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So, Sri Sultan Hamengku Buwono will – probably – be running for the Indonesian presidency next year:
Promising candidature. He seems to have a number of assets going for him. First of all a reputation of being a relatively able and modern administrator as the governor of his special province, the intangible but powerful radiation of royalty and the advantage of belonging to the real elite ( which is not open to upstarts). If he ultimately would be chosen as the next President, some comedian might say that at long last a representative of a minority would be in charge.
Anyhow, though he may not have a very tempting political program on offer yet (not one which I know of, I mean), he may be seen by a number of voters as the best combination of modernity (which, according to one of his fans, seems to be indicated by the fact he married only one wife and was in favor of an underground parking area in the city) and tradition.
As for now he will run as an independent. So far, so good. But insiders’ speculations are he will seek the backing of Golkar. Here I begin to lose track.
Of the many enigma’s Indonesia presents to me, politics is among the most incomprehensible ones. Golkar was the political vehicle for the late president, general Suharto. The one who was in power for over thirty years. And who could claim serious economic growth, can be held responsible for genocidal crimes, presided over a centralized system of corruption and ultimately was pushed out of his job ten years ago during the previous mismanaged economic crisis.
One would expect the political party of this expelled dictator to crumble after his fall, like the communist parties in the Sovjet Union and former “socialist” countries in Eastern Europe did. But no, unlike the political vehicle of, for instance, Chile’s former dictator general Pinochet ( who also had been economically successful), Golkar survived. And is alive and kicking now. Omnipresent Vice President Kalla for instance is one of it’s prominent members.
So why, I wonder, should intellectuals and artists support a politician who may be alright him- or herself, but has wrong, well, at least dubious political friends? Is he really worth the help of the left leaning cultural elite?
Because Garin Nugroho who I admire for his movie Opera Jawa, announced that he joined the “Rainbow of Change” (does ring a familiar bell, doesn’t it?). The movie director as well as singer Franky Sahilatua and publicist Sukardi Rinakit, are campaigning for the aristocrat. And right, Sukardit for instance seem to have defended social democratic policies. Perfect. They may make a strong and sympathetic trio for a worthy cause. For more equal distribution of income, education and power. On first sight it is like Bruce Springsteen campaigning for Obama or, in my days, the German Nobel Prize winner Günther Grass campaigning for Willy Brandt. Of course it’s okay if they engage themselves – not for own political careers, but for ideals.
But shouldn’t they explain first what exact the ideals are that they are backing in this campaign? And make convincingly clear that Sri Sultan HB X shares them all the way. Shouldn’t the aristocrat be more transparent on his stands first? And shouldn’t he and his intellectuals guarantee first that there will be no alliance with political parties like Golkar which can not be suspected of any left leaning tendency?
As long as that has not happened the remarkable relationship between the director and the aristocrat is just amazing me. Indeed, I’m an outsider and I’m puzzled.
As one of the biggest political party in Indonesia, Golkar should actually put his own candidate to next year Presidential elections. Newly created law allows political party with more than 20% seats in parliament to put his own candidate and I’m pretty sure myself Golkar will get 20% seats.
Sri Sultan himself belongs to Golkar and it’s natural if he seeks support from his own party. I couldn’t think about any other potential figure in Golkar for now. However, I’d rather say Golkar will put SBY altogether with Kalla again in elections. SBY’s charismatic leader which Golkar doesn’t have for this moment, while SBY needs as well to boost his vote. It’s like mutual dependence, SBY’s Democratic Party will unlikely gain more than 10% seats which means Democratic Party needs to build coalition with bigger party.
Oh I’m wondering whether it’s proper for aristrocrat to be nominated in election, I dont mean it bad way, but there is always tendency of feudalistic culture if you are talking with javanese, and especially this, the one from Keraton. My opinion is biased, I know, I dont really know about sultan, actually his image is pretty positive compared to other nominee, at least I havent listened news about him being inspected for corruption and such.
I am from Jogja, and I didn’t see anything improved in Jogja while he was a governor. He modernize Jogja by building malls and other stuff, but the true identity of Jogja (city of education, culture, and tourism) has been deteriorating. He doesn’t seem to have any “big ideas” while he was a governor.
The people of Jogja will support him, no doubt, but not because he is a great leader (as his father is) but because he is our king.
@dino
exactly information I’m looking for. That’s what I’m afraid of when a monarch decided to enter political arena. Some people might choose him not because quality, because he is royal blood, and I dont find it particularly good.
@bung tobing: Thanks for the information you provided. As for your analysis that problably Golkar will back the ticket of SBY and Kalla, I guess you are quite right. It’s the obvious thing to do – and one reason more why someone who wants to present himself as an agent of change should look elsewhere for help, I think.
@calvin michel: You’re right by principle – (political) leadership should be earned by achievement only. Irrelevancies as hereditary royalty should not play a role.
But, well, John F. Kennedy did beat Nixon in 1960 because of his ( much better) looks mainly. Every modern ruler – from democratic ones, via authoritarian ones to dictators- puts a lot of effort in his/her public relations and have a number of spin doctors at their service, precisely for the trivial aspects of their public image.
I’m afraid is one of life’s discrepancies between “ought” and “be” (“Sein und Sollen”).
@ Dino: That’s bad news for his fans. So, actually he is a mediocre administrator?
Now I have to put one more question mark at the motivation of the three intellectuals – they are not pursuing an own political career, I still take it they support him for altruistic reasons, so why on earth should they do that if he isn’t even a competent manager and moreover seemingly is doing the opposite of what artists and intellectuals want (doing harm to the city of education and culture’s reputation)?
I didn’t know that Garin supported Sultan, that’s pretty surprising.
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As Dino already said, the current Sultan is not spectacular. His father was – he’s among the best leader a commoner could have ever hoped for.
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And now SBY have effectively killed his advance, when SBY invited all kings in Indonesia – except the Sultan. I imagine all other kings, scared of the potential of one of them suddenly gained power over all of them; have agreed to instead support SBY.
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I’ve told people before that SBY is very clever. Underestimate him at your own risk. Now he’s done it again.
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Indonesian politics is indeed always interesting, although not always to my taste (in many cases, not even close!)
@sufehmi: Thanks for your update. Yet my amazement has only grown. Why on earth should members of the intellectual vanguard support someone – the Sultan- who doesn’t stand a chance at all? Is it because of some principle or ideals? Especially because I think – though may view may have been blurred by the distance- SBY himself is,like you said, a pretty smart politician and his administration can claim at least some successes.
And as a reply to “Indonesian politics is indeed always interesting, although not always to my taste (in many cases, not even close!)” I can say that it’s not unlike the way I experience Dutch and European policies and politicians; dull and boring most of the times, populist and dangerous sometimes (Geert Wilders), exciting and hectic only occasionally (at the times of the referendum in France and the Netherlands on the European constitution) and inspirational incidentally but for the wrong reasons (reigning in the catastrophic banking and governmental handling of the banking industry) and/or the wrong politician (Sarkozy).