COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Portret van een penghulu in adat-kleding TMnr 60003006

Penghulu ( Jawi: ; also Pěnghulu) is the headman or chief of a region in traditional societies on the

Malay archipelago The Malay Archipelago ( Indonesian/ Malay: , tgl, Kapuluang Malay) is the archipelago between mainland Indochina and Australia. It has also been called the " Malay world," " Nusantara", "East Indies", Indo-Australian Archipelago, Spices Arc ...

Maritime Southeast Asia Maritime Southeast Asia comprises the countries of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and East Timor. Maritime Southeast Asia is sometimes also referred to as Island Southeast Asia, Insular Southeast Asia or Oceanic Sout ...

. The term is currently used in

Brunei Brunei ( , ), formally Brunei Darussalam ( ms, Negara Brunei Darussalam, Jawi: , ), is a country located on the north coast of the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia. Apart from its South China Sea coast, it is completely surrounded by th ...

and

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federal constitutional monarchy consists of thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two regions: Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo's East Mal ...

as the community leader of the smaller country subdivision or settlement.

Etymology

The word ''penghulu'' comes from agentive prefix ''peng-'', and the word ''hulu'', meaning "head", so it could be translated as "headman". It is cognate with the

Tagalog Tagalog may refer to: Language * Tagalog language, a language spoken in the Philippines ** Old Tagalog, an archaic form of the language ** Batangas Tagalog, a dialect of the language * Tagalog script, the writing system historically used for Taga ...

''pangulo'' – the official title of the

President of the Philippines The president of the Philippines ( fil, Pangulo ng Pilipinas, sometimes referred to as ''Presidente ng Pilipinas'') is the head of state, head of government and chief executive of the Philippines. The president leads the executive branch of ...

History

Traditionally, the Minangkabau who at the end of the 17th century settled at

Negeri Sembilan Negeri Sembilan (, Negeri Sembilan Malay: ''Nogoghi Sombilan'', ''Nismilan'') is a state in Malaysia which lies on the western coast of Peninsular Malaysia. It borders Selangor on the north, Pahang in the east, and Malacca and Johor to the s ...

, in present-day

, chose from among themselves a penghulu. Several of these penghulus, notably that of Sungai Ujong,

Jelebu The Jelebu District ( Negeri Sembilan Malay: ''Jolobu'') is the second largest district in Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia after Jempol, with a population over 40,000. Jelebu borders on the Seremban District to its west and Kuala Pilah District t ...

Johol Johol ( Jawi: جوهول) is a town, a mukim and a state assembly constituency in Kuala Pilah District, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia. It is roughly halfway between Tampin and Kuala Pilah, along Highway . Features Johol town houses one of the ol ...

and Rembau, became powerful enough to dominate other penghulus. By the early part of the 18th century, the leaders of these four districts started calling themselves ''

Undang An Undang is a ruling chief or territorial chief who still play an important role in the state of Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia. The name is believed to be derived from the Malay word ''undang-undang'' meaning "law". The Minangkabau who settled at ...

''. Between 1821 and 1838 (the

Padri War The Padri War (also called the Minangkabau War) was fought from 1803 until 1837 in West Sumatra, Indonesia between the Padri and the Adat. The Padri were Muslim clerics from Sumatra who wanted to impose Sharia in Minangkabau country in West Su ...

), many Penghulus had allied themselves with

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

interests in fighting off

Wahabite Wahhabism ( ar, ٱلْوَهَّابِيَةُ, translit=al-Wahhābiyyah) is a Sunni Islamic revivalist and fundamentalist movement associated with the reformist doctrines of the 18th-century Arabian Islamic scholar, theologian, preacher, and ...

-inspired,

Islamic Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God (or '' Allah'') as it was revealed to Muhammad, the ma ...

extremism in the area. The situations in Brunei were similar with what was happened in current Indonesia and Malaysia. Office of the Penghulu for ruling executive government in mukim level was created by British administrators to help British colonial government collecting tax from Brunei citizens. Until the reign of

Omar Ali Saifuddien III Sultan Sir Omar Ali Saifuddien Sa'adul Khairi Waddien ( Jawi: ; 23 September 1914 – 7 September 1986) was the 28th Sultan of Brunei, reigning from 4 June 1950 until his abdication from the throne on 5 October 1967. He was also Brunei's fir ...

, those given peerage titles, usually, will be reign in particular mukims decided by King of Brunei.

Current usage

Brunei

, penghulu is an administrative post and is the community leader of a mukim or subdistrict, the second-level administrative division below

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...

which consists of several towns or locally known as ''kampong'' (village) (). Until 2015, Appointment of penghulu decided by District Office after receiving recommendations from members of Mukim Consultative Council.{{cite conference , title = Penghulus and Ketua Kampongs: Relevancy and Challenges in Brunei Darussalam , last1 = Pang , first1 = Li Li , journal = Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research , volume = 191 , publisher = Atlantis Press , url = https://www.atlantis-press.com/article/25896112.pdf , date = March 2018 , conference = Asian Association for Public Administration Annual Conference , access-date = 2021-07-27 , pages = 179 , place =

Yogyakarta Yogyakarta (; jv, ꦔꦪꦺꦴꦒꦾꦏꦂꦠ ; pey, Jogjakarta) is the capital city of Special Region of Yogyakarta in Indonesia, in the south-central part of the island of Java. As the only Indonesian royal city still ruled by a monarchy, ...

After 2015, appointment of penghulus are conducted through

local elections In many parts of the world, local elections take place to select office-holders in local government, such as mayors and councillors. Elections to positions within a city or town are often known as "municipal elections". Their form and conduct vary ...

by each of the mukims citizen upon reaching 18 years old and more.

Philippines

In the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

, the cognate 'Pangulo' is the

Filipino Filipino may refer to: * Something from or related to the Philippines ** Filipino language, standardized variety of 'Tagalog', the national language and one of the official languages of the Philippines. ** Filipinos, people who are citizens of th ...

word for 'President', thus

presidents of the Philippines Under the 1987 Constitution of the Philippines, the president of the Philippines ( fil, pangulo ng Pilipinas) is both the head of state and the head of government, and serves as the commander-in-chief of the country's armed forces. The presid ...

are often called pangulo.

References