Believers claim Sukarno is alive and well

Believers claim Sukarno is alive and well

By Gin Kurniawan

SURABAYA (JP): Deathly quiet Lengkong village sprung into a
whirl of activity when word spread that Bung Karno, who died 29
years ago, would appear for a speech.

Several thousand people from across East Java descended on the
town in Mojokerto regency. They were mainly longtime admirers of
Sukarno, affectionately known as Bung Karno, the charismatic
orator who proclaimed the country's independence and became its
first president. Many of them believe Sukarno is still alive.

Hopes of seeing him in person and listening to his fiery
delivery were enough of a draw. News was spread through
invitations in which the organizer said Sukarno would attend a
shadow puppet show. The host was Hariono, 35, who was throwing
the party to mark his son's circumcision last February.

Sukarno, the invitation said, would be accompanied by five
people, also deceased: Supriyadi, a guerrilla fighter in the war
of independence; Gen. Soedirman; coproclaimer of independence
Bung Hatta; Sukarno's second wife Fatmawati and a man named
Satrio Piningit.

But the eager wait ended in disappointment when police banned
the shadow puppet show and none of the anticipated VIPs showed
up. Local radio stations broadcast news of the cancellation in
the afternoon.

Police said they worried the event would become violent once
the publicized group of people did not appear to address their
admirers.

"We were afraid that the mob would run amok," said Mojokerto
Police chief Lt. Col. Heru Setiawan.

The crowd dispersed peacefully.

The police questioned three people suspected of organizing the
event. They were Hariono, puppet master Dimyati and Supardi, 45,
who circulated invitations in many regions. They were detained on
the evening of the scheduled event and released the next morning.

Supardi was held most responsible because he circulated the
invitations far outside the town. Local media also reported on
the event. Invitation letters explicitly stated that Bung Karno
would meet his admirers at the show.

Supardi was incensed. He deplored the cancellation of the show
and denied the police allegations of spreading lies.

"I swear before God that Bung Karno would come. He didn't turn
up because the show was canceled," Supardi told The Jakarta Post
last month.

Bung Karno is alive and his grave in his birthplace of Blitar,
East Java, is empty, he declared.

Sukarno died on June 21, 1970, in Jakarta.

"If you do not believe me, just open the grave. If you find
his bones there, you can hang me," Supardi said.

He insisted that the police should have let the puppet show go
on to allow him to show that Sukarno was alive and well.

"If Bung Karno did not show up, they could take me to the
police station. How could I prove my belief if the show was
canceled?"

Admirers believe Sukarno is not dead, but merely passed to
heaven in his physical being thanks to supernatural powers. They
hold the same belief for other independence fighters such as Gen.
Soedirman, Bung Hatta and Supriyadi. Gajah Mada, a well-known
prime minister of the 13th century Majapahit kingdom, also is
believed to be alive.

"Five days after Bung Karno was declared dead, somebody saw
him riding in a pedicab," Supardi said.

According to Supardi, Sukarno will help Indonesians get out of
their current hardships.

He boasts a collection of pictures he claimed showed Sukarno.
Some of the figures are dressed like Sukarno, but their faces
bear no resemblance.

So strong is the belief in Sukarno's immortality that Sukarno
look-alikes have been known to travel on speaking tours in East
Java, Yogyakarta and Central Java.

In East Java's cool mountain town of Malang, a Sukarno
impostor introduced himself to the public as "Romo (father)
Kusno" or "Romo Sukarno". Kusno was Sukarno's nickname when he
was a child. Romo Kusno has two "wives" he calls Dewi Putih and
Dewi Hitam.

Romo Kusno is probably the best-known Sukarno impostor, with
many followers grouped in an informal battalion called "Division
X".

Romo Kusno, whom followers describe as "charismatic", claims
to be the reincarnation of Bung Karno.

Asked for an ID card and his address, he replies he has none.
He lives everywhere and wherever he sets his foot is his home.

Romo Kusno always wears similar clothes to those donned by
Bung Karno during public appearances. Like Sukarno, he dresses
in all white -- shoes, pants, jacket -- with a black cap. He
never forget to carry a baton and put on sunglasses. Both his
face and voice bear a strong resemblance to Sukarno.

"Meeting him, it was as if we were hypnotized and unable to
deny he was the real Bung Karno," said a journalist in Malang.

His convincing appearance has won Romo Kusno a lot of
supporters, many of them educated people from places in Java and
Bali. They meet regularly in Kediri, Banyuwangi and Malang.

Romo Kusno tells his supporters that Sukarno never died. He
says there is no corpse in the Blitar grave because Bung Karno
keeps visits remote areas to help the oppressed.

"He makes appearances to help people who are in difficulty,"
said Norman, 60, a resident of Gedongtengen, Yogyakarta, who
described himself as Romo Kusno's confidante.

Among the dozens of people Romo Kusno recruited for his
battalion was a member of the Army's Special Force (Kopassus) and
a candidate of Bali governor. Many members of the division are
military veterans who show up in their old uniforms.

Suspicions led to a police raid of Romo Kusno's headquarters
in Malang where short-barreled FN-46 rifles were seized.

Romo Kusno was arrested in a hotel in Kediri, East Java, where
he was briefing members of the organization. They were detained
in Malang on charges of conspiracy against the Soeharto
government.

In 1998, a court in Malang sentenced Romo Kusno to 7.5 years
in jail. But the Habibie government pardoned him on Aug. 17,
1998, on the occasion of Indonesia's 53rd anniversary.

In a show of loyalty, dozens of his fanatical followers
picked him up from the prison and paraded him through the streets
on luxury cars. They maintain contact and his followers' loyalty
was undented by his imprisonment.

L. Dison, an anthropologist at Airlangga University in
Surabaya, said there was nothing unusual in Javanese culture for
a belief that a charismatic figure like Sukarno remained alive.

"People believe Sukarno did not die but moved to another world
with his physical entity. His admirers believe he will reappear
some day."

The belief, Dison said, was often exploited by "rather
paranoid" people who try to convince others they are
reincarnations of the dead.

"The impostors suffer from emotional disturbances. They are
ready to do anything and imitate the behavior of the person
'reincarnated' in them," Dison said.

The belief is linked to the messianic tradition, he said.
"They usually make their appearance in a community in a crisis.
It is as if they are saviors. Therefore, many people believe in
them and become their followers."