RI elite turn to magic for love, money and politics

RI elite turn to magic for love, money and politics

Dewi Kurniawati, Deutsche Presse-Agentur, Jakarta

The three-story mansion on the outskirts of Jakarta,
surrounded by a manicured garden with fountains and bird cages,
is typical of those belonging to Indonesia's rich and powerful.

The only thing that distinguishes the enormous, red-brick
house with a new Mercedes in the driveway and Jaguar in the
garage, is a sign above the entrance that reads "Palace of a
Freak."

Agung Yulianto, popularly known as Ki Joko Bodo, is the owner
and one of the country's most well-known shamans. Bodo purports
to have clients at the highest rungs of society calling for help
in matters ranging from love and politics to fame and health.

"Different clients come to me for different things," said the
bearded, Bali-born Ki Joko Bodo, 40, who has an artificial cave
built in his basement for meditating and practicing rituals. "We
are now having a regional election, so candidates come to me
secretly asking me to back them up."

While many parts of Indonesia continue their sprint towards
modernization, the mysticism that characterizes traditional
Javanese and other cultures in the country has proven steadfast,
even in the country's concrete jungles.

Despite urbanites' embrace of everything sophisticated, many
even among Jakarta's elite continue to rely on a deep tradition
of mysticism when confronted with life's twists and turns.

"When a rational world can not provide them with answers, they
run to the irrational world," said Professor Hotman Siahaan, dean
of the school of social and political sciences of Airlangga
University in Surabaya, East Java. "That's when old traditions
come alive again."

Rumors abound of the alleged use by the country's top power
brokers of shamans and mysticism to achieve their ends, even if
there's a growing reluctance to admit it in public.

Just as some of Indonesia's former leaders were renowned for
their reliance on mystics to gain and protect their powers, even
the new democratic President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is rumored
to use animist spiritual guides in important decision-making.

"People are slandering it, but practicing it at the same
time," said Permadi, a member of parliament who always dresses in
black and is well-known as a mystic.

"Indonesians are mystical, from common people up to ministers
and even the president," Permadi said, claiming to know all the
spiritual guides of past and present presidents. "Even if
Indonesians study and get high academic degrees, they can't
detach from it. Mysticism is part of our culture."

The popularity of shaman among more than the poor and
uneducated can be seen in the numbers and wealth of mystics who
have capitalized on the inability of the country's growing elite
to shed old beliefs.

As the power and wealth of those who use shamans has grown, so
has the wealth of the shamans themselves, turning the trade into
big business.

Basuki, a shaman who calls himself Gus Margo, recently took
out a two-page magazine advertisement for his services, which he
claims have helped even top politicians. He says he spends almost
1,000 dollars per month for advertising - the equivalent of about
a year's salary for most Indonesians - but that the investment
has paid off.

"For love problems, my clients pay up to five million rupiah
(about 500 dollars), and for politicians who want to boost their
power or charisma, they pay up to 50 million rupiah," Basuki
said.

Those seeking out a shaman for help do so with a wide range of
motivations. Sometimes seekers go for problems of love and
romance.

"Most women come to me asking for pelet (a power to make the
opposite sex attracted sexually or even fall in love)," said
Margo Basuki, 40, a shaman in Surabaya, East Java, who began
practicing in 2002. "Love is a heavy problem. For this problem,
we are the doctors."

Other motivations are more sinister.

The use of black magic, or santet as it is known in Indonesia,
at the top levels of society made headlines last month when a
team investigating the high-profile death of a human rights
activist, Munir, found documents outlining several plots to kill
him by individuals linked to a "powerful institution."

One of those plots was the use of santet, and investigators
even said they had the name of the shaman who had been contracted
to perform the ritual.

"I am telling you that it is possible," Ki Joko Bodo said. "I
can kill someone with my black magic."

"If a shaman is doing 'santet' to someone, the way it works is
like a remote control to a television," Bodo said. "So there is a
monitor and the remote that will control the transfer of the
frequency."

"If we're going to take a thing like needles, and send the
needles with a mantra, they will disappear from our hand and move
to the designated person through the frequency of the remote," he
added.

While skeptics say these shaman are just taking advantage of
cultural tradition and the desperation of some people in
Indonesia, those who practice and believe say they are providing
a valuable service to those in need.

"Business people tell their drivers and maids to get the
magazine because they are too shy to get it themselves," said
Lilik Sofyan Ahmad, deputy editor of Misteri Magazine, a
supernatural investigation magazine based in Jakarta that sells
some 120,000 copies per month, with over 50 percent of those sold
in the capital to middle-upper class readers.

"Mysticism is one of the solutions in life," Ahmad said. "If
life is calm, people turn to religion, but when it gets wild and
uncertain, mysticism is an alternative."