Rembau, one of the nine states: its history, constitution and customs
C.W.C. Parr and W.H. Mackray published this comprehensive monograph in 1910 in the Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (Vol. 56), providing the most detailed constitutional and historical account of Rembau, one of the original nine states of the Negri Sembilan confederacy. The work traces the state from its aboriginal and Menangkabau origins through successive periods of Johor, Bugis, Menangkabau, and British suzerainty, and offers an exhaustive analysis of its matrilineal tribal constitution, property customs, and marriage law.
Summary
The historical narrative begins with the settlement of Rembau by Menangkabau immigrants from Sumatra, whose arrival is dated to 1388 A.D. by local tradition (p. 0). The earliest settlers, led by To’ Lela Balang and To’ Laut Dalam, established the two principal divisions of the state—the low country (Tanah Sabelah Baroh) and the inland district (Tanah Sabelah Darat)—and formed intertribal leagues that guaranteed the territorial spheres of the pioneer chiefs (pp. 1–6). The constitution of Rembau rested on a federation of twelve tribes, each governed by a tribal chief (lembaga), with the supreme authority vested in the Undang (Lawgiver), elected in strict alternation between the two Waris families—Jakun and Jawa—by the rule of giliran perut (p. 45). The real power, however, lay with the council of Eight (later Four) great tribal chiefs, without whose concurrence the Undang could neither deliver judgment nor conclude any binding agreement (pp. 3–4, 39).
The constitutional analysis reveals a system in which the Raja (Keadilan) held only a strictly delegated and limited authority as head of the confederacy, with no right to levy taxes, dispose of waste land, or interfere in the internal affairs of any state (pp. 58–60). The authors demonstrate that the Raja’s power was a product of the Menangkabau suzerainty established after the Bugis expulsion of 1770, and that the Seri Menanti house’s constant struggles for succession only confirmed the weakness of royal pretensions (p. 60). British intervention, beginning with the treaty of 1883, progressively reduced both the Raja and the Undang to ceremonial roles, culminating in the 1895 and 1898 agreements that created the modern Negri Sembilan federation of six states (pp. 20–21).
The chapters on property and marriage customs document the Adat Perpateh system in its most complete form. Ancestral property descends exclusively through the female line, per stirpes, and is held in trust by the nearest female relative for the benefit of the entire family (pp. 65–66). Marriage is understood not as a contract between individuals but as an institution serving the economic interests of the wife’s tribe, which acquires a new male adherent and his potential progeny (pp. 89–93). The marriage fee (mas kahwin) is a tribal payment, not a personal perquisite of the bride, and its allocation to the tribal chief and officers confirms its collective character (p. 91).
Key Findings
- The Undangship of Rembau was governed by the giliran perut (rotation of families), with the office alternating between the Waris Jakun and Waris Jawa families; this rule was suspended for approximately forty years (c. 1691–1750) when the Johor Raja disqualified the Jakun family after To’ Uban refused to allow his daughter to enter a Johor prince’s household (pp. 11–12).
- The Raja’s authority was strictly delegated and confined to the administration of justice; the adat explicitly states that “the soil is not owned by the Raja, nor can he levy a war tax” (p. 58). The Raja received only a maintenance of a measure of rice, a cluster of coconuts, and 25 pieces of money from each landowner in the four confederate states (p. 59).
- The council of Eight lembaga (formed in 1831 by adding four Darat chiefs to the original Four Baroh chiefs) constituted the effective governing body of Rembau; no treaty signed by the Undang was binding on the state without their counter-signatures (pp. 39–40, 17).
- Ancestral property in Rembau descended to daughters or their direct descendants per stirpes, not per capita; in the event of a failure of female heirs, the property became “suspended inheritance” (pesaka gantong) and males could memorialise the Undang for permission to dispose of it (p. 66). A 1899 State Council ruling permitted a male life-tenancy in default of female heirs of the same degree (p. 67).
- Four distinct forms of irregular marriage were recognised: terkurong (marriage by surprise), menyerah (marriage by surrender), merumahi (marriage by storm), and nikah ta’alik (marriage with a condition clause); the total cost of a surrender marriage was fixed at $26.00 after the substitution of the dollar for the rupiah in 1906 (pp. 79–83).
- The murder of a member of the Waris tribe required a fivefold restitution, and if a blood relation of the Undang were slain, seven substitutes were taken; yet the Waris tribe itself never gave a substitute, as no heir of the soil could be degraded to the level of an immigrant tribesman (p. 69).
Conclusion
Parr and Mackray’s definitive historical takeaway is that Rembau’s constitution was fundamentally a tribal federation in which the Undang’s authority, though supreme in theory, was constitutionally checked by the council of great lembaga and hedged around by the sentiment of his waris blood-claim. The Raja’s role was always subordinate and delegated, a fact confirmed by both the adat sayings and the historical record of the Seri Menanti house’s inability to impose its will on the confederate states. The authors demonstrate that the transition from Johor suzerainty through Bugis and Menangkabau overlordship to British protection was marked not by the imposition of foreign institutions but by the progressive crystallisation of existing tribal rights into treaty guarantees, with the 1883 treaty and its successors confirming the political independence of the Rembau chiefs under British protection (pp. 20–21, 60).
Context
- This publication forms part of the JSBRAS’s early 20th-century programme of documenting the constitutions and customs of the Malay states under British protection; it draws heavily on Newbold’s British Settlements in Malacca (1835) and the Dutch treaty records preserved at Malacca, which provide the earliest documentary evidence of Johor’s methods of control over the confederacy (pp. 12–13).
- The work was produced during the period of British administrative consolidation in the Negri Sembilan (1883–1898), and its detailed account of the lembaga’s grievances—particularly the absorption of the adat tukul lantak fee into the Government charge for land registration—reflects the practical concerns of colonial governance (p. 44).