Short Story - Lenggean Man

To establish VOC power in Singkil, the Company made an agreement with Singkil's kings whose contents were very detrimental to the people of Singkil. As follows:

1. The kingdoms in Singkil must submit to the Dutch.
2. All crops of Singkil in the form of incense, rattan, lime and other forest products must be sold to the Dutch association at a price as they wish in the Netherlands.

The agreement caused a lot of suffering suffered by the people of Singkil. The crops they get are forced to sell to the Netherlands very, very cheaply, so that not only save for hard times, daily necessities are not met.

Therefore, Lenggean Man intends to end the suffering felt by the people. Lenggean Man then vehemently opposed the agreement and stated that he would remain loyal to the Aceh sultanate and anti-Dutch. All the spices produced by the people in his territory, he traded to other than the Netherlands.

The economic condition of the people of Singkil increased very rapidly at that time. But this did not last long after the Dutch learned about the actions of Lenggean Man who dared to oppose him. The Dutch finally threatened to punish Lenggean Man if he continued to oppose the agreement. Of course Lenggean Man was not afraid of the Dutch ultimatum and continued to sell the results of his people's spices to other traders.

The Dutch became increasingly angry, then sent a company of war troops to the Lenggean Man kingdom to arrest him. Before the Dutch war troops arrived, Lenggean Man first escaped and met his teacher Batang Muar. Aside from being a teacher of Lenggean Man, Batang Muar is also the person who cared for his son Cinendang.

There, in addition to meeting his son, Lenggean Man asked advice from his teacher about the problems that were befalling him and his people. Batang Muar then suggested that Lenggean Man not appear first in the kingdom before finding the right strategy to expel the Dutch from Singkil.