Toekoe Tjoet Toengkoep was an Atjehnese oeloebalang of the XIII Moekims of Groot-Atjeh who, together with Toekoe Noq van Marassa and Toekoe Nju Banta (the panglima of the XXVI Moekims), was entrusted by the Dutch with the leadership of the driemanschap (three-man directorate) charged with the purification of the XXVI Moekims of Moslemin bands. He is named in the Atjeh-Album of 1896 as the oeloebalang who, in the course of the operation, took zulk een vreemde houding aan (such a strange attitude) that he was tijdelijk naar Melaboe moest verbannen worden (had to be temporarily banished to Melaboe).
The driemanschap of the XXVI Moekims
The Atjeh-Album records that, when the Dutch attempted to extend the system of using Atjehnese auxiliaries against the Moslemin to the XXVI Moekims — a terrain in which Toekoe Oemar had weinig invloed (little influence) — the leadership of the operation was entrusted to a driemanschap of friendly hoofden: Toekoe Neq van Marassa, Toekoe Nju Banta (the panglima of the XXVI Moekims) and Toekoe Tjoet Toengkoep (the oeloebalang of the XIII Moekims). The album’s characterisation of the driemanschap — dat liep heel wat minder gunstig af, dan in de XXV Moekims het geval was geweest (that went much less favourably than had been the case in the XXV Moekims) — identifies the XXVI Moekims operation as a relative failure.
The strange attitude and the banishment
The Atjeh-Album records that the failure of the driemanschap in the XXVI Moekims was due in part to the vreemde houding (strange attitude) of Toekoe Tjoet Toengkoep, who was tijdelijk naar Melaboe moest verbannen worden (had to be temporarily banished to Melaboe). The album does not specify the nature of the vreemde houding — whether it was overt sympathy with the Moslemin, a refusal to cooperate with the other two members of the driemanschap, or some other form of obstruction. The banishment to Melaboe — the principal port of the Westkust — was, however, the Dutch response, and it is one of the principal documented instances of the Dutch use of internal banishment as a disciplinary instrument against unreliable oeloebalang allies.
The cost of the XXVI Moekims operation
The Atjeh-Album records that the failure of the driemanschap in the XXVI Moekims required the Dutch to intervene with their own troops. The album records that the Dutch waren genoodzaakt met een geheel bataljon en eenige artillerie uit te rukken, om de gemeenschap met een dier door ons bezette punten te herstellen, bij welke gelegenheid 1 officier en 3 minderen sneuvelden en 3 officieren en 32 minderen gewond werden — were compelled to march out with an entire battalion and some artillery, in order to restore communication with one of the points occupied by us, on which occasion 1 officer and 3 subordinates were killed and 3 officers and 32 subordinates were wounded. The XXVI Moekims operation was thus one of the costliest engagements of the late concentratie period.
Significance
Toekoe Tjoet Toengkoep’s significance in the documentary record of the Atjeh-oorlog is as the oeloebalang of the XIII Moekims whose vreemde houding and consequent banishment to Melaboe were among the principal causes of the failure of the driemanschap in the XXVI Moekims. His appearance in the Atjeh-Album of 1896 is brief, but it identifies the driemanschap as the institutional form of the Dutch attempt to extend the Atjehnese-auxiliary system to the XXVI Moekims, and it identifies the banishment to Melaboe as one of the principal Dutch disciplinary instruments against unreliable oeloebalang allies.
See Also
- XIII Moekims
- XXVI Moekims
- XXV Moekims
- Toekoe Noq van Marassa
- Toekoe Nju Banta
- Toekoe Oemar
- Melaboe
- Westkust van Atjeh
- Groot-Atjeh
- Aceh War
- Atjeh-Album (Eigen Haard, 1896)
Source
Atjeh-Album van Eigen Haard, uitgave van de N.V. Het Tijdschrift “Eigen Haard”, Amsterdam, 1896, p. 22 (De Inwendige Toestand — Wat Nu?).