Asyikin–Brugman Treaty

Asyikin–Brugman Treaty was a treaty signed between Sultanate of Buton and Dutch East Indies. Signed on 8 April 1906 on board of ship de Ryuter, it was named after the signatories, Sultan Muhammad Asyikin of Buton and the Dutch resident for Sulawesi Johan Brugman.

Background

Previous sultan, Muhammad Umar, was a staunch anti-Dutch and rejected proposal for the Dutch resident from Sulawesi to appoint a representative in the sultanate territory on 18 July 1887. The Dutch attempted another contact with the Dutch negotiator–this time accompanied by armed soldiers–but was also rejected, which resulted in high political tension between the two. In the aftermath of the incident, Umar instructed several forts to be built in 1904 outside of the traditional sultanate territory, notably the Kalidupa and the Wasuamba forts, as a place to flee to if the royal palace and the main Wolio Fort ever fall. However, Umar's reign was short-lived and he died in 1905, replaced by Sultan Muhammad Asyikin whom perceived by the Dutch as softer than Umar. Immediately after Asyikin's ascension to the throne in 1906, he was approached to sign the new treaty. Ship de Ryuter arrived with Dutch resident Johan Brugman on board on 2 April 1906 and the treaty was signed after brief negotiation between the two on 8 April 1906.^:84 A Dutch representative was immediately named and placed on a makeshift building outskirt of Baubau, capital of the sultanate.^:78-87

The treaty contains 29 articles in total and revoked all previous treaties if incompatible with it. It forbids the sultanate to conduct its own foreign policy or contacting other nations without approval of the Dutch, requiring all appointments within the royal government to be approved first, and inclusion of the sultanate to legal jurisdiction of Dutch resident based in Makassar and that all laws released from Makassar shall apply to Buton.^:91-97

Aftermath

The treaty brought the sultanate as one of the dependencies under the Dutch East Indies governorate, later becoming Zelfbesturende Landschappen. However, the treaty was briefly revoked just eleven days later on 19 April 1906 due to sultan's change of mind about it, sending a note regarding it to the Dutch resident in Makassar.^:84 Not long after on 26 April, the colonial government threatened a naval invasion by returning de Ryuter to Baubau with contingent of armed soldiers and readied an expedition force in Makassar which made sultan backpedal again.^:84 In the aftermath of economic expansion within Buton Island by the Dutch, several small kingdoms and dependencies of the Buton Sultanate such as Sorawolio and Badia were abolished by 3 May 1910. A rebellion occurred led by La Ode Boha against the imposition of the new forestry goods-related taxation by early August 1911 but was crushed down with La Ode Boha exiled to Java.^:78-87 In addition, there was also a similar anti-taxation rebellion in Wakatobi in response to the treaty in 1912.

The treaty was once again revoked unilaterally by the sultanate during the Japanese invasion of Dutch East Indies in 1942 and stayed independent until it voluntarily joined the newly independent Indonesia Republic. Because of the treaty revocation, the sultanate claimed that it was never colonized by European powers and handed its power directly to Indonesia instead.