Stories from Deli

Until the middle of the last century, the present-day region of the East coast of Sumatra consisted of a number of more or less interdependent empires, with little economic significance for the world outside. The scanty population consisted along the coast along some seafaring and trading Malays and further inland from Bataks, who in so far as they inhabited the lower regions had already converted to Islam and sold their agricultural products (mainly pepper) to their Malay co-religionists.

The present landscape of Deli was at that time subject to the Sultan of Siak; the whole region between Siak in the south and Aceh in the north had to succumb to alternating fortunes for the Sultans of either of these two greater empires. Now, in the late fifties, when a treaty was concluded with Siak, the Netherland Indies Government allowed the various subjugated empires to exist as the subject of Siak. But the princes of these empires saw an opportunity to deny that supremacy. Some of them were willing to directly recognize their submission to the Government, but others refused that too. It was not until 1884 – when the Sultan of Siak relinquished his rights to the subject in a new treaty – before the Government was able to create a regular situation. Then, among others, the Sultan of Deli was recognized and his empire was left in the enjoyment of self-government limited only by the provisions of the so-called “political contract”.

The East coast region of Sumatra was then already an independent residence, with the capital located on the island of Bengkalis, which had been ceded to the Government by the Sultan of Siak. The most important part of the region from an economic point of view, however, was the Deli landscape, where tobacco culture had emerged in the early 1960s. When Deli and the surrounding empires had now also been elevated to Self-Government, thus ending the many disputes between them, there was no longer any objection to moving the seat of government to this more important landscape.

In Deli itself, the focus had also shifted due to the tobacco culture. Initially, Laboean-Deli, the anchorage at the mouth of the Deli River, was the main settlement, where the Sultan was located and where, in turn, the Controller and Assistant Resident were based. However, for the Deli Company, which was founded in 1869, the office was placed 17 kilometers further inland, in the center of the main concession, where the Deli River became navigable for loading paddles after confluence with the Baboera River. On the left bank lay the insignificant kampung Medan; on the other side the Deli Company settled in the vicinity of the Datoek Kesawan, the district head of Soekapiring. The settlement, which soon developed here, became more important than Labuan; military occupation came in 1873, the Assistant Resident moved there in 1879, and in 1887 Medan became the residence of the Resident. Some years later, the Sultau followed suit, and a palace was set up at Medan.

Some said that Kesawan comes from Karo word “kesawahen” meaning kampoeng or sawah. Datoek Kesawan at that time was the great granchild of Guru Patimpus called “Masannah” (Luckman).

Medan was really already has become of some significance. The Resident found a railway station here, where three lines had its starting point; the Deli Railroad Company had set up a telephone service. There was a hotel and a club; the Deli Courant had already passed several years; an office of the Nederlandsche Handelmaatschappij was established. Some forty years ago, Medan was no less than many of the Residentie Hoofdplaats today.

We have here a picture of Medan as it had developed in twenty-five years: a settlement of a significant number of Europeans and a much greater number of Chinese and Foreign Orientals. Initially these non-Natives had considered themselves subjects of the Sultan in the absence of any legal provision. When their legal status was settled by the political contract, and all non-Natives, even living in Self-Governed Territories, were designated as direct subjects of the Government. The difficulty indicated above arose in obtaining proper rights to the lands they already had. Occupied for agriculture.

A settlement had already been made: by Government Decree of January 27, 1877 No. 4 (Supplement 3381) a model was established for agricultural contracts to be awarded by the East Coast Self-Government; there was no regulation for ground clearance for housing, so that building was built on land which had been purchased without legal title from the kampong population (with or without permission from the Self-Government) or on land which had actually only been given up for agricultural purposes and was used by the entrepreneurs for housing construction. It was not until 1889 that an end was put to this by the adoption by Government Decree of a model deed for the issue of land for housing, after correspondence about it for several years. These acts were referred to by the English name “grant,” a name which had been brought from everywhere to Deli with so many things.

So there are two models for the issue of land by the Self-Governments to non-Natives. First, the model for agricultural contracts, replaced in 1892 by a model ‘act of concession’ (Supplementary page 4770), by which name these rights are usually referred to.

The first type was discussed in detail in the work “The Agricultural Concessions in the Beside East Coast of Sumatra”, which Mr. HJ BOOL compiled on behalf of some tobacco companies. The grants are the subject of this booklet and are intended to provide a guide. to grant holders and civil servants who come into contact with grant rights, but it is also intended for interested parties in agricultural schemes to give a view on the astonishing amount of deviating rights that arose under the urgent circumstances. because they are known to the writer in practice, the arrangements in the other Self-Governments are almost the same, except as regards the grants issued by the Deli Company, which exist only in Medan.

Most of present-day Medan was originally spent by the Deli Company for agricultural purposes. When one looks at the map of Medan, the rivers immediately fall in the form of an inverted letter Y; to the left is the Babura River, to the right the Deli River, the latter name being retained after the confluence. Along those rivers, but not in the terrain between them, there were narrow strips of kampong ground from old; everything beyond that was ceded to tobacco entrepreneurs under various contracts. The same rivers form the boundaries of some of the Urungs (districts) of the Deli landscape, that is, the original Batak states, where the population has kept their own heads, who rule as hereditary vassals in the name of the Sultan.  

In Medan, to the west of the rivers, is the oeroeng of the duabelas kota, and between the rivers lies the oeroeng Sukapiring; to the east the territory was directly administered by the Sultan. When an arrangement had to be made as desired by the Resident, it was obvious that, in addition to recognition of the plots already ceded to non-Indians by the Deli Company, they immediately wanted to make land available for further expansion of the city, and it is understandable, that a section east of the rivers in the area directly administered by the Sultan was chosen for this purpose. This land was issued to the Deli Company for 99 years by contract dated June 11, 1870, later replaced by a contract dated November 1, 1874; hereby, the lands situated between the Deli River and the Pertjut River, from Mabar to Delitoewa, were issued. By these latter names the contract is known as the “Mabar-Delitoewa contract.” One of the provisions of that contract was that the Deli Company should cover the strip of land between the Deli River and the major road which roughly follows the course of this river. , which constituted the aforementioned strip of kampoeng land.

The arrangement desired by the Resident in 1885 did not come into effect until the model Checkeurs’ Grant had been established in 1889; the previously concluded and withdrawn agreements are irrelevant here.

On January 1, 1891, the Sultan and the Deli Company agreed that a parcel of about 225 hectares (now the most important part of Medan) should no longer be included in the Mabar-Delitoewa contract, so that the Sultan intended to dispose of it. land, but on the condition that the same land would be given a long lease to the Deli Maatschappij (as a Controller’s grant) for the remaining duration of the agricultural contract, and with the stipulation that if this grant right should lapse or be declared invalid (otherwise then because of failure to pay the lease) the parcel will be added back to the land referred to in the agricultural contract. This agreement was approved by the Resident by Decree of February 18, 1891 No. 57.

The Controller’s Grant granted to the Deli Company by the Sultan now follows in its entirety, because it contains several provisions deviating from the model and because knowledge thereof is necessary for the assessment of the significance of the Deli Company grants. Next to the Dutch text shown here is a Malay translation, which, in deviation from the model, is written in Arabic characters. This grant is known as “Grant number one” because, according to the note at the foot of the deed, it is registered under that number with the Inspector in Medan, but not in the ordinary register of Inspector grants, for there were already 243 in it on 20 February 1891. issued parcels registered.

In the past, however, it can be assumed that the Batak princes were pleased to have promoted the change, as a result of which instead of purely democratic government according to the Bataksclhe adat a greater power was assigned to the monarch.

Those Bataks princes remained under the sovereignty of the Sultan from Deli to control their area; , according to the political contract from 1907 this concerns the following four primal oeroeng: Sepoeloeh doea kota under datoek Hamperan perak, Serbanjaman under Datoek Soenggal, Soekapiring under Datuk of Kampung baroue, formerly Kesawan, and Senembah, as far as Deli belongs, under the Datuk of Patoembah.

From: Gerard Jansen

Deli (Mabar, pulau Brayan, Martubung, etc.),

Kedatukan Serbanyaman (Sunggal, kampong Lalang, Tanjung Gusta etc.),

Kedatukan Sepuluh Dua Kuta (Hamparan perak, Klambir, etc.),

Kedatukan Senembah (Patumbak, Kampung Baru, etc.)

Kedatukan Sukapiring (Kesawan, Aras Dadap, etc.)

Kejuruan Percut,

Kejuruan Denai,

Kejuruan Bedagei

Kejuruan Padang (NowTebing Tinggi)