(ersatoean) Oe(lama-oelama) S(eloeroeh) A(tjèh) — was founded in 1939 in Bireuën under Teukoe Tjhi’ Peusangan’s high patronage. Piekaar emphasises the importance of this patronage: the new organisation was “intended as a counterweight to the modern currents of the Moehammadijah movement, which were foreign to the fanatically pious Atjèhse religious life,” and the patronage of so prominent a oelèëbalang gave the religious movement the political protection it needed to establish itself across the residency. The alliance of the progressive oelèëbalang with the religious oelama’s would prove, in the events of 1942, to be the decisive combination in Atjèhnese politics.
The 1942 crisis
The pre-war compact between the oelèëbalang’s and the religious movement would be tested by the Japanese invasion of March 1942. The response of Teukoe Tjhi’ Peusangan, and of the other oelèëbalang’s who had aligned themselves with the Poesa, would shape the course of the Atjèhnese alliance with the Japanese and the subsequent disintegration of Dutch authority in the residency.
Relations with Swart
Du Croo cited T. Tjhi’ Peusangan as the example of the chiefs from whom Swart, by winning their confidence, “could get anything done” and with whom “it was ultimately possible to achieve a beginning form of self-government.”
He is also cited as a witness to the difficulties of the transitional generation: where circumstances made younger chiefs succeed an older generation prematurely, too quickly or too young, they often met obstruction from the remaining “men of the old school” — “Teukoe Tjhi’ Peusangan could confirm this.”
The visit of 1927/1928
Swart revisited Atjeh in 1927/1928 and spoke with him again: “I was in Atjeh again in 1927–28. And I spoke there once more with T. Tjhi’ Peusangan… I was then to take a son of a territorial chief from Pidië with me to Holland for his further education. T. Tjhi’ would gladly have let his favourite daughter, who had been partly brought up at Batavia, study in Holland.”
A photograph in du Croo’s book shows General Swart with his wife visiting the landschapshoofd of Peusangan during his journey through the Indies in 1928.
The letter of 1933
On 26 September 1933 T. Tjhi’ Moehammad Djohan Alamsjah, with T. Maharadja Mangkoeboemi of Lho’ Seumawè, drew up and signed on behalf of thirty-two chiefs of the north coast the letter of congratulation to Swart on his seventieth birthday, which recorded that Atjeh “has become pacified, quiet and prosperous and has received proper education… beginning with the coming to power of His Honour the Governor H. N. A. Swart in Atjeh, from the year 1908 to 1918.”
Earlier history of Peusangan
In 1909 Swart was authorised to dispose of 10,000 guilders as compensation to T. Maharadja Djeumpa, acting oelèëbalang of Peusangan, for the loss of his possessions through the doings of ill-disposed persons.
See Also
- Poesa
- Peusangan
- Bireuën
- Teungkoe Moehamad Daoed Beureu-éh
- Teukoe Tjhi’ Moehamad Daoed Sjah
- Idi Rajeu’
- Oelèëbalang
- Moehammadijah
- 1939
- H. N. A. Swart
- T. Maharadja Mangkoeboemi
- Letter of the Acehnese Chiefs to General Swart (26 September 1933)
- Zelfbestuur
- Noordkust van Atjeh
Source
Atjèh and the War with Japan, by Dr. A. J. Piekaar, translated from the Dutch original Atjèh en de oorlog met Japan (1949) (‘s-Gravenhage/Bandung: N.V. Uitgeverij W. van Hoeve; English edition), Chapter I, § 3.
Teukoe Hadji Tjhi’ Moehamad Djohan Alam Sjah was the oelèëbalang — self-governing authority — of the landschap Peusangan in the subdistrict Bireuën, and one of the most prominent and progressive of the Atjèhnese self-governing rulers under Dutch rule, whose high patronage of the founding of the Poesa in 1939 gave the All-Aceh Union of Ulemas the political legitimacy it needed to take root. Piekaar’s Atjèh and the War with Japan describes him as “undoubtedly the most gifted figure” among Atjèh’s self-governing rulers, “tall and stately in build, a good fifty years old, this engaging personality … a regent in the truest sense of the word.”
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 IV, p. 23; Chapter XIII, pp. 135, 137; Chapter XVI, p. 151; Chapter XVII, p. 161; Appendix, pp. 165–169.