Javanese Mystical and Marxist Dialectics - Paul Stange

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ut even in the earliest phases Islam had made gains as a potential banner for rebelschallenging the kraton states. Later, returnees from the hadj, the pilgrimage toMecca, began bringing back a more purified version of Islam tracing its roots to theWahabite purist movement in Arabia at the close of the eighteenth century. This ledto a series of conflicts between syncretic and purified versions of Islam which hadbegun several centuries earlier and carried on into the increasingly intense conflictsbetween santri and abangan in this century. 56The expansion of Dutch control and converse emergence of the nationalist movementalso gave a boost to Islam. Colonial policy had; consistently supported adat, that iscustomary law, in opposition to Islamic innovations. Initially justification lay incommitments to the status quo since the Dutch had chosen to work through existingrulers rather than to administer directly. But at the same time the policy setadministrators against the indigenous commercial interest underlying Islam -perhaps not a co-incidence. Then with nationalism I would argue that Islam became,in effect, a tool through which commercial interests could create mass support.Again, this is not to suggest cynical manipulation and I would not argue that theleaders of Sarekat Islam saw themselves this way, but that is beside the point. Therewas a real community of interest between the urban and modern leaders of this massmovement and the rural masses they spoke to, but that was limited to commonhostility against the Dutch and the Chinese and did not extend into common visionof a projected free society. In line with the progressive flavor of modernismgenerally, the leadership was particularly interested in expanding indigenousindustry and business which was limited by both the Dutch and Chinese. 57 For thepeasants, the question was one of changing the basic conditions of their life and notsimply those who imposed those conditions on them. 58 The point is that it has beenthe commercial rooting of Islamic modernism rather than Islamic doctrine per sewhich has been hostile to the growth of communism in rural Java. 59 From thebeginning there was a symbiosis of Islam and trade, but the antagonism Muslimhave felt for communists becomes more understandable when this commercialrooting is kept in mind.At any rate, there was a budding network of organizations filtering down to thevillage level before the PKI began work. While in Vietnam and China the communistmovements managed to monopolize nationalist sentiment, the PKI had to overcomethe taint of betrayal arising from Madiun and was faced with a viable network ofcompeting organizations. Beyond this, the main social division was religious schism
ather than class conflict. In Jay’s terms, the PKI fitted neatly into a slot in the schismcomplementary to that of santri Islam. From a more positive vantage point, thesetting did offer a natural even if limited role for the PKI. Serious Muslims in ruralJava mainly supported Nahdatul Ulama; the village elites of teachers andbureaucrats supported the PKI; and, as Hindley puts it, this leftthe PKI and its mass organizations ... a virtual monopoly in channelingwhatever social protest or aspirations there have been among the poorerabangan population. 61This circumstance was no mean gift and the PKI either used it to good advantage orfell into the trap—-depending on the perspective taken. Concurrently, the decline incommunal land ownership, the growth of a landless peasantry, the increase ineconomic differentiation, and the ravages of ten years of war combined to “sharpenclass conflict” and lend support to the PKI. 62 Hindley argues that there was a veryclose relationship between the limit and nature of this support and the policy the PKIcould pursueThe nature of the social and economic conditions in Java has been the decisivefactor in the determination of the precise form of the national united frontpolicy formulated by the Aidit leadership. It is the decisive factor inunderstanding the Aidit leadership has been able to build a mass support.And it is a major factor in explaining why communist mass support is still aninadequate weapon for the seizure of power. 63These circumstances of independent Indonesia go a long way toward explaining therole of the PKI under Guided Democracy.To begin with then, I have explained the main directions of argument and have triedto establish the basic limits of the PKI's situation. In doing so I have sketched in themain phases of PKI and modern Indonesian history. Then I have explored the majorsocial forces by looking at the regional tension between Java and the Outer Islands; atthe implications of imperialistic economics; and finally, at the underpinnings ofmilitary and Muslim antagonism to and limits on the PKI.
Page 1 and 2: Javanese Mystical and Marxist Diale
Page 3 and 4: UNITY IN DIVERSITYPossessed of tran
Page 5 and 6: Although the pogroms of 1966 were u
Page 7 and 8: through a process of musjawarah-muf
Page 9 and 10: The contrast is rooted profoundly i
Page 11: entrepreneurship remained confined
Page 14 and 15: undertook to carry out were too lim
Page 18: THE NAIL OF GODFrom this sketch of
Page 21 and 22: egarded as the path to spiritual st
Page 23 and 24: The real and the really real are cl
Page 25 and 26: evolutionary fervor rather than pro
Page 27 and 28: Permai, an active mystical-politica
Page 29 and 30: doctrines themselves did not change
Page 31 and 32: is a release for the whole body and
Page 33 and 34: THE MASS LINEIdeas have no meaning
Page 35 and 36: communism, began to turn toward the
Page 37 and 38: Without the image of the PKI as pat
Page 39 and 40: The Party presented itself as a syn
Page 41 and 42: Sukarno's role in protecting the Pa
Page 43 and 44: argued that the nationalist revolut
Page 45 and 46: By this time the PKI had already ca
Page 47 and 48: the application of principles, to b
Page 49 and 50: some tendency for class and religio
Page 51 and 52: only a very few really understood t
Page 53 and 54: The main effect of Indonesia's Basi
Page 55 and 56: Trompet Masjarakat, the main Suraba
Page 57 and 58: eported the incident as the Kanigor
Page 59 and 60: Out of this third “white terror
Page 61 and 62: The test for PKI strategy came with
Page 63 and 64: In outlining the fundamental cleava
Page 65 and 66: the strategy of the PKI in the peri
Page 67 and 68:
enough that the public accepted equ
Page 69 and 70:
progress. That conclusion might app
Page 71 and 72:
contradictory things are actually s
Page 73 and 74:
Measured by rational utility and re
Page 75 and 76:
forms without a sense of the underl
Page 77 and 78:
of academic work by fleshing out un
Page 79 and 80:
In the years before the coup the PK
Page 81 and 82:
18. Hans Schmitt, "Post Colonial Po
Page 83 and 84:
36. Legge, Indonesia, p 143. The di
Page 85 and 86:
48. Hildred Geertz, "Indonesian Cul
Page 87 and 88:
NOTES: THE NAIL OF GOD1. Clifford G
Page 89 and 90:
18. Benedict Anderson, "The Languag
Page 91 and 92:
the masses, and the development of
Page 93 and 94:
4. Ibid. p 298.5. George Lichtheim,
Page 95 and 96:
this point, Aidit 's defense was th
Page 97 and 98:
39. Aidit, Problems, "Indonesian So
Page 99 and 100:
52. Alimin, "Orang Tani dan Proleta
Page 101 and 102:
75. Aidit, "Main Conclusions" (.TPR
Page 103 and 104:
100. Selosoemardjan, Social Changes
Page 105 and 106:
129. Obor Revolusi February 15, 196
Page 107 and 108:
conservative in that they only reac
Page 109 and 110:
32. Hegel, Phenomenology, p 11633.
Page 111 and 112:
--. "The Key to Food and Clothing:
Page 113 and 114:
--. "Peasant Movements in Colonial
Page 115 and 116:
--. The Religion of Java. New York,
Page 117 and 118:
Kartodirdjo, Sartono. The Peasant's
Page 119 and 120:
Levi-Strauss, Claude. Structural An
Page 121 and 122:
Pauker, Guy. "Current Communist Tac
Page 123 and 124:
Smail, John RW. "On the Possibility
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Javanese Mystical and Marxist Dialectics - Paul Stange

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