Abstract

LATE COMING COLONIALISM:

The dominance of Pidie merchants and the exclusion of Chinese
merchants in Sigli and Beureuneun markets

It is unimaginably hard from the Javanese perspective to look at a city as centre

of economic activity without ethnic Chinese existence. The Pecinan (Chinatowns)
arose as colonial legacy of segregation policy, putting the Chinese people as
trading minority in the plural society of Indonesia. In the postcolonial era, there
were no significant structural changes, only replacing the European to the
bureaucracy elites. Nonsimultaneous colonialism between Java and Sumatra
created different situations, reflected in the weakness of Chinese merchant
economy in the Pidie (Aceh) Regency markets.
Until the middle of the 19th century, the Chinese people more interestingly
migrated to the southern parts of Sumatra, like tin mining area in Bangka island
and pepper plantations in Riau Islands. The Dutch truly exerted its power in Aceh
in 1871, even effectively after the protracted war completed in 1931, only to be
then defeated by Japanese occupation in 1942. The short period of relationship
between Aceh and the Dutch colonialism is an obstacle to the Chinese merchants
to play a dominant role in the economy. The absence of Chinese factor in the
Acehnese society was filled by the Pidie merchants, having central role in the
social and political dynamics of Aceh.
According to Reid (2011), Aceh and Indonesia have a contradictory history.
Indonesian nationalism is mere an adjustment to the Dutch sphere of influence,
otherwise the history of Aceh is a long struggle to avoid the absorption to the
Dutch East Indies colonial rule. Pidies identification to the Acehnese and
traditional belief of Islam is a background of intolerance tendency to the other
identities. Beurenuen market is a centre of economic struggle in the Pidie
Regency, where the Chinese merchants have not been given a space at all
during the last 30 years.
Keywords: kewarganegaraan kota Sumatra Aceh pedagang Pidie Cina Sigli
Beureunuen
Keywords: citizenship city Sumatra Aceh merchant Pidie Cina Sigli Beureunuen