A good historian knows that he is drawing. He tells something, a circumstance, an event, from a situation he might not see, he does not face. Because the material of history is actually like a canvas of memory.

HOW TO TELL HISTORY

A good historian knows that he is drawing. He tells something, a circumstance, an event, from a situation he might not see, he does not face. Because the material of history is actually like a canvas of memory.

Memory is never one and stable, memory is easily lost by the sweep of colors that come later. Like a painting, when it appears before us, it is actually in the process of changing. The painting itself may not be visible anymore, crumpled, damp, or even mossy.

Painting or a picture turned out to give a different perception. History is different from mathematics which is an exact science. History is valuable because everyone can tell about a circumstance from different angles. History sparked debate, even contradictions and at the same time, it was easy to remember again. So history is valuable because it is a form of recognition of a perception that the past can not be given a definite form.

Anyone who wants to look back into the past, actually never fully returned. As we can only imagine how cruel the Gayo conquest by Lieutenant Colonel GCE van Daalen (February 8 – July 23, 1904) burned villages, women, and children were killed, the most violent war crimes of Dutch colonial history in Indonesia, we are sad but not present there.

The conquest of Koeta Reh Fortress, an operation under the leadership of Van Daalen in Gayo Land. The photo was taken on June 14, 1904. Part of the Aceh War (1873-1904)

In 1904, Van Daalen ordered Van Heutsz to conquer the Land of Gayo and  Alas with 10 marsose brigades – In the Marsose troop posed by stepping on the dead Gayo fighters.

Dutch atrocities in Kampong Likat Tanah Gayo, children and women were also massacred by Van Daalen’s Dutch army. Aceh War (1873-1904)

All the inhabitants of Koeta Reh fortress were massacred by Dutch troops led by Van Daalen (Aceh War 1873-1904)

The history of suspicion between Aceh and Gayo was created by the Dutch

History is bitter, but here too people cannot fully look back. On June 14, 1904, with the control of the ruins of Kuta Rih after a very heavy resistance. The crackdown was carried out by killing 189 women, and 59 children. The wounded were 51 people, among them 25 women and 31 children, who were caught alive two women and 61 children. Van Daalen gathered all the Gayo elders and made a speech, I imagined. “This is the result of you helping Aceh in the war against us (the Netherlands). Look when you are slaughtered and humiliated! Are they helping you?”

Gayo elders brought sugar cane as an offering to Van Daalen as a sign of submission to the Dutch.

That, of course, is a fantasy of colonialism. After Batee Iliek’s fortress fell, all the Aceh troops guarding the fort were killed. Practically Aceh had no power in the long war against the Dutch and protected Gayo, the entire coast of Aceh had fallen into the hands of the Dutch. At that time Gayo was the only independent territory that had not been occupied by the Dutch. The last Sultan Muhammad Daudsyah had fled before being caught by the Dutch army.

But indeed colonialism affixed the wounds that in their memories were once colonized. Suspicions between Aceh and Gayo raised by the Dutch are still living in the prejudices that are still alive in the same land despite the different language.

Politics divide et imperia is taken by Dutch colonialism to conquer the nations in Dutch Indies (Indonesia now), the various inter-regional prejudices inherited by them. Unfortunately, it’s all alive amongst us. And it turns out the ghost of colonialism still leaves its mark even though he has long been independent Indonesia from Dutch colonialism.

Perhaps we should know that the living humans must now be able to escape from the grudges of the past. Far behind massacres or peace, are hidden memories, which never stand full, clean, and alone. There is a gaping wound due to loss, there is an overflow of the heart. That is probably what is called vengeance.

When we dissolve ourselves in the moment of “Passionist Memoria”. A sad memory, then it can all pass by giving forgiveness. For that reason history is needed, it is not easy to find written documents to understand the past. The future is in front of us, hurrying and not waiting.

We can face the future bravely if we have forgiven the past, and bridge it to future generations. That’s why we need to imagine a (historical) painting, in a form full of vigor and imagination, we imagine it flying high.

Translate From: Melukis Sejarah

About Aceh:

1. CUMBOK WAR, A SOCIAL REVOLUTION IN ACEH (1946-1947); 8 April 2017;
2. CIVILIZATION WITHOUT WRITING; 13 April 2017;
3. ACEH THE FIRST SOVEREIGN COUNTRY TO RECOGNIZING THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE NETHERLANDS; 27 April 2017;
4. VISITING THE EXHIBITION ACEH TOMBSTONE AS AN ISLAMIC CULTURAL HERITAGE IN SOUTH-EAST ASIA; 16 May 2017;
5. DUTCH RAID OPERATION AGAINST CUT MEUTIA (1910); 20 May 2017;
6. SAMUDERA PASAI AS THE FIRST ISLAMIC KINGDOM IN SOUTHEAST ASIA; 6 June 2017;
7. ISLAMIC SHARIAH WHO IS AFRAID, A CASE STUDY IN ACEH; 13 June 2017;
8. ACEH WOMEN FULL POWER; 13 June 2017;
9. DUSK IN MALACCA; 4 July 2017;
10. GOLD, INFIDELS, AND DEATH; 10 July 2017;
11. MANTE THE LOST PYGMY TRIBE; 13 July 2017;
12. THE ORIGIN OF THE COFFEE CULTURE IN ACEH; 19 August 2017;
13. THE UNTOLD STORY ABOUT HISTORY OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDONESIA IN ACEH PROVINCE; 28 September 2017;
14. WHEN CRITICISM IS FORBIDDEN; 14 October 2017;
15. EXPLOITATION OF NATURAL RESOURCES, WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR ACEH; 5 November 2017;
16. PEUCUT KHERKOFF, ACEH-DUTCH WAR MONUMENT; 12 November 2017;
17. THE PRICE OF FREEDOM; 5 December 2017;
18. ACEH CRAZY OR ACEH PUNGO; 25 February 2018;
19. MARSOSE CORPS, THE DUTCH SPECIAL ARMY DURING ACEH WAR; 19 March 2018;
20. ISLAMIC POLITICS BY SNOUCK HURGRONJE AS ADVICE TO DUTCH INDIES GOVERNMENT TO REDUCE ISLAM POWER IN INDONESIA; 9 July 2018;