Javanese Mystical and Marxist Dialectics - Paul Stange

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upset the emerging class order. Under Guided Democracy, the crystallization of anelite was a re-establishment of traditional Javanese political and social conceptions.The dialectical dimensions of Sukarno's thought should already be fairly obvious. Ihave taken Dahm's argument that the key idea for Sukarno was synthesis accordingto the Javanese tradition, that is to demonstrate the fundamental unity of all things.Then I have tried to show how the role of the state under Sukarno was to relatesymbiotically to the masses by articulating their latent wishes and translating theminto a model for action. Sukarno's image of himself as the mouthpiece of the peoplefits into this dialectical framework since it is an argument for the existence ofunconscious desires which are in some sense more real than these on the surface. Soalso with his argument that conflict between Muslims and Marxists stemmed frommisconceptions - that in each ease the followers were clinging to the ashes ratherthan relighting the flames of their mentors‘ spirits. 37 In this as in everything,Sukarno struggled to transcend differences of expression and get through to roots hewas positive were the same. His conclusion was that all could be blended andsubsumed into one fundamentally Javanese vision.His speeches were patterned on the wajang he had grown up with and he reachedinto the Indic tradition for an image of all things having meaning only in terms oftheir relation to the One. So he held that even the five elements of the Pantjasila wereindivisible and intertwined. 38 So good and evil each had a place in a world wherethey defined each other. So every thesis has its antithesis; every repression itsreaction. Thus the reconstruction of the nation could not happen without asimultaneous destruction and he could say thatA revolution ... is a great symphony, a great symphony of destructive andconstructive forces ... a great symphony between the forces which destroy,crush and turn things to dust, and the creative, constructive forces; asimultaneous action of two mighty processes. 39So also, he could not see himself apart from his roots in the masses he embodied - therelationship was symbiotic just as at all levels the parallel ordering of individual,state, and cosmos implies symbiosis. 40 At the same time, he saw that the interactionwas never static
doctrines themselves did not change ... but the knowledge of men about themwas subject to continual alteration. Therefore, new interpretations andcorrections of the old perceptions must again and again be made ... Let us notlook at the letter; let us look at the spirit, the soul of the letter. 41From this drive to discover the essential spirit of different beliefs, he developed hisown synthesis in Nasakom. In that blend he felt that Islam offered the dimension ofprofundity, Marxism that of time, and nationalism that of space. 42While he could tolerate all manner of compromise in the interest of internal unity, hewas thoroughly opposed to liberal Western thought and saw no room for it in hissynthesis. He always opposed the creation of divisive parties and abhorredindividualism and the democracy of fifty-one percent rule. 43 The Javanese hadabsorbed the whole sequence of Indian and Islamic ideas, but with the arrival of theliberal and modern West, there was no longer a chance for synthesis - it became aneither-or situation. Distaste for liberal theory was a natural consequence of bothcolonial rule and the deep-seated Javanese beliefs. The Javanese focus on unity andharmony of men with each other and the cosmos ran directly counter to liberaltheory which suggests that men are isolated and competing individuals. At the mostbasic philosophical level, the Javanese sense of unity of all being clashed with Kant 'sidea of “things in themselves”. Where Kant and Hegel diverged in the Westernphilosophical tradition, the Javanese could relate more to Hegel.For nationalists everywhere, Marxism had an immediate appeal as the mostthorough and helpful critique of the imperialism they struggled against. It offeredthe most complete image of what was going on along with a fully articulatedanalysis of the major enemies of the colonialized peoples. As Benda puts it,communism offersa meaningful closed system in which each member is once again assigned hisfirm place and duties; unfree he will be, almost certainly more rigidlyregimented than ever before, but at least he will be freed from the freedom toperish in neglected and harassed social isolation. 44Because the Marxist critique was obviously apt and clear, “it was taken overwholeheartedly by all important segments of the e1ite.” 45 Still, I think it is crucial to
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 and 24: The real and the really real are cl
Page 25 and 26: evolutionary fervor rather than pro
Page 27: Permai, an active mystical-politica
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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