It began as a sensational story of armed insurrection in the Javanese heartland. A mysterious group of people, it was reported on 27 September, was conducting military exercises in Malang, East Java. They wore military uniforms with 'Nazi-style' emblems. There were weapons. And foreigners - a man named Salim from a 'neighbouring country'. Several military officers were involved - deserters. The group's leader claimed he was Sukarno, Indonesia's first president. Fifty five were arrested - a group of followers in Malang, and leaders at a hotel in nearby Kediri.
The military remain almost the only source on the so-called 'Romo Suryo' affair. However, the case has since unfolded not as military insurrection but as a messianic movement of the kind Java has known since the nineteenth century - with a twentieth century twist.
Its leader is Imam Syafi'i, 58 (53 in another report), raised in Surabaya. He says that while meditating on the volcanic Mount Arjuno near Malang it was revealed he was the reincarnation of Bung Karno (Sukarno), and that his name would be Mochtar Arief Kusni Saputro. He also uses the name Imam Mahdi Prawironegoro. Imam Mahdi is the Javanese Messiah. His followers often call him Romo Suryo, or Romo Yoso. Romo means Father.
Late last year word began to spread rapidly that Bung Karno had reappeared. Bung Karno's memory is revered in East Java. People thought he showed an astonishing likeness - down to the dark glasses, command staff, and sonorous voice. The claim that he had access to the lost Revolutionary Fund collected by Bung Karno was especially attractive. He could get at seven million tons of gold and billions in cash in Switzerland, he said, and knew of 700 tons of gold in West Java.
He began recruiting followers into an organisation he called Division 10 of Bung Karno's Revolutionary Guards Brigade (the name varied somewhat in various reports). At least one serving officer from every branch of the armed forces joined him - including a lieutenant colonel from the artillery (Kunandar, or Kuncoro Nazar or Sentot Bagaskoro in other reports), a sergeant major from Kostrad (Surito), an army corporal with the initials Je, a navy sergeant (FX Supriyadi), and an air force sergeant with the initials Ms. Several others are still being sought. Depending on their rank in the organisation, they were promised excellent salaries, to be paid in US dollars. For his 'four-star generals' these would be fabulous: millions a month.
Offers of help flowed in. One man gave up a good job to join, handing over the proceeds of a house he had sold. A man with a Balinese name, I Wayan Marta Suteja, gave tens of thousands of dollars. A Singapore man named Dr Suleman, apparently a well-known fortune hunter interested in the Revolutionary Fund claims, was said to have donated hundreds of thousands of dollars and a number of vehicles. However, most members were unemployed.
A wealthy husband and wife pair, real estate agents named Yosep and Maria (just two of several Catholic names in the organisation), agreed to lend their luxurious villa in Malang for the group's headquarters. Romo Suryo had promised to help prosper their business, and to buy the villa for a large sum later.
In the villa grounds Romo Suryo conducted marching drill for recruits, drawn from East and Central Java. Six of them were women. They wore uniforms, but the 'weapons' were wooden.
However, while the military spoke darkly of an 'extreme left underground organisation', it seems Romo Suryo was hardly intent on secrecy. The villa was in town, not in a secluded place. He kept the details on an unlocked computer, had a proper corporate charter, and handed out membership certificates signed 'President of the Republic of Indonesia, Sukarno'.
Romo Suryo did have in mind a political movement. He promised a new national leadership, honest and generous to the poor. He approached Megawati supporters within the minority party PDI about an alliance. Megawati is the daughter of Sukarno and the offer sounded interesting, but the PDI backed out because they thought Romo Suryo's anti-Chinese ideology was dangerous.
Sixty-two members remain in detention and police say they will all be tried. None have been interviewed by the media. About a dozen are still being sought.
Romo Suryo, meanwhile, is in a Malang hospital. Police said he collapsed due to the 'shock' of his arrest (a hint of a beating?). Being an ascetic, they said, he did not eat rice (poso ngrowot) and was physically not strong. He would be charged with a raft of offences ranging from subversion, through holding illegal meetings and possessing knives, to falsifying the signature of President Sukarno.
The military men in detention - all deserters or dissatisfied because they were not being promoted, according to the military - will also be tried for subversion, but in a military court.
However, security authorities are unsure of themselves. 'It looked big, but in reality there's nothing there', said one policeman. They now agree the movement was not guilty of insurrection (makar), but insist it had the potential to do so. Perhaps they only made the arrests because Suharto was about to visit Malang. Or else to illustrate the ever-present dangers of communism around the sacral date of 30 September, commemorating the communist coup attempt of 1965.
Clearly, the movement does not present a threat of military insurrection. It does tell us something about the longevity of Javanese messianic themes in Indonesian political discourse. Today, these are indissolubly bound up with the memory of Sukarno. The new middle class are by no means immune to the attraction of messiahs, especially when they promise quick riches. In any case, the harsh stick of the subversion law, repeatedly condemned as out of date by liberal elements even within the regime, is surely not the way to deal with these messianic hopes.
Gerry van Klinken, editor, 'Inside
Indonesia' magazine.
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