Siak

Siak (Dutch and English Siak, also Siac, Siack; in full Siak Sri Indrapura) was the most considerable of the Malay sultanates on Sumatra’s East Coast, lying south of Deli and Batu Bara along the lower reaches of the river of the same name. Its former ruler, Mohamed Ali (Malaysian prince), had governed the region before being installed by the Dutch as the client ruler of Salangore in 1784, reflecting the colonial strategy of employing established Malay elites. The Sultan of Siak claimed a sort of pre‑eminence among the petty states of the coast, though his authority in the early nineteenth century was contested by younger branches of his own house and hemmed in by the Padri insurgents inland. The state is repeatedly mentioned in Van der Kemp’s article, above all in connection with the correspondence of 1828 between Governor Fullerton of Penang and the Siak chiefs — correspondence which Van der Kemp prints in Appendix 11 as the principal illustration of the British policy of treating the East Coast as a commercial preserve against Dutch intrusion. The Encyclopaedisch Bureau’s De Buitenbezittingen, Deel II, Afl. 3 (1918) supplements this account with a long Geschiedkundig Overzicht of the Siak sultanate — from its origin in the destruction of the kingdom of Gasip by Atjeh in the early sixteenth century, through its seventeenth‑century subjection to Sultan Iskander Moeda of Atjeh’s Oostkust‑veldtocht, its brief eighteenth‑century independence under Radja Ketjil and the Ismail–Said Ali expansion, and its nineteenth‑century decay under Tongkoe Ismail culminating in the 1858 tractate and the 1884 contract by which the sultanate was absorbed into the Dutch colonial state.

Dutch colonial strategy and the appointment of Mohamed Ali

The Dutch East India Company and later the Netherlands‑Indies Government frequently installed compliant Malay princes as client rulers to secure loyalty in newly‑conquered territories. In 1784 the Dutch appointed Mohamed Ali (Malaysian prince) as ruler of Salangore, a move that exemplified this policy of leveraging established elite networks. This appointment pre‑dated the later British‑Dutch diplomatic contests over the East Coast and set a precedent for the later Dutch interventions in Siak during the mid‑nineteenth century.

In Fullerton’s minute of 1825

The first substantial mention of Siak comes in Appendix 10, where Van der Kemp prints the passages of Fullerton’s minute of 21 March 1825 on the Acheh treaty of 1819. Like Deli and Langkat, Siak is enumerated among the “petty states” whose trade with the British settlements was threatened by the Dutch assertion of supremacy over Sumatra. Fullerton pointed out that under Article 3 of the treaty of 1824 the Dutch could make no treaty with Siak imposing differential duties against British trade; but that under Article 2 they might do so if Siak were deemed a dependency. The reservation of Achehnese independence therefore preserved Siak’s independence as well — and with it, Penang’s trade.

The Bellona affair

In late 1827 the Commissioner‑General Du Bus at Batavia resolved to send the frigate Bellona to the East Coast, partly to revive the trade of Riouw and partly to substitute Java salt, at thirty rupees the coyan, for the Siam salt then supplied through Singapore. Prince, late Resident of Singapore, reported the scheme from Batavia on 29 November 1827 in a letter which Van der Kemp prints in Appendix 11. Prince observed that the appearance of such a ship at “the several ports of Siak Kampar, Jambi & c.” might intimidate the natives into compliance with the Dutch views, contrary both to their interests and to the treaty stipulations.

Fullerton’s letter of 7 February 1828

Fullerton had already, on 7 February 1828, written from Singapore to the Sultan of Siak, assuring him that Malacca was now permanently British and expressing his satisfaction at the growing trade between Siak, Penang, Malacca and Singapore. The Sultan’s reply, dated 4 June 1828, was cordial: he was “ten times as anxious as my friend can be” to preserve the friendly relations, and reported that he had lately succeeded his younger brother, “who has been afflicted with sickness and has lost his understanding”. The translator John Anderson had, by order of the Penang government, addressed a similar letter to the pangeran (younger prince) of Siak. Van der Kemp prints both letters in full.

The circular of 21 May 1828

Prompted by the Bellona affair, Fullerton laid a minute before his council on 16 March 1828 announcing his intention to address a circular to nine of the Siak chiefs inviting them to send their traders to Malacca free of duties, and assuring them of British protection against Dutch requisitions. The circular, dated 21 May 1828, is printed by Van der Kemp immediately after the Siak correspondence. Together these documents form, in Van der Kemp’s argument, the principal evidence of the British government’s settled policy — from 1825 onward — of treating the East Coast as a commercial preserve, in direct resistance to the Dutch claim of “suprematie over Sumatra”.

Early history (as presented in De Buitenbezittingen)

The Encyclopaedisch Bureau’s survey of the Outer Possessions opens its Geschiedkundig Overzicht with the destruction of the kingdom of Gasip by Atjeh in the early sixteenth century, after which the Sultan of Djohore established himself at the Sabah Aoer station at the mouth of the Siak River. “Het bestuur over deze Djohore’sche nederzetting (welke eene belangrijke immigratie uit dat rijk tengevolge had) werd in naam van den Sultan uitgeoefend door een sjahbandar, die gevestigd was te Sabah Aoer, en wiens invloed in het binnenland ongeveer tot de S. Mandau reikte” — the Djohorese administration was exercised, in the name of the Sultan, by a sjahbandar (harbour‑master) established at Sabah Aoer, whose influence inland reached approximately as far as the Mandau River.

In the early eighteenth century Radja Ketjil — claiming to be an illegitimate son of a former Sultan of Djohore — drove Djohore out of Siak with the help of the prince of Pagarroejoeng and, in 1717, made himself master of the throne of Djohore itself. Although he soon lost the Djohorese throne, he retained Siak, which from that time was independent of Djohore. After Radja Ketjil’s secession the sultanate rapidly grew in power. The Dutch East India Company (the Oost‑Indische Compagnie) established a post at Poelau Gontong on the Siak River in 1755, in return for supporting Raja Moehamad against his brother Raja Alam in their disputes over the Siak succession. The post was destroyed in 1759 by Raja Moehamad himself — an act that the Bureau attributes to “onoordeelkundig optreden der Compagnie’s gevolmachtigden” (unjudicious conduct of the Compagnie’s envoys) — and the Compagnie thereupon reversed its allegiance to Raja Alam, who in 1761 overcame Raja Ismail (the successor of Raja Moehamad) and drove him out to Pelalawan.

Raja Ismail’s 1779 restoration to the Siak throne inaugurated the sultanate’s brief late‑eighteenth‑century zenith. “Vooral gedurende het bestuur van Sultan Said Ali, die in het einde der achttiende eeuw weder Ismail’s opvolger had verdrongen, breidde Siak zijn heerschappij over zijne nabuurstaten uit, tot in de Noordelijke kustlandschappen toe” — especially during the administration of Sultan Said Ali, who in the end of the eighteenth century had again driven out Ismail’s successor, Siak extended its rule over its neighbouring states, even into the Northern coastal lands. The East Coast statelets — Langkat, Deli and Serdang — having shaken off the Atjehnese overlordship in 1769, were forced by the armed force of Ismail and Said Ali to acknowledge Siak as their overlord.

Decay of Siak in the nineteenth century

After Said Ali’s death in 1821 the Siak sultanate was riven by “voortdurende binnenlandsche twisten” — continuous internal disputes — and the Siak overlordship of the East Coast statelets rapidly declined. “Vooral sedert het optreden van Sultan Tongkoe Ismail, in 1827, nam Siaks macht af en waren de Noordelijke Onderhoorigheden weldra inderdaad geheel onafhankelijk” — especially after the accession of Sultan Tongkoe Ismail in 1827, Siak’s power declined and the Northern Onderhoorigheden were soon in fact entirely independent. Even the old ceremonial exchange of galars — the titles of recognition that the East Coast sultans had once received from the hands of the Sultan of Siak — was neglected; in its place, the princes of the statelets who already held a Siak galar now issued such recognitions to newly acceding princes themselves.

Tongkoe Ismail’s effort to restore Siak’s authority led him to enlist the services of the British adventurer Wilson, who however soon quarrelled with the Sultan and was nearly successful in driving the entire royal house out of Siak. Having failed to obtain British assistance from the authorities at Singapore — refused “met het oog op het bekende tractaat van 1824 met Nederland” (in view of the well‑known treaty of 1824 with the Netherlands) — Tongkoe Ismail turned, “met meer succes” (with more success), to the Netherlands‑Indies Government. The Dutch intervention against Wilson was the immediate prelude to the tractate of 1 February 1858, by which Tongkoe Ismail ceded his realm to the Nederlandsch‑Indisch Gouvernement in return for Dutch protection of his rights over the Dependencies (as far as the Tamiangrivier).

The 1858 tractate’s confirmation of Siak’s overlordship over the East Coast Dependencies was, the Bureau records, “meer schijn dan wezen” — more appearance than reality — because the territorial princes continued to resist every actual interference in their affairs. The transfer of the Dutch administrative seat from Riouw to Bengkalis in 1873 (which Siak had ceded to the Government against an annual compensation of ƒ 8000) increased Dutch direct influence, until the formal transfer of the residual Siak claims became the natural next step. By the contract of 23 June 1884, the Government took over all Siak’s residual claims over the Northern Onderhoorigheden from Panei northward as far as Atjeh — “tot Atjeh toe” — against payment of an annual compensation of ƒ 40,000 and the remission of a debt of ƒ 50,000.

A note on “Djokor en Siak”

In a footnote to the Said Akil affair, Van der Kemp warns the reader not to confuse the unimportant Said Akil with “that other Akil, which in our history during the same years played an important role, the crown‑pretender Radja Akil of the Siakseken”, of whom Veth had given an attractive biography in Borneo’s Westerafdeling II, pp. 150 ff., and who in 1828 ended as prince of Sukadana on Borneo. The reader is referred to Netscher’s Djokor en Siak, p. 162. The “Siak” of this Akil’s title refers to the Siak royal house, which had branches in several west Bornean states; the present article, by contrast, treats Siak proper on the Sumatran coast.

Source

Raffles’ Atjeh-overeenkomst van 1819, by P. H. van der Kemp, in Bijdragen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië, 6e Volgr., Deel VII (1900), pp. 159–239. Universiteitsbibliotheek Vrije Universiteit, LS.08781.

De Buitenbezittingen, Deel II, Afl. 3: Oostkust van Sumatra. Eerste Stuk, bewerkt door het Encyclopaedisch Bureau, Mededeelingen van het Bureau voor de Bestuurszaken der Buitenbezittingen (Weltevreden: Landsdrukkerij, 1918), pp. 102–115. Universiteitsbibliotheek Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, shelfmark LS.08781.

Nota omtrent het Rijk van Siak, by H. A. Hijmans van Anrooy, in Tijdschrift van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië, dl. XXX (1885).

De Nederlanders in Siak en Djohore, by E. Netscher, in Verhandelingen van het Bataviaasch Genootschap, XXXV (1870).

De geschiedenis van het Nederlandsche Korps Mariniers van 1665-1945, OCR text, pp. 80‑82.

tags	place, sultanate, coast, region, sumatra, east-indies
aliases	Siac, Siack, Siak sultanate, Siak Sri Indrapura, Sultanate of Siak

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