Stories from Deli

Li Jing
Since the Deli Sultan provided a 99-year lease to Deli tobacco companies on January 21, 1868, the big boss (owner) from the Dutch foreign bank has taken a step further and used the means of monopolising the tobacco industry. The land area is gradually expanding. In addition to the original Hamparan Perak area, there are Pulau Berayan, Gelugur, Suka Raja, Kesawan, and Kampung Baru. Areas such as Kampung Baru and Sungai Mati are all regarded as the use of tobacco gardens.

Before 1868, the above-mentioned lands were originally inhabited by indigenous people and established their own villages. The villagers mostly lived by planting coconuts, cardamom, and bananas. However, the “Deli Tobacco Company” has continued to forcibly requisition land that they believe is conducive to the cultivation of tobacco, even including the area of ​​Serdang, based on a contract with Sudan.

In those days, the Dutch had not established a court in Deli. If a worker breaks the law, the big boss will punish them as they please, including handcuffing the workers to heavy iron balls or confining them in a narrow detention room. Most of them are forcing those “offending the law” to wear handcuffs and plant tobacco leaves under the scorching sun to prevent them from resting. By convention, the prisoner should be sent to trial to be handed over to the Sultan for trial and conviction, and then confined or flogged. At that time, the big boss would not do the same, they decided to guilty without authorization.

There are many ways to make judgments. For example, if there is a fight between the workers, the owner will use provocative tactics, first asking Party A to beat Party B (confirming that Party B is at fault), and then instructing Party B to beat Party A (considering that Party A is also at fault) After both sides were bruised and bruised, they were handcuffed with iron shackles, and then they were driven to continue working in the field.

“Deli Tobacco Garden” not only forced the workers to work overtime and super-manually at will, but also did not allow them to rest when they suffered from illness. They always tried every means to extract more huge profits from them as soon as possible.

In order to expand the scope of land cultivation, “Deli Tobacco Garden” has continued to have disputes with villagers from various places (including Sunggal, Kampung Baru and Langkat). The residents of Langkat and Songgal once had a collective struggle, and the authorities had to use force to suppress it.

According to data, in 1872, “Deli Tobacco Garden” had 13 farms including Langkat and Serdang. The number of Dutch people in various tobacco farms serving as managers and other positions has reached 75, and all Chinese indentured laborers are as high as 4,000, while other Javanese and Indian laborers have only about 500.

Due to the large number of laborers and the treatment of labor in the garden, the patrolling Dutch assistants waved their canes and beat them at will, or punched and kicked them at will. There were also “professionals” (foremen) who were domineering. No, there are constant incidents of escaping from the tobacco farm. However, these fleeing laborers are often caught back and are punished. Although some have fled, they have to leave the “Deli” because they have not been entangled. They have to change to another garden, and they are still inseparable from the tiger’s mouth. Be a cow and a horse in the smoke garden.

In 1871, there was a sensation in which 22 Chinese laborers rebelled and killed two administrators (Dutch employees). These 22 laborers, because they could not endure all kinds of abuses by the Dutch, had a lot of resentment, and killed the two domineering Dutchmen. As a result, after a trial in Sultan’s court at the time, 7 of the workers were sentenced to death (hanged), and the other 15 were sentenced to life imprisonment. This incident was discovered later by a Medan newspaper reporter Mohammad Said when he visited the Netherlands in 1975 and searched for information from the archives and made it public.

It can be seen how cruel the Dutch colonists treated contracted tobacco-growing laborers at that time, leading to bloody resistance. Unfortunately, there is no detailed record of where the incident occurred.

In addition, the book “A Survey of Dutch East India” written by Liu Huanran in 1939 mentioned the history of the Chinese in Medan. It was mentioned that Medan had a “Tomb of Five”, which was located about 2 kilometers west of Medan. Roadside. According to legend, the five people are Chen Bingyi, Wu Tusheng, Li Sandi, Yang Guilin, and Yellow Centipede, all from Chaozhou. The author also said that the above-mentioned five were contract workers. They became brothers in distress because they admired the story of “The Romance of the Three Kingdoms”. Later, they partnered to kill the Dutch assistant because of their hatred of the Manager. After the death of the above-mentioned five people, the expatriates regarded them as gods and called them the “five ancestors”, and the local residents called them “Pekong Lima”

Comparing the above two records, the latter said that the “five ancestors” murder occurred about 50 years ago, and it should be 1898 if it was calculated from 1939. According to the archives, Mohd Shay found that the seven executed indentured Chinese laborers who killed the Dutch occurred in 1871. The two incidents occurred 18 years apart. They should not be the same thing.

Now that it is limited to data, it is impossible to know the details of the incident, but one thing is certain, that is the fact that the Chinese laborers who were oppressed did not resent being pressured to kill Dutch employees.

Around 1945, the play “The Temple of the Five Ancestors” was written by Baren (Wang Renshu, who served as China’s first ambassador to Indonesia when China and Indoesia established diplomatic relations). This play reflects the hardships suffered by the Chinese in the early days of the South. Infinite bitterness and blood and tears. At that time, the play was performed by Medan’s “New China Drama Club” (referred to as Xinzhongyi), which deeply touched the generation of overseas Chinese in Medan.