THE PRICE OF FREEDOM

A MESSAGE FROM THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND
INFORMATION
STATE OF ACHEH SUMATRA:
This is part I of THE PRICE OF FREEDOM THE UNFINISHED DIARY OF
TENGKU HASAN M. di TIRO, President of the National Liberation Front of Acheh
Sumatra or the Free Acheh Movement, and Head of State of Acheh Sumatra,
containing the Tengku's daily activities from September 4, 1976, to March 29, 1979.
It covered the period of formation, organization, and consolidation of the NLFAS.
We published this book as part of educational program to put in front of our future
generations the knowledge of how we have been able to execute the task for national
resurrection and renaissance of our nation under the points of the enemy's bayonets;
the sufferings and risks that had been voluntarily accepted by those pioneering
Achehnese in the process of achieving our objectives. Most of those mentioned in
THE PRICE OF FREEDOM are already dead, martyred to our cause at the hands of
the barbaric Javanese Indonesian colonialists.
The Free Acheh Movement or the NLFAS is essentially a peaceful, educational
movement: It was the Javanese Indonesian colonialists who used violemce to
suppress us. Anything that happened there-after was the necessary reaction from us in
self-defence.
Each entry in THE PRICE OP FREEDOM will not fail to demonstrate the
intimate relationship between the leadership of the NLFAS and the people. The
enemy has used every trick of his "counter-insurgency" strategy or rather the
imperialist's art of repression against us to no avail. Each day demonstrates the
growing strength of our independence movement. The enemy "body counts" have
meant nothing in the people's march to victory. It is axiomatic that no independence
movement can be stopped by military means. The historical process of independence
of peoples and the eradication of colonialism cannot be stopped by mere Javamen -
even if they are backed by Western democracies, as it were. That merely gives a bad
name for the Western democracies.
In 1980 the Javanese Indonesian regime had announced the "death" of Tengku
Hasan di Tiro officially in the battlefield in Acheh Sumatra. And ever since there has
been world-wide speculation as to whether the Tengku is really dead or still alive.
Such speculations have been printed in major world newspapers and carried out by
news-agencies such as Reuter, AFP, UPpL, AP, etc. The stories have been
Confirmed and denied.as the mystery thickens. The Far Eastern Economie Review
had published at least seven articles about Tengku Hasan di Tiro;"Rebel With A
Pedigree" (July 17, 1981); "The Mystery Man Stirs The Embers" (June 24, 1977);
''Islam's Troubled Verandah" (August 25, 1978); "Jakarta's Most Sensitive Spots"
(August 4, 1978);'The Cause Without A Rebel" (October 31, 198o) "One Man' s
Fading Vision" (October 31, 1980); "Hasan di Tiro Is Alive And Well"......
(December 12, 1980). Speculations as to whether the Tengku is still alive or not have
been printed on the pages of Le Monde (April 1, 1981),
Zelfbeschikking (December, 1980), and others. We shall not comment on thesse
speculations. Let history be the judge.
THE PRICE OP FREEDOM also gives glimpses into the saga of the di Tiro
family, the first and the historic family of Acheh Sumatra" Tengku Hasan is the last
of the di Tiro. The Dutch historian, H. C. Zentgraaff had written: "Too much blood of
the di Tiro family has been spilled. ...There was no Achehnese family who had
exercised so much influence on the war (between Holland and Acheh) like the di
Tiro family, and there was none who had sustained the struggle to the bitter end.
They were the objectives of a series of military movements and warfare which belong
to the most interesting parts of the history of this war that can provide materials for
heroic epic." Writing about the death of Tengku Hasan di Tiro's grandfather, Tengku
Tjhik Mahyeddin di Tiro, in 1910, Zentgraaff stated: "The history of the fall of the
last Tengku di Tiro left such material for a novel, and so buried in the history of
Acheh War the stuffs for an heroic epic, the greatest, the most overpowering, and so
formidable, as has not been seen elsewhere that make for the pride and the glory of a
people." H. C. Zentgraaff, Atjeh, 1925).
The Dutch legendary military figure, Colonel H. J. Schmidt had written:"From
the beginning of the war (between Holland and Acheh) the members of the family of
the Tengku di Tiro played the greatest role and the most important on the Achehnese
side. For them and their men, there were no other possibilities acceptable than to win
this war or to die heroes deaths. Victory was clearly impossible, and un-obtainable.
And yet, despite everything, they stood fast and fought like heroes. Despite the odds
against him, a Tengku di Tiro recognized no other possibility for him except death.
Thus, in this war everything became simple, short, and matter of facts the latter of the
surviving Tengku di Tiro died in the battlefields. ..and these scenes have become the
inevitable last acts of the continuing Achehnese Drama, that by now can no longer be
played in any other way."(H.J.Schmidt, Marechaussee in Atjeh, 1947)
All these show that history is repeating itself in Acheh Sumatra in such
extraordinary fidelity. It demonstrates also the stability of our political leadership
from generations to generations that is unique in the annals of nations.