Teukoe Mamat of Lambeusdë was the Acehnese chief who, according to the investigation conducted by H. J. Schmidt, stood behind the resistance in Daja and Lhong of 1914 as its secret instigator, and who was arrested on 2 September 1914 and banished from the Gouvernement Atjeh.
Swart’s warning
At Schmidt’s departure for the affected district, H. N. A. Swart had said: “remember, you must keep an eye on Teukoe Mamat of Lambeusdë!” — for, as du Croo observed, “in all such Acehnese affairs there is always something or someone pulling the strings behind the scenes and therefore deserving more than ordinary attention; the difficulty, however, is to find that something or that someone.”
The intrigue
T. Mamat was a relative of the oelèëbalang of the IV Moekims Lhong, with whom he was on bad terms, and a personal enemy of the district head of the moekim Lhong. He was also the brother-in-law of Nja’ Asém, whose fall from esteem after his wife’s death had thrown him off balance.
“And now T. Mamat had reasoned thus: if I can secretly stir up a revolt, then both the district head and the territorial chief will fall into discredit with the administration, because they neither prevented the revolt nor gave warning of it.”
Du Croo’s comment: “A typical Acehnese intrigue — whether an innocent European official became its victim, or the deceived villagers lost their lives in it, left T. Mamat wholly unmoved. But… this time he was playing against a master who had not much left to learn in the field of Acehnese intrigue.”
Execution of the design
Through T. Mamat’s intervention seven men of the Lhong band reported themselves before the end of July 1914; Nja’ Asém apparently considered this too high a toll and fled with his men to Daja to join the band of Nja’ Ali. Both band-heads were killed by lieutenant Snell at Koeala Daja on 5 August.
T. Mamat had indeed “co-operated properly in bringing the wicked rebels back,” for which a reward had been promised him, on condition that he should prove to have played a wholly pure role. Feeling entirely safe and expecting the oelèëbalangschap as his reward, “he had indeed walked the fire out of his sandals.”
“Maar toen volgde het onderzoek, and that investigation was led by a man who needed no interpreter and who knew too much of Atjeh and the Acehnese to go astray, and… on 2 September T. Mamat was arrested and banished from the Government of Atjeh, while the incompetent territorial chief was dismissed and replaced by another member of the family.”
See Also
- Resistance in Daja and Lhong (1914)
- Nja’ Asém
- Nja’ Ali
- H. J. Schmidt
- H. N. A. Swart
- C. A. Snell
- Lhong
- Daja
Source
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 XII, pp. 125–127.