Teukoe Moehamad Hasan was an Atjèhnese administrator — educated as a lawyer (mr. = meester in de rechten) — who served in the Dutch colonial administration before the war, was appointed republican Governor of Sumatra after the proclamation of the Republic in 1945, and was one of the principal Atjèhnese figures of the transition from Japanese occupation to Indonesian republic. Piekaar’s Atjèh and the War with Japan introduces him in connection with the post-capitulation political reorganisation, when “the proclamation of the Republic and the appointment of an Acehnese, mr. Teukoe Moehamad Hasan … as republican Governor of Sumatra, gradually changed the situation” — that is, the situation created by the hesitant attitude of the Allied authorities and the de facto recognition of the Republic.
Pre-war career
Piekaar introduces Teukoe Moehamad Hasan earlier in the work as one of the prominent Atjèhnese figures of the pre-war period, an administrator of the modern type whose legal training (mr.) distinguished him from the traditional oelèëbalang’s and oelama’s alike. His appointment to the republican governorship of Sumatra in 1945 reflected, in Piekaar’s reading, the recognition by the Republic of the political weight of Atjèh — and of the need to incorporate the Atjèhnese leadership into the republican structure.
The 1945 appointment
The proclamation of the Republic on 17 August 1945 — two days after the Japanese capitulation of 15 August — was followed by the appointment of Teukoe Moehamad Hasan as republican Governor of Sumatra. The appointment, Piekaar records, “gradually changed the situation” created by the Allied reoccupation: the hesitant attitude of the Allied authorities, the de facto recognition of the Republic, and the development of the situation in Medan, where the city administration was entrusted to republican figures, all combined to give the new republican governor a political platform.
The Amacab and the post-capitulation period
The post-capitulation period in Atjèh was shaped by the interaction of three forces: the Amacab (Allied Military Administration Civil Affairs Branch), the Dutch civil administration under Governor of Sumatra A. I. Spits, and the republican administration under Teukoe Moehamad Hasan. Piekaar records that the plans prepared under the leadership of the Chief Co Amacab (Chief commanding officer allied military administration civil affairs branch), Governor Spits, “had to remain unused” — that is, the Dutch reoccupation plans were never implemented — because of the strength of the republican position. Teukoe Moehamad Hasan’s appointment as republican governor was, in this sense, one of the principal factors that prevented the Dutch reoccupation of Sumatra.
Leadership of the Muhammadiyah movement in Atjeh
The historian Henri J. H. Alers records that, unlike elsewhere in the archipelago — where the modernist Muhammadiyah movement confined itself chiefly to education and religious life and remained “little politically influenced” — in Atjeh, “always fiercer,” Muhammadiyah took on an outspokenly political character. Its first leader there, Alers writes, was Teuku Muhammed Hassan, later succeeded by Teuku Tjut Hassan, “under whose cunning chairmanship the movement slowly gained strength.” The Ulama class, with few exceptions, kept its distance from the Muhammadiyah movement, which drew its support mainly from young men who had grown away from adat ties and from non-Atjèhnese, Java-born elements of Atjèhnese society — a contrast Alers draws explicitly with the far more broadly rooted Poesa, founded in 1939.
The Panitia Persiapan Kemerdekaän Indonesia (1945)
Alers places Teuku Md. Hassan among the members representing Sumatra on the reconstituted, all-Indonesia Panitia Persiapan Kemerdekaän Indonesia (P.P.K.I., the Committee for the Preparation of Indonesian Independence) formed in August 1945 under the chairmanship of Ir. Sukarno, with Drs. Mohammad Hatta as vice-chairman. Alongside Sumatran colleagues Mohd. Amir and Abd. Abbas, “Teuku Md. Hassan (Atjeh)” sat as the Atjèhnese representative on the body that would, within days of the Japanese capitulation, oversee the transition to the proclamation of the Republic on 17 August 1945 — the appointment Alers’s account and Piekaar’s Atjèh and the War with Japan both connect to his subsequent elevation to the republican governorship of Sumatra.
See Also
- Governor of Sumatra
- Amacab
- A. I. Spits
- Medan
- Teuku Tjut Hassan
- Poesa
- Moehammadijah
- Soekarno
- Mohammad Hatta
- 1945
- 17 August
- 15 August
- Indonesian Republic
Sources
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 VII, § 4 and Chapter XII.
Om een rode of groene Merdeka: Tien jaren binnenlandse politiek Indonesië, 1943–1953, by Henri J. H. Alers (Eindhoven: Uitgeverij Vulkaan, 1956), Chapter II §9 “Atjeh,” p. 86, and Chapter III §11, p. 72.
Teukoe Moehamad Hasan was an Atjèhnese administrator — educated as a lawyer (mr. = meester in de rechten) — who served in the Dutch colonial administration before the war, was appointed republican Governor of Sumatra after the proclamation of the Republic in 1945, and was one of the principal Atjèhnese figures of the transition from Japanese occupation to Indonesian republic. Piekaar’s Atjèh and the War with Japan introduces him in connection with the post-capitulation political reorganisation, when “the proclamation of the Republic and the appointment of an Acehnese, mr. Teukoe Moehamad Hasan … as republican Governor of Sumatra, gradually changed the situation” — that is, the situation created by the hesitant attitude of the Allied authorities and the de facto recognition of the Republic.
Pre-war career
Piekaar introduces Teukoe Moehamad Hasan earlier in the work as one of the prominent Atjèhnese figures of the pre-war period, an administrator of the modern type whose legal training (mr.) distinguished him from the traditional oelèëbalang’s and oelama’s alike. His appointment to the republican governorship of Sumatra in 1945 reflected, in Piekaar’s reading, the recognition by the Republic of the political weight of Atjèh — and of the need to incorporate the Atjèhnese leadership into the republican structure.
The 1945 appointment
The proclamation of the Republic on 17 August 1945 — two days after the Japanese capitulation of 15 August — was followed by the appointment of Teukoe Moehamad Hasan as republican Governor of Sumatra. The appointment, Piekaar records, “gradually changed the situation” created by the Allied reoccupation: the hesitant attitude of the Allied authorities, the de facto recognition of the Republic, and the development of the situation in Medan, where the city administration was entrusted to republican figures, all combined to give the new republican governor a political platform.
The Amacab and the post-capitulation period
The post-capitulation period in Atjèh was shaped by the interaction of three forces: the Amacab (Allied Military Administration Civil Affairs Branch), the Dutch civil administration under Governor of Sumatra A. I. Spits, and the republican administration under Teukoe Moehamad Hasan. Piekaar records that the plans prepared under the leadership of the Chief Co Amacab (Chief commanding officer allied military administration civil affairs branch), Governor Spits, “had to remain unused” — that is, the Dutch reoccupation plans were never implemented — because of the strength of the republican position. Teukoe Moehamad Hasan’s appointment as republican governor was, in this sense, one of the principal factors that prevented the Dutch reoccupation of Sumatra.
Leadership of the Muhammadiyah movement in Atjeh
The historian Henri J. H. Alers records that, unlike elsewhere in the archipelago — where the modernist Muhammadiyah movement confined itself chiefly to education and religious life and remained “little politically influenced” — in Atjeh, “always fiercer,” Muhammadiyah took on an outspokenly political character. Its first leader there, Alers writes, was Teuku Muhammed Hassan, later succeeded by Teuku Tjut Hassan, “under whose cunning chairmanship the movement slowly gained strength.” The Ulama class, with few exceptions, kept its distance from the Muhammadiyah movement, which drew its support mainly from young men who had grown away from adat ties and from non-Atjèhnese, Java-born elements of Atjèhnese society — a contrast Alers draws explicitly with the far more broadly rooted Poesa, founded in 1939.
The Panitia Persiapan Kemerdekaän Indonesia (1945)
Alers places Teuku Md. Hassan among the members representing Sumatra on the reconstituted, all-Indonesia Panitia Persiapan Kemerdekaän Indonesia (P.P.K.I., the Committee for the Preparation of Indonesian Independence) formed in August 1945 under the chairmanship of Ir. Sukarno, with Drs. Mohammad Hatta as vice-chairman. Alongside Sumatran colleagues Mohd. Amir and Abd. Abbas, “Teuku Md. Hassan (Atjeh)” sat as the Atjèhnese representative on the body that would, within days of the Japanese capitulation, oversee the transition to the proclamation of the Republic on 17 August 1945 — the appointment Alers’s account and Piekaar’s Atjèh and the War with Japan both connect to his subsequent elevation to the republican governorship of Sumatra.
See Also
- Governor of Sumatra
- Amacab
- A. I. Spits
- Medan
- Teuku Tjut Hassan
- Poesa
- Moehammadijah
- Soekarno
- Mohammad Hatta
- 1945
- 17 August
- 15 August
- Indonesian Republic
Sources
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 VII, § 4 and Chapter XII.
Om een rode of groene Merdeka: Tien jaren binnenlandse politiek Indonesië, 1943–1953, by Henri J. H. Alers (Eindhoven: Uitgeverij Vulkaan, 1956), Chapter II §9 “Atjeh,” p. 86, and Chapter III §11, p. 72.