Toekoe Tjoet Hadjet — much more usually called Toekoe Ajer Alang, after the kampong of Ajer-Alang on the Atjeh-rivier — was an Achehnese chief, a brother of the great Panglima Polim, who offered his submission to the Dutch in the bivak at Selimoen on 15 August 1879 and marched afterwards with the column of Majoor Lubeck to Indrapoeri, as recorded in W. Cool and G. B. Hooijer’s Eene schoone bladzijde uit Atjeh’s geschiedenis (1889).
The submission at Selimoen
On the afternoon of the day on which the Lamtoba column arrived before Selimoen — 15 August 1879, the day after the voluntary submission of Toekoe Moeda Daud — “kwam ook Toekoe Tjoet Hadjet, veelal Toekoe Ajer Alang geheeten, een broeder van Panglima Polim, in het bivak zijne onderwerping aanbieden”: Toekoe Tjoet Hadjet appeared in the bivak to offer his submission. Two days later, on 17 August, he accompanied the Lubeck column on its return march to Indrapoeri, together with Toekoe Moeda Daud and a following, the population everywhere receiving the troops in the most peaceful manner. Generaal van der Heijden’s foreword to the book records the sequel: on 20 August 1879 Toekoe Ajer-Alang came in formal submission to the Governor, and announced on the same date the coming of the then-current Sultan-pretendant — who, however, excused himself for the moment by reason of the approaching poeasa (fasting month), whereas the Selimoen chief Toekoe Moeda Daud completed his own submission that day.
Significance
The submission of a brother of Panglima Polim marked the breaking of the most formidable chiefly connection of the war in Groot-Atjeh: Panglima Polim himself, with his son Radja Koeala, the Imam of Longbatta and Massa-an, had days before withdrawn from the council in the missigit of Selimoen to Reng-Reng in the VII Moekims of Pedir — but the entry of his brother into the Dutch peace distinguished the conquered household from the irreconcilable.
Account from Verstege’s Een beroep op het Nederlandsche volk (1886)
Verstege adds detail to the submission: a “broeder van PANGLIMA POLIM” (brother of Panglima Polim), Toekoe Tjoet Hadjet — “veelal TOEKOE AJER-ALANG genaamd” (“mostly called Toekoe Ajer-Alang”) — came with a great number of followers into the Dutch bivouac at Selimoen on the afternoon of 15 August 1879, the day on which that remote place was reached after tiring day-marches, to offer his submission to the Dutch; on 17 August 1879 he went with Toekoe Moeda Daoed and one of the two columns to Indrapoerie — a real triumphal march through kampongs planting white flags — and on 20 August both heads appeared before generaal van der Heyden and swore their submission (see Van der Heijden’s pacification of Groot-Atjeh).
See Also
- Panglima Polem
- Radja Koelala
- Ajer-Alang
- Selimoen
- Submission of Toekoe Moeda Daoed (August 1879)
- Selimoen Expedition (August 1879)
- 1879
Source
Eene schoone bladzijde uit Atjeh’s geschiedenis, door W. Cool en G. B. Hooijer, met een voorwoord van Generaal K. van der Heijden (‘s-Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff, 1889), Voorwoord pp. V-VI and pp. 55, 57. OCR-filename: 20260720_115822_DLP-135-Eene_schoone_bladzijde_uit_Atjeh_s_geschiedenis_Nemotron_OCR_v2_OCR.txt.
Een beroep op het Nederlandsche volk in zake het Atjeh-vraagstuk, door J. J. W. E. Verstege (Amsterdam: J. H. de Bussy, 1886), pp. 61-62. OCR: DLP-158.