Toeankoe Mochamad Dawot (also spelled Toeankoe Mohammed Daoed) was the young Sultan of Atjeh recognized by the Acehnese as the legitimate successor to the sultanate following the death of the last Sultan in 1874, and declared of age in August 1884 — an event that strengthened the position of the oorlogspartij (war party) opposing Dutch colonial rule. Later, with Panglima Pòlém and Teukoe Oemar, he made Pidië the hearth of the resistance from 1898.
Recognition as Sultan (August 1884)
Following the fall of Kota-Radja in the beginning of 1874, the last Sultan of Aceh died in flight. Toeankoe Mochamad Dawot was an achterneef (great-nephew) of this last sultan and was recognized according to Acehnese adat (customary law) as the rightful successor to the Sultanswaardigheid (Sultanate). Though the Sultan’s authority had been minimal in the final years of the Aceh Sultanate’s existence, the Acehnese strictly maintained hereditary succession according to adat, and Mochamad Dawot was in the eyes of all the lawful Sultan.
The Netherlands recognized no Sultan, having replaced the Sultan’s authority with Dutch administration. However, Mochamad Dawot’s legitimacy persisted among the Acehnese population regardless of Dutch non-recognition. In August 1884 — contemporaneous with the Concentration Decision of August 1884 — he was declared meerderjarig (of age) and granted the real conduct of affairs. This timing strengthened the position of the oorlogspartij, which could now claim that the legitimate national authority had formally taken up the cause against the Dutch.
Though the young Sultan personally remained werkeloos (inactive) and did not personally place himself at the head of the resistance, the oorlogspartij repeatedly invoked his name when encouraging the population to abandon Dutch authority or when collecting Wang Sabil (holy war funds). Tengkoe Sjech Saman di Tiro and other religious leaders worked alongside the oorlogspartij, using the Sultan’s symbolic legitimacy to mobilize popular support. His declaration of age in 1884 thus represented a political resource for the resistance even in the absence of his active leadership.
Later Career
On 1 June 1898 the resistance centre Garot, where the pretender-sultan had gathered with Teukoe Oemar, Panglima Pòlém and Teungkoe di Tjòt Plieng, fell to van Heutsz’s storm. In February 1911 the marechaussée surprised the hiding-place of “den langgezochten panglima (“war-leader”) van den ex-pretendent sultan, Keutjhi’ Saman,” who fell with three adherents in the Meergebied. The seal of the sultan — the seal of the nine circles — was used to appoint T. Tjhi’ Toenòng genuine oelèëbalang of Keureutòë.
Account from Vijftig jaren economische staatkunde in Atjeh (1923)
Toeankoe Moehamad Dawot was the pretender-sultan of Atjeh whose submission upon the short declaration Governor Johannes van Heutsz purchased with the promise that he should never be banished from Atjeh — a promise which had to be broken when the sultan’s dealings with a foreign power came to light, so that the “ex-pretender-sultan” and his son Toeankoe Ibrahim were excepted when Governor Swart allowed the other exiles to return.
Submission
The submission of the pretender-sultan was apparently much prized by Van Heutsz; it afterward became clear, author Joh. Langhout writes, that he expected too much of it, particularly an immediate mass-submission of other resistance-chiefs. When once it was known that the pretender-sultan was found prepared to sign the short declaration, Van Heutsz — against the advice of Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje, “on whose compass he in other cases always sailed”, and who most strongly dissuaded the giving of pledges and promises toward the pretender-sultan — used several efforts to hasten the submission. He went so far as to assent to the condition that, after his submission, the pretender-sultan should never be banished from Atjeh.
Disappointment and banishment
The expectation was disappointed: it appeared very soon that the pretender-sultan used every effort to evade Van Heutsz’s command to bring the still hostile chiefs to the Dutch government by peaceable means, and that the sultan “even missed every understanding of power over these chiefs” — a fact which must have been a bitter disillusion for Van Heutsz. Some time later, when Van Heutsz as Governor-General could no longer keep his promise, it had come to light that the sultan had entered into relations with a foreign power, in which he asked the question “whether it had no opportunity to wrest the government of Atjeh from the Netherlands”. The banishment of the faithless prince followed.
Exclusion from the return of exiles
When, after order and rest had everywhere returned, Governor H. N. A. Swart proposed — and obtained — that the Atjehnese of various rank and standing whose residence in the province had been forbidden in the interest of peace and order under article 47 R.R. should be allowed to return, there remained excluded the ex-pretender-sultan Toeankoe Moehamad Dawot and his son Toeankoe Ibrahim.
See Also
- Aceh Sultanate
- Aceh War
- Oorlogspartij
- Wang Sabil
- Sjech Saman van Tirou
- Concentration Decision of August 1884
- H. N. A. Swart
- General Swart, Pacifier of Atjeh (1943)
- Pacificatie van Atjeh
- Atjeh
- Groot-Atjeh
- Submission and banishment of the pretender-Sultan
- Johannes van Heutsz
- Korte verklaring
Sources
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 III, X, XI.
De Geconcentreerde Stelling in Groot-Atjeh, ‘s-Gravenhage: De Gebroeders Van Cleef, 1885, pp. 38–39.
Vijftig jaren economische staatkunde in Atjeh, by Joh. Langhout (The Hague: N.V. Boekhandel v/h W. P. van Stockum & Zoon, 1923), pp. 81–82, 98.