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 Archipe ...

in Maritime Southeast Asia. The term is currently used in Brunei and Malaysia 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 ''pangulo'' – the official title of the President of the Philippines.

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 Malaysia, 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 to i ...

, Johol 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''. Between 1821 and 1838 (the Padri War), many Penghulus had allied themselves with Dutch interests in fighting off Wahabite-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 mai ...

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, those given

peerage A peerage is a legal system historically comprising various hereditary titles (and sometimes non-hereditary titles) in a number of countries, and composed of assorted noble ranks. Peerages include: Australia * Australian peers Belgium * Belgi ...

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

Current usage

Brunei

In Brunei, penghulu is an administrative post and is the community leader of a

mukim A mukim is a type of administrative division used in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. The word ''mukim'' is a loanword in English. However, it was also originally a loanword in Malay from the Arabic word: (meaning ''resident''). The clo ...

or subdistrict, the second-level administrative division below district 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 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 cognate 'Pangulo' is the Filipino 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