Indonesia's Shadowy Mysticism

In early 1942, when Japan seized the Dutch East Indies, a boy named Harri Widodo lost his leg and found his vision.

A Japanese artillery shell killed his family and injured him, leaving him with a realization: "I was the only one who lived, so I thought I was special." After a period of fasting and meditation, "suddenly I knew everything."

Today Mr. Widodo is a spiritual adviser and interpreter of this culture's mystical undercurrents. It is as if, he says, an inner, private television conveys information about the unseen world.

Last July Indonesia entered a dark period, Widodo says, of which this country's huge economic problems are but one manifestation. The only way to stop the turmoil, he adds, is for President Suharto to step down.

Indonesia, particularly the main island of Java, is described as a mystical place, a territory of sacred daggers and unseen forces. Mingled with the imported religions are beliefs that give many Indonesians an alternative way of comprehending reality.

Mr. Suharto, who has run this nation for 32 years, is a master of using Java's culture and mysticism to solidify power. Now this dynamic may be working against him.

Role of Mysticism In the Politics of Java

In addition to the complex economic and political problems facing this country, many Indonesians say, he is facing the erosion of his mystical mandate to rule.

For a king to claim divine authority is truly the original spin, but this political device still carries weight in Asia. Thailand's king is venerated as a god and even the communist leadership in Beijing benefits from the "mandate from Heaven" long claimed by Chinese emperors.

The importance of wahyu

Since at least the early 17th century, the kings of Java, the home of half of Indonesia's 200 million people and the source of its political culture, have cited wahyu, or divine light, as evidence of their right to rule. Suharto has never proclaimed that he is a Javanese king nor has he publicly basked in his wahyu, but many have attributed the qualities to him, at least until recently.

"Most people think he lost this wahyu when his wife died" two years ago, says Daniel Sparringa, a sociologist at Airlingga University in Surabaya, the major city of eastern Java.

Mr. Sparringa could be classed as an opponent of Suharto, since he has helped student organizers who are calling for the president to step down, but he voices a view held by many Indonesians.

Paul Stange, an American expert on Indonesian cultural history who teaches at Murdoch University in Perth, Australia, was in the country when Suharto's wife, Tien, passed on. "I was immediately struck by how people were interpreting her death as being a statement of the end of his power," he recalls.

In true Javanese fashion, this idea has been converted to humor.

One story imagines Suharto and the two eldest of his six children sitting down to break the Muslim fast of Ramadan this February. "Well, Father," one of the children says, "after 32 years, don't you think its time to consider stepping back and spending more time with your grandchildren?"

"What do you mean?" Suharto replies. "I've only been in charge for two years - the rest was your mother."

Whether or not Mrs. Suharto took the wahyu with her is open to interpretation, but her passing meant the end of an aristocratic sheen for the president, since she was descended from a Javanese royal family. Widodo was one of the late first lady's spiritual advisers and says the president's power resided in her. "She was born to be the wife of a ruler," he says.

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