THE PRICE OF FREEDOM: THE UNFINISHED DIARY OF TENGKU HASAN DI TIRO

THE PRICE OF FREEDOM
I write this book in preparation for my death, shaheed--a
witness to an idea that had earlier been made sacred by the spilt
blood of my ancestors and recently by the spilt blood of my loyal
followers. (Introduction)
To preserve our freedom, our forefathers had suffered all,
sacrificed all, dared all, and died. Now is our turn to do no
less. (Introduction)
I have finally decided to do what I have believed all along to
be my destiny in life: to lead my people and my country to
freedom. That is my life mission. I will be a failure if I fail
to do so. Acquisition of wealth and power has never been my goal
in life because I have both in my country. (Preface)
It is plainly not easy to leave your life in Riverdale, New
York, with a beautiful wife and child, to go to live in the black
forests of Acheh, Sumatra, as a guerrilla leader. (Preface)
I have had a modicum of success in the business world because I
had entree to the highest business and governmental circles in
many countries: the United States, Europe, Middle East, Africa and
not least Southeast Asia, except "Indonesia" of course, which I
avoided. As a result, I have close business relationship with top
50 U.S. corporations in the fields of petrochemicals, shipping,
construction, aviation, manufacturing and food processing
industries. My own company had joint-venture agreements with many
of them which I affected, and myself retain a status of consultant
to some of them.... But I never mixed my business with my
politics. So very few of them knew what I had in mind to do in
Acheh Sumatra. This is my private affairs with my people only. I
did not solicit anybody else's advise, sympathy, or support.
(September 4, 1976)
My boat reached the landing area on the North coast of Acheh on
Saturday morning, October 30, 1976, about 8:30 in the morning in
the fishermen village of Pasi Lhok.... At about 6 p.m. my small
boat enters Kuala Tari to the East of the village of Pasi Lhok.
There a group of a dozen men, headed by M. Daud Husin, has been
waiting to escort me to the mountain region, that very night--my
first night in my homeland after being in exile for 25 years in
the United States. No one else know in the country of my arrival.
(October 30, 1976) I have long decided that the new Declaration
of Independence of Acheh Sumatra should be made on December 4, for
symbolical and historical reasons because it was the day after the
Dutch had shot and killed the last Head of State of independent
Acheh Sumatra, Tengku Tjhik Maat di Tiro, in the battlefield of
Alue Bhot, Tangse, on December 3, 1911. The Dutch had, therefore,
counted December 4, 1911, as the day of the ending of the
Achehnese state as a Sovereign entity, and the day of the Dutch
final "victory" over the Kingdom of Acheh Sumatra.... That was not
true at all because the Achehnese war of resistance did not end
with the fall of Tengku Tjhik Maat di Tiro at the Battle of Alue
Bhot since the struggle was continued by the survivors of 1911.
The State of Acheh Sumatra had never surrendered to Holland! The
struggle continues.... Tengku Tjhik Maat di Tiro was my uncle.
Here is the Declaration of Independence of Acheh Sumatra which I
penned down at Tjokkan Hill, and declared to the world on December
4, 1976:
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE OF ACHEH
SUMATRA
"To the peoples of the world:
"We, the people of Acheh, Sumatra, exercising our right of
self-determination, and protecting our historic right of eminent
domain to our fatherland, do hereby declare ourselves free and
independent from all political control of the foreign regime of
Jakarta and the alien people of the island of Java. Our
fatherland, Aceh, Sumatra, had always been a free and independent
Sovereign State since the world begun....
"However, when, after World War II, the Dutch East Indies was
supposed to have been liquidated--an empire is not liquidated if
its territorial integrity was preserved--our fatherland, Acheh,
Sumatra, was not returned to us. Instead, our fatherland was
turned over by the Dutch to the Javanese--their exmercenaries--by
hasty fiat of former colonial powers. The Javanese are alien and
foreign people to us Achehnese Sumatrans. We have no historic,
political, cultural, economic or geographic relationship with
them....
"During these last thirty years the people of Acheh, Sumatra
have witnessed how our fatherland has been exploited and driven
into ruinous conditions by the Javanese neo-colonialists: they
have stolen our properties; they have robbed us from our
livelihood; they have abused the education of our children; they
have put our people in chains of tyranny, poverty, and neglect....

"We, the people of Acheh, Sumatra would have no quarrel with the
Javanese if they had stayed in their own country, and if they had
not tried to lord it over us. From now on we intend to be the
masters in our own house: the only way life is worth living; to
make our own laws: as we see fit; to become the guarantor of our
own freedom and independence: for which we are capable; to become
equal with all the peoples of the world: as our forefathers had
always been. In short, to become sovereign in our own
fatherland!" (December 4, 1976)
By this time we have absolutely established these truths: (1)
The people have wholeheartedly accepted the idea of Achehnese
independence as propagated by the NLF (National Liberation Front);
(2) The NLF has successfully revived Achehnese historic
consciousness after almost being put out of existence by the
Javanese colonialists during these last 35 years of Javanese
Indonesian colonialism; (3) Politically we have won; the only
thing separates us from victory is the guns; (4) The people are
now willing to sacrifice everything to achieve their independence;
(5) The organization of the NLF has been established all over the
country; (6) The Government of the State of Acheh Sumatra has been
organized and established throughout the country....
The political challenge against the Javanese Indonesian
colonialist occupation authorities is total--short of a shooting
frontal war. Our flags are flown everywhere. Even the enemy
would not dare to insult our flag publicly because he knows where
the people's sympathy is. The people's enthusiasm is increasing
by the day. When NLFAS activists passed through the countryside,
people rushed to embrace them. (February 6, 1977)
Today I decide to give a special lecture in the morning on
Achehnese history and about the aims of our Revolution....
"This land is yours only for one reason and for one count:
because you are Achehnese! If you denounced that truth by
accepting another false name, like "indonesians"--that Javanese
nonsense--then you have forfeited your patrimony.... If these
foreign invaders managed to fool you to believe that you are
indeed not Achehnese but "indonesians"--that is tantamount to
accepting that you are not your fathers' and mothers' sons--but
merely stupid non-entities.... Any Achehnese who has come to
believe that he is not Achehnese but "indonesian" he is suffering
an identity crisis, in fact he has become mad....
"Memorize your history! It has been written, not by ink over
the papers, but by your fathers' blood over every inch of our
beautiful valleys and breath-taking heights, beginning from our
white sandy beaches to the cloud-covered peaks of Mount Seulawah,
Alimon, Geureudong and Abong-Abong. Our heroic good fathers are
not dead but merely waiting in their graves, all over this Blessed
Land, for the Judgement Day, and in the meantime they are watching
you, what you are doing with the rich legacy they had left for you
and had sacrificed their lives to secure its safe passage to you.
Would you be willing to sacrifice your lives too, in order to
secure the safe transmission of this rich legacy to your children
and their children's children? This Land of yours is a Holy
Land--made Holy by the deed and by the sacrificed blood of your
ancestors--it is fit to be worshipped, not to walked upon by the
ingrate Javamen." (February 11, 1977)
By this time many prominent leaders of Acheh have trekked to the
mountains to meet with me.... Most of them think only about guns.
"Where are the guns?!" Without the guns we should not be talking
about independence at all! I patiently explained to them:
granted, guns are very important and we cannot do without. We
will arm ourselves as a national effort in due time. But there
are more important and more urgent problems before us that we must
solve first--even before the guns: the problem of Achehnese
political consciousness, the problem of the crisis of national
identity, the problem of the study of Achehnese history, the
status of Acheh under International Law, the problem of
self-determination and international relations.... All these are
not military activities but political, cultural, and educational.
They are absolutely necessary to prepare before we can engage in
armed struggle. So the gun is neither the first nor the last
thing! We lost our chance to regain our independence in 1945 not
because of any lack of guns--you knew there were plenty of guns in
Acheh at that time--but precisely because of the lack of national
political consciousness and correct national political direction
at that time. I cannot remember how many thousand times I have
had to repeat these explanations! (February 13, 1977) We
receive reports that the enemy is stepping up his campaign to
picture us internationally as "terrorists," "bandits," "fanatics"
and even "communists" to justify his repressive actions against
us. Therefore, we decide to reprint our Declaration of
Independence of Acheh-Sumatra in the English language as many as
possible for distribution abroad. (April 16, 1977)
We are still in the political and preparatory stage of the armed
struggle and we want to remain in this stage as long as necessary.
Therefore, all our military movements and actions must be
subordinated to this strategy. All actions must be conducted
within the strict discipline of a defensive guerrilla warfare:
a. The Achehnese Army should always keep to the hills. This
will nullify Javanese superiority in armored vehicles, naval and
air forces.
b. The Achehnese Army should hover always in the enemy's
neighborhood, ambushing him, preventing him from gaining any
permanent base, becoming an illusive but powerful shadow on the
horizon, diminishing the "glamor" of the Javanese colonial troops.
c. Time and surprise are the two most vital elements:
understand all lines of expectations and lines of surprises. No
attack without surprise!
d. Engagements must be executed at the place and at the time of
our choosing, despite enemy provocations.
e. When enemy advances we retreat and harass him when he
returns.
f. Engagement with the enemy should only be done when we are
sure of winning, that is, of having superior force at the point of
engagement.
g. Our present objectives are to cripple the enemy's
communications and economy and to destroy his foreign backers'
confidence.
h. Our safety lies in the secrecy of our movement at all time
and in the mobility of our forces. The enemy should never know
where our forces are.
i. Our strategy is defensive; our tactic is swift offensive
against the enemy whenever an opportunity presents itself.
This strategy and tactics will immunize us from military defeat.
(May 16, 1977)
Beginning this month we noticed that the enemy was stepping up
his psychological warfare attacks against the National Liberation
Front and its leaders. Public meetings were organized all over
the country to denounce us. To assure the attendance at such
meetings the regime ordered all its functionaries--on pain of
losing their jobs if absent--to attend, and at least 10 men from
every village must come.... The regime had prepared in advance
thousands of posters denouncing us. These posters were made in
the Javanese regime's offices for months in advance and then
forced upon the people to carry them in the parade and then the
paraders are photographed with posters in hands. These
photographs are for international consumption as "proof" of the
people's supposed opposition against the NLFAS.... At the same
time the regime engaged in all sorts of nonsensical defamation
attempts against every one of the NLF leaders, to distract the
people's attention from the real political and economic issues
involved in this conflict between the Javanese Indonesian
colonialists and the people of Acheh Sumatra. (June 7, 1977)
The whole world knows that our country has been laid bare by the
Javanese colonialists at the feet of multinationals to be raped.
Our mineral and forest resources have been put up to the world
markets for clearance sale for quick cash for the Javanese
generals and their foreign backers. (June 15, 1977)
The enemy begins to make large scale arrests of those he
suspected to be members of the NLF or even sympathizers.
Thousands of men and women, even children, were arrested
arbitrarily and put in jails without due process of law. When all
the prisons have been filled up concentration camps are
established in every place where the enemy garrisons his troops.
Most of the prisoners are tortured or treated inhumanly. A regime
that had seized power by murdering 2 million people in 1965 can be
expected to be expert in repression.... The leadership and the
active members of the NLF cannot be arrested by the Javanese
because they are in the liberated territory. So the regime is
taking revenge on the people at large. The result, however, was
the contrary to the Javanese objectives. The people are now
become convinced of the beastly and barbaric nature of the
Javanese Indonesian colonialist regime. Even the Dutch had never
been that brutal. (June 22, 1977)
August 17 must be marked in Achehnese Sumatran history as the
calamitous day that has caused the temporary loss of our
legitimate right to independence, because it was on that day the
so-called "indonesia" was declared "independent" by the Javanese
in 1945, and was approved by the Dutch on December 27, 1949. It
was a joint-stock company of the old colonialism with the
neo-colonialism, a joint venture of the two to fabricate the
artificial and make-believe nation of "indonesia." ...
Everything about Indonesia is absurd, The declaration of
independence of indonesia is easily the most stupid declaration of
independence in the annals of all nations. It was devoid of any
ideas, of any political philosophy, or of any thought
whatsoever....
If the concept of "decolonization a la indonesia" would have
been applied to all other colonial territories in the world, there
would have been only 7 (seven)-- instead of 51 (fifty-one) new
states established in Africa after World War II, namely, one for
each of the foreign colonies of Britain, France, Portugal,
Belgium, Italy, Spain, and Germany....
Decolonization requires liquidation of all colonial empires with
specific steps and procedures, but indonesia exists on the
principle of total territorial integity of the colonial empire;
and an empire is not liquidated if its territorial integrity is
preserved. Thus indonesia is still an un-liquidated and
un-declonized colonial empire with Java-men replacing Dutchmen as
colonialists. (August 17, 1977)
Take an old map of Sumatra from some reliable Western map-makers
dated before Dutch colonialism arrived in Sumatra. You will find
out that the whole island of Suamtra was part of the Kingdom of
Acheh, properly a Sumatran power. At that time Acheh was the
political name, and Sumatra a geographic name of the same island.
And the name of Sumatra itself was also of Achehnese origin,
denoting the Samudra District in East Acheh. If you investigated
a little further, you will also find out that Malaya, West Borneo,
and Banten region of West Java were also under Achehnese
sovereignty for a long time....
Take a look at the map of Sumatra at the time of the Dutch
declaration of war against Acheh, on March 26, 1873. You will see
that the territory of the State of Acheh or Kingdom of Acheh in
Sumatra at that time still covered half of Sumatra until Djambi
and the Riau Archipelago. Please see the map published by GRAPHIC
of London in 1883, in this book. This, therefore, constitutes the
minimum legal claim by the present State of Acheh Sumatra on
December 4, 1976: a simple return to the status quo ante bellum,
to March 26, 1873. In addition, the State of Acheh Sumatra claims
back from the Dutch--therefore also from Indonesia--all of Sumatra
and surrounding islands as our legitimate historic national
territory. (August 20, 1977)
Today we begin the inaugural lectures of the University of Acheh
at the Mount Alimon Campus. The lectures are attended by about 50
participants.... Since we have no textbooks available at the
Mount Alimon campus, I have to rely solely on my memory.
(September 20, 1977)
Today I received a distressing news from Pase Province about an
incident that will have an unfortunate international repercussion.
An American worker was reportedly killed and another one wounded
by stray bullets in the fighting between our forces and the
indonesian colonialist forces. This was the sort of thing that we
have been trying to avoid for months.... The immediate cause of
this incident--which took place yesterday--was the betrayal by the
local manager of Mobil Oil Company in Lhok Seumawe, Pase Province
of Aceh Suamtra. He was invited by the local commander of the
NLFAS for a confidential meeting in a designated place in the area
to discuss ways and means to protect the LNG (Liquefied Natural
Gas) plant in Aron (Arun), Lhok Seumawe, from possible damage from
the raging guerrilla warfare around it. He was advised not to
inform the indonesian colonialist authorities about the meeting.
Unfortunately, however, that was what he exactly did. Not only
did he leak the meeting, but he participated in laying ambush
against our troops with the indonesian colonialist forces in the
area....
There are thousands of Americans and other foreign nationals who
are making their opulent living on our troubled soil. Under the
present situation our people themselves--the legitimate owners of
this land--have no protection from sudden death at the hands of
the Javanese-indonesian invaders. How can we protect these
foreigners amidst us? How can we be responsible for their safety?
The best we can do is to advise them to leave our country for a
while until we have liberated ourselves from our oppressors.
(December 6, 1977)
The people of Acheh think that the U.S. government is our
friend because I had lived in America for 25 years as an exile....
Today, our people must prepare to accept the reality that the U.S.
government is not pro-Acheh Sumatra as in the old time, but
pro-Javanese-indonesian colonialist regime in Java. And the U.S.
policy is to ensure that Javanese colonialist regime stays in
power even against our just interest, so that American company
like Mobil Oil Corporation can buy and sell us in international
market place as you already knew about Aron gas field and our
other oil fields.... President Ulysses S. Grant refused to
recognize Dutch claim of sovereignty over Acheh, and issued
instead a Proclamation of Impartial Neutrality in the war between
Holland and Acheh, which was tantamount to the American
re-affirmation of recognition of Achehnese independence. (May
1, 1978)
The only thing we need to do now is arming our people, and the
Javanese will have to run away from Acheh Sumatra. Essentially we
are working for that moment to come now. (July 22, 1978)
This morning I have a leave-taking ceremony with my wonderful
comrades-in- arms.... Few of them knew me personally before I
come back from America. They knew me only by reputation. They
knew whose son I was. That is saying a great deal in Acheh
Sumatra.... To have survived means to have been given another
opportunity to finish the job with more assurance of success....
Only crazy and stupid men will believe that I will not come back.
(March 28, 1979)