Javanese Mystical and Marxist Dialectics - Paul Stange

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cosmic principles more than specific persona1ities. 23 In this century, millenarianconcepts played a crucial role in the nationalist movement through organizationssuch as the Sarekat Islam and PKI and individuals such as Tjokroaminoto and hisprotégé Sukarno. These Javanese conceptions of power and the millennium helpexplain the force and grip of appeals to the masses through symbols rather thanconcrete organizing.In mentioning this emphasis on symbols, Feith has noted the “intensely intellectualcharacter of Indonesian nationalism” and Geertz that Sukarno's considerable skills“were all rhetorical”. 24 Rather than limiting him to a small circle of theintelligentsia, this helps account for his mass following. Symbols have been crucial toJavanese politics since popular concern rests more with the ruler's capacity toreconcile prevailing contradictions than with his control over ameliorative massorganizations. Confidence in the ruler then becomes a guarantee of meaning to thewhole cultural world of the general population. Otherwise, there is a chaos ofuncertainty and aimlessness in society at large. So Sukarno could proclaim thatI can grasp the entire gamut between Marxism and theism. I have mademyself the meeting place of all trends and ideologies. I have blended, andblended, and blended them until finally they became the present Sukarno. 25Among the Javanese, this capacity for synthesis at the ideological level is the key tosocial balance with the natural world. So the manipulation of symbols becomes amystical juggling of keys to cosmic harmony - according to the images presented bySoedjatmoko and Anderson, power depends on the ruler's state of mind and flowsoutward from the center just as light from a lamp. Thus symbols retain anextraordinary grip on the political life of the people. This orientation towardideological synthesis and unity as a response to social deterioration marks the majorcontrast between Javanese conceptions of power from ideas at the center and Marxistconceptions of power from organization at the base.These traditionally rooted conceptions explain a great deal about polities underGuided Democracy. Soedjatmoko has pointed to a number of tendencies whichsurfaced under Sukarno: the tendency toward paternalistic authoritarianism, theinclination to seek employment in the civil service, the preoccupation with prestigeand status rather than function and performance, the unquestioned obedience toauthority, the concentration of politics in Djakarta, and the emphasis on
evolutionary fervor rather than problem solving. 26 Geertz has argued morestrongly for a kraton perspective on the Sukarno regimewhat he created, or tried to create, was a modern version of the theater state, astate from whose pageants, myths, celebrities, and monuments the smallpeasant or peddler, the enduring Marhaen, could derive a vision of hisnation's greatness and strive to realize it ... after 1960 the doctrine that thewelfare of a country proceeds from the excellence of its capitol, the excellenceof its capitol from the brilliance of its elite, and the brilliance of its elite fromthe spirituality of its rulers reemerged with full force in Indonesia ... Sukarno,less plebian than he imagined and less radical than he sounded was thehistorical heir of the Indic tradition. 27From beginning to end, Sukarno's career lends itself to this perspective. As a boy heimmersed himself in the wajang and saw himself as a Bima, the ksatriya or warrior ofthe Pendawaswho strove incessantly to grasp the meaning of all existence ... relentlessthough he was in battling the disturbers of order from outside, he wasnevertheless ready to work out a compromise with those in his ranks whowere prepared to submit to that same order. 28From early in the nationalist movement through the end of his political career withthe fall of Guided Democracy, he saw himself as the mouthpiece of the people andmain agent of synthesis. From the Mahabharata and through the wajang, he saw thestruggle for independence and the completion of the revolution as that between thePendawas who had rights to the land and the Kaurawas who had seized it. First itwas the Indonesians against the Dutch; then the New Emerging Forces (NEFOS)versus the on Established Forces (OLDEFOS). As he saw it, his task was to lead in theendless struggle for social justice by demonstrating that at heart all things are one -so that apparent differences between forces such as Islam and Marxism are seen asmisconceptions resulting from departure from the spirit of their respective prophets.29During the struggle against the Dutch and in the first years of independence,Sukarno played a primarily symbolic-role as the “father of the nation”. It was onlywith the decline of liberal government and transition to Guided Democracy of the
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 16 and 17: ut even in the earliest phases Isla
Page 18: THE NAIL OF GODFrom this sketch of
Page 21 and 22: egarded as the path to spiritual st
Page 23: The real and the really real are cl
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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