New age sparks millenarianism

New age sparks millenarianism

By Marianus Kleden

This is the first of two articles about a new age in the
revived spirit of millenarianism.

KUPANG, East Nusa Tenggara (JP): Millenarianism, a popular
belief of the coming of a just king to free an oppressed nation,
seems prevalent among Indonesians nowadays who look forward to
the coming of a just leader.

Millenarianism, known as Mahdism among Muslims, especially the
Shiites, and Messianism in Judaism and Christianity, is a
religious movement that expects imminent, total and ultimate
worldly and collective salvation.

While Christian messianic expectations are believed to have
been fulfilled, the Jews are still waiting for the messiah. When
the Jews were under Roman occupation, some sacred writers tried
to position Jesus as the prophesied just king, but the Jews were
unconvinced. Instead, they gave him to the Romans to be crucified
as a criminal.

Among Shiite Muslims, the belief began to emerge during the
civil wars and the rise of the caliphate of the Omayyad dynasty.

At a time when Muslim power and piety were declining, a belief
in the advent of the golden age of Islam and a longing for its
restitution began to evolve. Since then, the Mahdi has appeared
on and off as the symbol of total liberation; a recent example is
Lia Aminuddin, who claimed recently to be the Mahdi installed by
angel Gabriel, and who had born Prophet Isa (Gatra, September
1998).

By the end of the 19th century, the belief and movement was
quite popular among Javanese peasants due to burdening taxes from
the Dutch colonial ruler.

Is such a belief prevalent among Indonesians nowadays, when
they are looking forward to the coming of a just leader? In order
to answer the question, elaboration on the characteristics of
millenarian movement is needed. It can be seen that all the
characteristics circle around the expected figure and converge to
advocate the hero.

First, it combines a historical and mythical time conception.
According to Aristotelian thought, perennial up to now,
historical time is defined as moving numbers prior and posterior.
As such, time is seen as a straight line anchored in the past and
thrusting into the future. On the other hand, mythical time is
unquantifiable and unmeasurable, in which the notion of long and
short is meaningless. While the concept of historical time is
quite clear and practical, the idea of mythical time is blurred.

An interesting example is that late president Sukarno, one of
the country's founding fathers, was proud of the fact that he was
born at the dawn of a new century in 1901. He subsequently called
himself "Son of the Dawn".

This title implied an agreeableness between mythical time and
historical time: Now is the time to embark on a new age for
Indonesia.

During his political tenure, Sukarno seemed acutely aware of
his title and accordingly expressed his awareness in political
behavior. The fact it rained during his visit to Bali was not
seen as a mere coincidence by many Balinese, but an agreeableness
between this-worldly time and other-worldly time. Sukarno did not
oppose nor accept the attitude of the people.

As for Soeharto, despite the fact that exceptional natal data
are alien to him, his obscure parentage and genealogy became his
strength during his presidency. Recent unanswered speculation
concerning whether he is of Chinese, royal Javanese or peasant
Javanese descent implies that it is not anybody's business to
find out his origin. It is a divine business unimaginable to
human historical outlook, but patently clear according to the
mythical point of view.

The fact Soeharto recurrently referred to a divine pattern can
be traced through his crafty adventures and administration.

One of the outstanding examples is Supersemar, which
"historically" means a letter of command issued by Sukarno on
March 11, 1966, conferring all rights to Soeharto to take
security measures for the country. But "mythically" the acronym
means superhero; Semar, a hero in Javanese shadow puppetry,
became Soeharto's patron.

Similar were the five-year basic guidelines for national
development. Numbers and figures employed in the document, such
as seven principles of usability or eight paths for equal
distribution, do not have any logical sequence or causal
relationship. Also notable are the thousands of names and
acronyms used in the business empire of the Soeharto family.

The second characteristic of the millenarian movement is that
it is a redemption preceded by premillenial catastrophe. The
catastrophe preceding the proclamation of national independence
in 1945 is second to none -- the dropping of atomic bombs on
Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. The traumatic scars are
incurable and remembered every year.

The disaster that came before the rise of Soeharto was the
abortive coup by the now defunct Indonesian Communist Party,
according to the official version of history. It resulted in the
massacre of seven military officers and hundreds of thousands of
others. The calamity that antedated the ascent of President B.J.
Habibie was multifaceted and comprised all aspects of life,
especially political and economic.

The redeeming process in the era of Sukarno was begun by the
building of the belief among Indonesians that they were but one
nation. The so-called lighthouse policy was meant to introduce
Indonesia, with all her unique paraphernalia, to the world.

The redeeming process in the era of Soeharto was marked by
economic remedies. But Soeharto, who proved himself a successful
economic manager and political strategist in the first two
decades of his rule, was tragically trapped by the fences he
built around his economic dominion. He left this condition to
Habibie for a new redeeming process.

The writer is a social science lecturer at Widya Mandira
Catholic University in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara.