Despite being mostly Muslim now, the Javanese still retains aspects of their Hindu-Buddhist legacy. To start off, I’d like to give context on why the Javanese are so fond of using references to wayang. It is interesting that Jokowi and Prabowo deliberately “posed” for the cameras in front of Semar (along with other characters), as shown in this photo:Ģ. The place that was chosen to cement their alliance was Sate Senayan, which has decorations of wayang characters on its walls. Suddenly, these two men reconciled their differences and decided to become political allies. Prior to this moment, there had been bitter tensions between both sides. To give a more contemporary example, let us remind ourselves of the meeting between Jokowi and Prabowo in 2019 after the election results had been officially announced. He sat in front of the puppet, as if drawing attention to the similarity between Semar and himself. He had a Semar puppet on display in the room at the Presidential Palace where he received visitors. Like Soeharto, Gus Dur also promoted the image of himself as Semar, but in a much more subtle way. In the same paper, Pausacker also describes how the presidents of the Reformasi have used characters from wayang stories to represent themselves, notably Gus Dur and the character Semar: However, I think that people outside of Tanah Jawa (except for the Balinese) are unable to interpret the hidden signals which are found within the references to wayang. Dhalang were asked to use their performances to mobilise popular support for the government program. These culminated in a meeting in April 1969, at which President Soeharto himself invited dhalang to support the first, newly introduced, Five-Year Plan (Repelita), which focused on agricultural development and family planning. #Nonton mahabharata antv seriesIn the mid- to late 1960s a series of meetings was organised between dhalang and New Order officials. Pausacker (2004) describes how the Soeharto regime used the medium of wayang kulit for propaganda purposes: By these means, the victor needs not to worry about a threat from below. The plotter will then emerge to pick up the spoils after they have destroyed each other’. As summarised by Rinakit, he moral of this story is that someone must create two balancing and powerful camps and plot to make them fight each other. #Nonton mahabharata antv how toThe political wisdom contained in Javanese alphabet of Hanacaraka that tells a story about how to secure political power game was used by Soeharto to control the military. This is an interesting quote from the second thesis: Academic theses have been written which describe the influence of Javanese Philosophy on the Indonesian Military: ( “Impact of Javanese culture on Indonesia's strategic outlook and on the Indonesian armed forces (TNI)” and “The Professionalisation of the Indonesian Military”. The Economist noted it in their 2019 article “How the mores of Indonesia’s biggest ethnic group shape its politics”. Generally, people are aware that Javanese culture affects many aspects of this country’s politics. To aid them, Javanese leaders often look to examples from the two Adikakawin (Great Epics: Ramayana and Mahabharata) in wayang for inspiration, which form an integral component of their culture and philosophy. To briefly summarise, the interests of the Islamists and the Pluralists (which includes the moderate Muslims and the ethno-religious minorities) must be harmonised and kept at balance, while the interests of Tanah Jawa are also worked on behind the scenes.Īs you can imagine, maintaining the balance between these 3 communities is a complex and monumental task. I have previously written an essay titled “The Glue of Nusantara: Understanding the Javanese, Islam and the Minorities” in which I describe how Indonesia’s ethnic Javanese leaders have to carefully manage the interests of the various communities so that the country can function.
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