Teukoe Tjhi Mohamad Thajeb was the oeléebalang of Peureula (Perlak) from 1913 onward, succeeding his father Teukoe Tjhi Perlak in the chieftaincy at the moment when the oil-cijns was regularised into the landschapskas and the chief received a fixed income. He is the principal example in Broersma’s Verkenningen in Atjeh of the verlichte hoofden — the enlightened chiefs — ‘die niet vreemd wenschten te blijven aan Westersche begrippen’ — who do not wish to remain strangers to Western ideas.
Education and Accession
Mohamad Thajeb had been sent to school at Bandoeng in West Java, where his father visited him in 1910 and used the occasion to inspect the blind institute, the girls’ school and the hat-plaiting workshops. Broersma notes that ‘had hij geen Atjehsch verleden toen hij als bestuurder ontrad’ — he had no Atjehnese past when he entered office as ruler — meaning that his schooling had detached him from the older ways of his country and made him at home in ‘de sferen, waarin het jongere geslacht van Inlandsche bestuurders moet kunnen verkeeren.’ His father, who followed affairs closely, was ‘niet ouderwets is in den minder goeden zin des woords’ — not old-fashioned in the worse sense of the word — and supported his son’s modernising tendencies.
Volksraad Membership
In 1918 and 1919 Mohamad Thajeb was a member of the Volksraad in Batavia. During his absence the oeléebalangschap was held by his banta — the eldest of his brothers or relatives, a deputy whose position Snouck Hurgronje had compared to that of the patih in a Javanese regentschap.
Cooperation with the Government
Broersma notes that, whenever trials or measures are needed for the improvement of the volkscultures, Mohamad Thajeb’s cooperation may be reckoned upon. He belongs to the enlightened chiefs who do not wish to remain strangers to Western ideas, ‘en hij is dat ook niet gebleven’ — and he has not remained so. The motor-ploughs of the landschap — ‘het landschap Peureula (Perlak), belang hebbend bij een flinke peperteelt, heeft nu motorploegen’ — are the most visible instance of his modernising policy. The landschap ploughs a half-bouw of ground for its people at a fee (f 5 in 1922, f 7.50 in 1923); the landschap has lost a little money on the operation but has gained an indirect benefit.
Significance
Mohamad Thajeb’s chieftaincy is a representative case of the second generation of post-pacification oeléebalangs — the sons sent to Dutch schools in Java, who returned to rule their landschappen with Western habits and Dutch-speaking colleagues. Broersma treats him alongside Mohamad Djohan Alamsjah of Peusangan as the type of the new chief.
Account from Atjeh als land voor handel en bedrijf (1925)
Teukoe Tjhi Mohamad Thajeb was oeléëbalang of Peureula since 1913, son of Teukoe Tjhi Moeda Peusangan, educated in Bandoeng.
Administration
Schooled in Bandoeng, he had no Atjeh past when acting as administrator and could feel more at home in spheres where younger generation native administrators must be able to move. His father, who follows affairs closely, was not old-fashioned in worse sense.
From 1918 to 1919 member of Volksraad, office of oeléëbalang then observed by banta. When needed for improvement volkscultures trials or measures, cooperation of Moehamad Thajeb could be counted upon. He belonged to enlightened heads not wanting to remain stranger to western concepts.
He encouraged bringing sawahs in order, applying motor plows of landscape at payment e.g., 5 gulden for half baoe in landscape, brought to f 7.50 for half baoe for 1924.
See Also
- Teukoe Tjhi Perlak
- Peureula (Perlak)
- Oeléebalang
- Banta
- Volksraad
- Bandoeng
- Verkenningen in Atjeh (1923)
- Pepper cultivation in Atjeh
- 1913
- 1918
- Peureula
- Teukoe Tjhi Moeda Peusangan
- Peperteelt
Source
Verkenningen in Atjeh, by Dr. R. Broersma (De Locomotief, October 1923), chapter VI, ‘Oeléebalang’s volkshoofden’, pp. 41–42. Also Het Achehnese, by Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje, Vol. I (Leyden 1906), p. 96, for the comparison of the banta with the Javanese patih. Atjeh als land voor handel en bedrijf, by Dr. R. Broersma, Gebrs. Cohen, Utrecht, 1925, pp. 38, 32-34.