'Left' making inroads into Balinese calm

By Degung Santikarma

DENPASAR, Bali (JP): Over the past year, despite the stagnant Indonesian economy, a new industry has exploded in Bali. With the lifting of restrictions on press permits, dozens of new tabloids, magazines and books have flooded local stores.

Much of this new media is -- as one might expect in a society still shaking off the after-effects of its long bout with censorship -- material which was banned under the previous New Order regime.

Translations of the works of Karl Marx and Che Guevara, reprints of the novels of Pramoedya Ananta Toer and political treatises of all types have become openly available and are eagerly consumed, especially by a younger generation searching for new models of thought and action.

Indeed, peering inside the book bags of Bali's university students, it might seem that a "new left" is beginning to emerge on an island better known for its pristine beaches and expensive hotels than its political activism.

But as booming a business as critical media has recently become, political publications are facing stiff competition from another strain of "leftist" thought. To see the signs, one need only take a stroll through the new Gramedia shop at Kuta Galleria mall, where bestsellers are stacked on a table front and center.

Given a place of prominence on the pile of most popular titles, next to works like Soeharto's Fall and The Asian Leftist Movement, are two recently published books that, store employees say, have been flying off the shelves by the hundreds: Black Knowledge from Bali and How to Become a Leak.

The first of these works is filled with dark stories of mystical happenings, as well as detailed instructions on how to perform the rituals and create the supernaturally charged amulets that can keep one's home safe from thieves, one's body immune from supernatural sicknesses and one's family safe from attacks of black magic.

The second of these volumes is a handbook for the aspiring sorcerer, offering guidance in transforming oneself into a shape- changing being with the power to harm one's enemies, known in Balinese as a leak.

What is most striking about this supernatural "new left" phenomenon, however, is that it is not, in fact, so new. Indeed in Bali, this kind of "leftism" has a long history. According to Balinese terminology, knowledge can be divided into two types: that of the right-hand path, called penengen, which is "white" knowledge used to cure and to protect, and that of the left-hand path, called pengiwa, which is "black" knowledge used to harm others.

What is surprising about this avalanche of magical media is instead the social space in which it is now to be found. For in traditional Bali, such knowledge was esoteric and guarded, the domain of experts who could read the ancient palm leaf books devoted to such matters.

Priests and princes kept this knowledge to themselves, using it as ammunition in their battles and as medicine to heal the spiritual ills of their followers. Ordinary people could gain these powers, but only after a long and arduous search for a teacher or the receipt of a supernatural gift from the gods. The free trade of such information was, until recently, unthinkable in Bali.

But now, for only a few thousand rupiah, Nyoman Gegel, a 36- year-old man from a small village near Denpasar, was able to buy a book about black magic at a local supermarket. Nyoman was drawn to such knowledge by his own bitter experiences, after two of his children fell ill with ailments the local doctor could not cure. Nyoman was convinced that their sicknesses had been caused by his neighbor working black magic against them.

A few years ago, Nyoman had been close to this neighbor, a land broker who scouted out desperate farmers willing to sell their rice fields to his big city contacts. Nyoman had learned the tricks of the broker's trade from him, eventually surpassing his teacher in both luck and skillful dealing.

With a newly renovated house and an expensive car parked in the yard, Nyoman suspected his success had sparked his neighbor's jealousy and driven him to use supernatural means to get revenge. Determined to thwart his neighbor and protect his family, Nyoman decided to follow his neighbor's example yet again, by searching for the same knowledge of the supernatural.

Returning home with his book, Nyoman turned the pages with shaking hands, much like a Soeharto-era student activist with a contraband copy of Pramoedya's Child of All Nations, torn between fear and a burning desire for knowledge.

He worried for a moment about transgressing the traditional Balinese command of aja were, which holds that powerful lore should not be spread to outsiders, but quickly dismissed his concern, convincing himself that since Indonesia was now a democracy, it shouldn't be just the priests and palace-dwellers who had access to power.

"Balinese culture should belong to the people," he told himself firmly as he devoured the dark secrets made public in the book's pages. "In this era of reformasi, we all have the right to knowledge." Thinking of the famous magic practitioners who were rumored to be on Soeharto's payroll, he grew even more secure in the rightness of his search.

"It's time for us `little people' to get some power of their own. Long live the left!" he concluded confidently.