Crisis extends to another year of living dangerously

Crisis extends to another year of living dangerously

Slamet Susanto and Tarko Sudiarno, The Jakarta Post,
Yogyakarta

The nation and the world community alike are wondering who will
lead Indonesia after the elections next year; considered by many
as the most democratic ever.

But soothsayers have conveyed a discouraging message that the
new year will be yet another year of living dangerously.

No matter whether Megawati Soekarnoputri wins her presidential
bid or one of her contenders takes over next year, Indonesia
looks destined to fall deeper into darkness, marked by bloody
riots and conflict even within the family, predict the
soothsayers.

Kusumo Tanoyo, one of the most respected soothsayers in the
Surakarta Palace describes the ordeal Indonesia has to experience
next year as a result of "God's loss of sympathy".

"God will no longer be with the nation. He has no heart any
more to help us due to the moral decadence the country is
experiencing," he said.

This reflects total despair as the Javanese believe God never
rests when they are in need of help during an ordeal.

Tanoyo, a spiritual advisor of the palace, said he had had a
vision last August which convinced him of the gloomy period
Indonesia was facing.

"I saw a sparkling ball in green, violet and red go up to
heaven. It was the wahyu (revelation) which was returning home,
meaning we will have no true leader," the 94-year-old fortune
teller said.

"A father kills his son, a son murders his father and
religious followers kill each other. Everybody commits sins as if
nobody leads them."

Chairman of the Indonesian Alternative Association, which
groups paranormal experts, Boss Eddy, confirms the gloomy
forecast.

"Divorce and affairs will be the dominant problems facing the
country's households as a result of the economic crisis which
remains unabated," Eddy said.

"Crimes will also increase next year, marked by another top
official standing trial, while separatism will continue to plague
the country."

Eddy believes the nation's ongoing ordeal is part of their
destiny long foretold by the Javanese ruler King Jayabaya, who
reigned between 1135 and 1157 AD.

"We are still in the period of transition between Noto and
Nagoro in which no leader is able to overcome the political
turbulence. The unsound political situation brings about moral
decadence, severe unemployment, poverty and rampant crime," Eddy
said.

Jayabaya prophesied that Indonesia would be ruled in
succession by outstanding leaders whose names end in one of the
five syllables in "Notonagoro". The prophesy has been partly
fulfilled with the first two Indonesian presidents, Sukarno and
Soeharto, leading the country to independence and economic
development respectively during their combined tenure of 53
years.

"Three presidents after Soeharto are interim leaders whose job
is to fill the power vacuum. They are not equipped with the power
needed to overcome the crises," Eddy said.

Both Tanoyo and Eddy agree that the moment of truth will come
during the 2004 elections, when Indonesia will elect its
president directly for the first time.

Tanoyo said electoral candidates would seek every means
possible to assume power.

"The most dangerous threat will come from people who resist
change and are struggling to maintain disorder for their own
benefit. The situation is so bad that people who are clean cannot
avoid plunging into the mud," Tanoyo said.

He said the fact that the political elite was busy seeking
legitimacy, indicated that Machiavellianism was working.

"By associating themselves with the center of culture, which
is the palace, the political figures are pursuing bolo (allies)
that will lead them to bondho (wealth)," Tanoyo said, referring
to a number of presidential candidates and politicians who
recently were awarded royal titles by Surakarta sultan Pakubuwono
XII.

Tanoyo said those figures were seeking a piece of the coveted
wahyu many believed had been passed on from Javanese kings to
Indonesian leaders of modern era, who happen to be Javanese.

"In fact the wahyu cannot be obtained in such a way. People
achieve wahyu within silence, through meditation and restraint,"
he said.

Claiming to have learned tarodz, a supernatural school which
exercises inner power, Tanoyo said soothsayers could no longer
rely on primbon (an old manuscript used to forecast a situation
based on signs).

"My vision of the country's future came from tarodz, because
primbon has not forecast the explosive changes the nation has
been experiencing," said Tanoyo, who owns a school at the foot of
Mount Lawu, some 50 kilometers east of Surakarta.

The possibility of avoiding the ordeal is there, both Tanoyo
and Eddy admit. As many have said; nothing is impossible in
politics.