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.