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.