Police call soothsayer over hateful quote

JAKARTA (JP): Police questioned noted soothsayer Gendeng Pamungkas on Thursday on suspicion of sowing public hatred toward Chinese-Indonesians.

Dressed in a blue checkered shirt and dark pants, Gendeng, alias N.M.H. Irsan Massardi, arrived at the city police compound at 10 a.m. in his silver Mercedes Benz sedan. The vehicle bears a sticker of a skull. As usual, Gendeng wore a red ribbon, which traditionally symbolizes blood in the occult world, tied to his right wrist.

He was accompanied by lawyers Tumbu Saraswati and Didi Supriyadi.

Following six hours of questioning, Gendeng said that he was questioned in regard to a report in Forum Keadilan.

In its Aug. 17 cover story "Rapes of the ethnic Chinese during the mid-May riots were nonsense", the biweekly quoted Gendeng as saying he was anti-Chinese.

Jakarta Police Chief Maj. Gen. Noegroho Djajoesman said separately that Gendeng's statements might lead to national disintegration and ethnic prejudice.

Gendeng argued the quote was incomplete.

"My real statement was that I'm against immoral and unpatriotic Chinese people like tycoon Liem Sioe Liong," he said, referring to the patriarch of the Salim clan.

He said the incomplete statement attributed to him could be construed as fomenting public hatred of Chinese-Indonesians.

Gendeng is scheduled for another police questioning next week.

Reporters were amazed when the huge Jakarta Police headquarters complex plunged into darkness from a power cut lasting several minutes shortly after the soothsayer entered the interrogation room.

In the middle of the questioning, one of the police interrogators reportedly challenged Gendeng, who once claimed to have studied voodoo in Haiti, to show his skills, said lawyer Tumbu.

"He didn't respond at once, but he said later 'sir, we'll have a blackout soon'," Tumbu said.

Minutes later, a second blackout occurred and lasted for almost half an hour.

According to Tumbu, the officer subsequently apologized and said he had been joking.

"But I really meant it," a smiling Gendeng said afterward.

City police spokesman Lt. Col. Edward Aritonang countered that the blackout was due to the power system becoming overloaded. (emf)