The horror of cult

Last Thursday this nation heard a terrible thing. Something that appeared three decades ago in its political lexicon, only to be soon forgotten.

When Minister of Religious Affairs Tarmizi Taher told the press that President Soeharto did not want to be made into a cult figure, he did not explain why the head of state had discussed the matter with him.

The statement makes people look to society to see whether there are any leanings there toward such a dangerous attitude.

Did the President suddenly remember that, as he said, cult figures were blatantly against Islamic teaching?

Or, despite the absence of such twisted loyalty in society, did he feel the need to warn us, to prevent the nation from plunging into chaos after him?

He might have remembered that Indonesia plunged into political and economic turmoil after making a cult figure out of founding president Sukarno.

Or is it because he did not need such a thing even when he was young, and he needs it less now that he is older? Or was it a reminder to the members of the People's Consultative Assembly who will reelect him for another term, to be objective in their decision making?

In the past, seasoned politicians have made hilarious statements voicing their support for him, or uttering so-called political prayers for his good health. Many may have understood this to be the first steps toward making him a cult figure.

That Soeharto believes -- as quoted by Minister Tarmizi -- that he can lead the nation because the people trust him, and not for any other reason, shows that he does not need expressions of support.

Soeharto's unwillingness to be made into a cult figure sounds more spiritual when he rejects the notion on the grounds that it is against religious teachings and because "it will encourage a person to sin".

The President has been at the country's helm for three decades and the whole world recognizes his economic development success.

History has taught us that a long term in office and economic success are important in making a leader into a cult figure -- a situation that shows that the leader concerned has failed to educate his people.

The leader has also failed to prevent the people around him from making use of his popularity for their own ends. They engineer this kind of situation by abusing public ignorance. So it is a kind of a structural stupidity.

But the trend is not the monopoly of developing countries. Germany under Hitler is one of the best examples. It needs an extraordinarily great leader to win the fanatical support of an educated mass. He should at the same time be a political genius, and a monster.

But once the people wake up to their nightmarish blunder they will turn the tables on the cult figure and the end will be disastrous. The world still remembers Nikita Khrushchev's 1956 denunciation of Stalin, who was both a cult figure and a monster to his people.

In North Korea people thought the late Kim Il-sung was a demigod. And mainland Chinese, who practiced atheism, carried copies of Mao Zedong's red book everywhere they went, with a fervor surpassing even religious followers with their holy books.

Sukarno had to see himself stripped of his many titles from the revolution. And he saw Sukarnapura -- the capital of Irian Jaya which had been named after him -- renamed Jayapura.

All the above people enjoyed the worship of their people, and could not resist sampling the forbidden fruits of despotism which, finally, ends in calamity.

Or if they claimed to believe in God, they let themselves be pushed into the wrong side of religion.

Soeharto's conclusion about the relationship between cult figures and religious teachings as quoted above is accurate.

However, we need to hear an explanation of Soeharto's statement in the near future so the nation is not left in confusion.