An ill-fated treasure hunt

An ill-fated treasure hunt

Of course, Minister of Religious Affairs Said Agiel Munawar
could hardly have foreseen that the little adventure he started
last week should have taken the turn it did. What began as an
apparently well-intentioned, if irrational and impulsive,
treasure hunt has grown into a scandal that could not only cost
him his job, but the government of President Megawati
Soekarnoputri its credibility as a rational-thinking and sensible
government capable of leading the nation out of its current
hardships.

The whole affair -- which could have been humorous if it were
not so sad -- started with a psychic informing the minister that
treasure of immense value lay buried underneath a stone monument
that presently stands at the side of a river in Batutulis, Bogor.
There was enough treasure, he was told, to pay off Indonesia's
mountain of foreign debts. The Batutulis monument is a slab of
stone bearing an inscription in ancient Palawa script proclaiming
the eminence of Prabu Guru Dewata Prana, who in the mid-16th
century was apparently crowned king of the Hindu kingdom of
Pakuan Pajajaran under the title Sri Baduga Maharaja Ratu Haji.
There is some mention of his greatness, but no mention at all of
treasure.

The belief in hidden treasure and sanctified graves, however,
is certainly not at all uncommon in Indonesia. Even in these
modern days, somber old graves and graveyards believed to hold
the remains of hallowed individuals of the past attract hordes of
pilgrims on certain days of the week. The Batutulis site, being
one of the oldest known legacies of prehistoric Sunda, West Java,
has for many years been a rich source of imaginative tales of
treasure hidden underneath the stone menhirs of the ancient
Pajajaran kingdom. In this respect, Minister of Religious Affairs
Said Agiel is certainly not the first Indonesian to be taken in
by the smooth talk of soothsayers. In Said Agiel's case, however,
there are a few points that need to be considered.

First, as a Cabinet minister -- and a good Muslim at that --
he is supposed to lead Indonesians out of their age-old tradition
of myth and superstition and into the sane world of modernity and
rationality. Second, the very fact that Said Agiel, as Minister
of Religious Affairs, has seen nothing wrong in overstepping his
authority and trespassing into the domain of another government
department -- in this case the Ministry of Education and Culture,
which oversees archaeology -- indicates a serious organizational
defect within the government bureaucracy. Third, it certainly
does not befit a Cabinet minister to barge in on an illegal
excavation to personally oversee a small workforce of villagers
digging an archaeological site in search of treasure, armed only
with simple farmer's hoes.

As a consequence of all this, the archaeological authorities
in charge of guarding and preserving prehistoric monuments are
feeling slighted. The Sundanese people of West Java, who consider
themselves heir to the cultural heritage of the ancient Pajajaran
kingdom, feel insulted and have demanded an apology, threatening
to take the minister to court for willfully destroying a
protected historical site, an offense punishable by ten years in
jail and/or a fine of Rp 100 million. As the uproar continues to
resonate across the province, sarcastic comments and jokes are
being told and retold about the incident and people are asking
themselves why, if the search for treasure cannot be called off,
more modern and scientific spotting methods were not used in the
first place.

After everything is said and done, though, all this could
merely be the latest and most blatant expression of the
prevailing Indonesian get-rich-quickly mentality. Fortunately,
there is one other lesson that can be drawn from this incident --
which is there is no such thing as a free lunch. It is fortunate
that President Megawati has been quick to distance herself from
this ill-fated treasure hunt by denying any involvement in the
adventure. By so doing, at least she is signaling to the nation
that blind superstition has no place in the running of her
government.