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Sungei Ujong

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Sungei Ujong

J.M. Gullick, a British administrator with a Cambridge education, published this comprehensive study of the state of Sungei Ujong in Negri Sembilan in 1949, drawing on oral tradition, colonial records, and his own observation of the 1945–46 election of a Dato’ Klana to argue that the state’s constitution—draped in the familiar garb of ‘adat perpatih—was in fact a territorially-based system of irregular growth that never fitted the matrilineal model well (p. 21). The work traces the interaction of Sakai, Malacca, and Menangkabau elements from the fourteenth century through the British protection era, documenting the political offices, clan structures, revenue systems, and the semi-independent Bugis settlement of Linggi.

Summary

Gullick begins by untangling the name “Sungei Ujong,” arguing it is a corruption of the Javanese “Sang Hyang Hujung” (Holy Head), identified with Cape Rachado, and that the name was transferred from the headland to the inland Malay settlements at the time of the Sumatran immigration (p. 1). The modern state comprises the administrative districts of Seremban and Port Dickson, with the Bugis settlement of Linggi at the river estuary occupying a semi-independent position “mothered by Rembau and fathered by Sungei Ujong” (p. 2). The heart of the state is Pantai, the valley above Seremban, where the first agricultural Malay settlement was founded by the sons of Bendahara Sekudai, and where the clan providing the Dato’ Klana still resides (p. 5).

The historical narrative identifies three successive populations: the Sakai (or Besisi/Jakun) who were the original inhabitants; the Malacca Malays who held the offices of Penghulu Mentri and Shahbandar as agents of the Bendahara; and the Menangkabau immigrants who arrived in large numbers from the late sixteenth century and eventually formed the majority of the population (pp. 7–11). Bendahara Sekudai’s visit in 1644, prompted by the Dutch capture of Malacca, is treated as the pivotal moment of constitutional formation: he confirmed or revived the titles of the local Malacca families, and the tradition attributes to him the founding of the waris through children by a Sakai princess, though Gullick regards this genealogy as a later manufacture (pp. 11–13). The adoption of ‘adat perpatih as the established territorial law—rather than a revolutionary imposition on a previously patrilineal society—is dated to the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century, when the waris families of Malacca origin went over to the matrilineal system already practised by the Sumatran majority (pp. 17–18).

The constitutional analysis reveals a system of considerable irregularity. The waris are divided into three groups—Waris di-Darat (containing the Waris Klana and Waris Dato’ Andika), Waris di-Ayer, and Waris Rantau—each with attached non-waris clans of Sumatran origin, but the boundaries between waris and suku have never been as clear-cut as in other Negri Sembilan states (pp. 21–23). The Dato’ Klana is the territorial Undang, but the Dato’ Bandar, whose office originated as a customs collector for Johore, achieved near-independence in the nineteenth century and was only partially subordinated after the 1874 treaty (pp. 30–38). The Bugis settlement at Linggi, founded in 1783 by descendants of Dato’ Awaludin and Dato’ Srilah, developed its own clan system and rotation of office only in the twentieth century under British mediation (pp. 58–63).

Key Findings

  • The name “Sungei Ujong” is most probably a false emendation of “Sang Hyang Hujung” (Holy Head) from a fourteenth-century Javanese poem, identified with Cape Rachado (modern “Tanjong Tuhan”), and was transferred inland to the Malay settlements during the Sumatran immigration (p. 1).
  • No permanent Malay state existed in Sungei Ujong before the seventeenth century; D’Eredia (1613) records it as inhabited only by aboriginees, and Schouten’s list of twenty-two Portuguese trading partners does not include it (p. 10).
  • The title “Dato’ Klana” is Bugis in origin; Gullick suggests that Penghulu Mentri Chantek and his son Dato’ Klana Bador (floruit c. 1760), the first to bear the title, were Bugis who married into the local ruling family during the Bugis incursion of c. 1753–1760 (p. 16).
  • The 1849 settlement between the Dato’ Klana and Dato’ Bandar, imposed by the Yang Di-Pertuan Besar, divided the Linggi river revenues into three equal shares and recognised the Dato’ Bandar as a political equal, but the two fought spasmodically for another quarter of a century until the 1874 war (pp. 19, 29).
  • The 1946 election of Dato’ Klana Mohamad Kassim was resolved by a form of divination: the Regent (Dato’ Andika) studied the smoke of burning incense over a charcoal brazier and selected the candidate whose name was in his mind when the smoke first wavered toward him; the Dato’ Bandar then announced the appointment (pp. 65–66).
  • The Waris di-Ayer, which provides the Dato’ Bandar, is divided into four sub-clans (Nenek Sulong, Susuganda, Tunggal, Nenek Susudara) in rotation, but the office of Dato’ Raja (lembaga of the same waris) has no rule of rotation and may be filled by any sub-clan, a logical inconsistency that produces acute controversy at each appointment (p. 49).

Conclusion

Gullick’s definitive historical takeaway is that the constitution of Sungei Ujong is a territorial system that has been clothed in the terminology of ‘adat perpatih without ever conforming to its logic. The “clans” are in fact territorial aggregations of successive immigrant waves of different status, united by the accident of settling in the same area rather than by lineal descent; the waris-suku distinction is blurred; and the dual authority of Dato’ Klana and Dato’ Bandar has no parallel in the orthodox model (pp. 21–22). The system works, but it works through personality, precedent, and pragmatic accommodation rather than through the clean rules that characterise the ‘adat perpatih of Kuala Pilah or Rembau.

Context

  • The article was written under the British Military Administration and reflects Gullick’s direct administrative experience; he documents the 1945–46 election in detail as a case study in customary constitutional practice (pp. 64–66).
  • The unpublished ‘Adat Sungei Ujong, written c. 1910 by Raja Aman under the direction of the Dato’ Klana, is identified as the principal indigenous source, though Gullick notes it is unsystematic, biased by local patriotism, and has never been laid before the Council of Tiang Balai (p. 7).

References