USIPP #7: From Mount Merapi to Kraton Yogyakarta

Starting the day at 8 am, we went to Singlar Village and met this one family named Pak Sakimin. He was one of the Merapi victim when it was erupted in October 2010. Basically, we discussed a lot about the disaster and post-disaster activities that actually happened in Singlar. He also showed us around the village that was, we can say, totally destroyed. Pak Sakimin told us like the whole story how it was happened and how the government and the other social organizations (NGOs) gave assistances in recovering the post-disaster condition. Next, we had a lunch in Raminten, a Javanese restaurant in Jalan Kaliurang.

Later on, we continued to Ullen Sentalu. It's a Javanese Museum well known as Batik Museum in Yogyakarta. They have the coolest collections in there. Generally, as its name, they have pictures of Sultanate and Paku Alam along with the royal families in both cities, Yogyakarta and Surakarta. They have this one family tree which Paundra Kandra's name written on it too. Heheh

It is actually the family tree of the Mataram Islam Kingdom. Mataram Islam was eventually divided into 4 kingdoms which we call Mangkunegaran dan Paku Alaman in both Yogyakarta and Surakarta. This was the result of Giyanti Agreement.

We had a great guide who told us the whole story about those 2 kingdoms. The Museum also has a room for letter collection for one of the Princess who was broken-hearted. So those letters coming from her friends and families who tried to cheer her up. Some quite nice, others can be like funny one. Hohohoho

My favorite part of the tour was the room where they show photos of Princess Nurul, the most adorable Javanese Princess ever. President Soekarno and Sultan Hamengku Buwono IX (HB IX) were proposing at her, and she was simply rejected both of them (who are so WOW) because she didn't want to be enganged in poligamy thingy. Up till now, she's still alive in Bandung. The other interesting one was the part where the guide explained in details regarding the Javanese Bride's cloth. At the end of the tour, she gave us a glass of special drink that was believed can make us stay young. Oh yeaa right..

The recipes itself coming from one of the Princess shown on the picture with the King of Surakarta if I'm not mistaken. Well, I had been there before like couple of times, but I do still admire it like my first visit.

We got back at Wisma around 15.45 and had like an hour to get ready to meet Gusti Bendoro Pangeran Haryo, the younger brother of the Sultan HB X. Some says that he's might be the one who's going to be the next king because the ruling King, Sultan HB X doesn't have a male descendant to inherited the throne. Well, it was a quite interesting dicussion we had with him actually. He told us the history of Yogyakarta such as the background of why Yogyakarta has granted this "Special Status". Special Status let the Sultan and Paku Alam automatically become the Governor and Vice of Governor respectively. He brought us to see the  Kraton (Palace) from insider's perspective. It was an informative, I'd say, lecturing rather than discussion.

In the first place, he gave us a brief overview how democracy is practised within Kraton. He mentioned four things about this matter, here they are:

1. In a leadership, the decision or policy should not discriminate any people from different backgrounds. A part of the King's title itself says "Sayidin Panoto Gomo" which means the Sultan is not allowed to discriminate anyone.

2. Prior to the independence day, the Sultanate has a kind of people assembly up to Kelurahan (Village) level.

3. In Javanese Language, we know 5 level of languages like the honourability level. In Kraton, they have language what they call Bangongan language which is used by both the Sultan and his servants. This is a special language only used within Kraton which shows the "equality" of the Sultan and servants.

4. Leadership style depends on the leader. Sultan HB IX was known as a great king because, in Kanjeng Prabu opinion, has what he called "Global Instrospections". It means, in deriving a decision, the Sultan has to  take a comprehensive perspective.

Furthermore, Kanjeng Prabu elaborated how Yogyakarta was granted the "Special Status". So when Soekarno declared the independence of Indonesia, it was not about taking or maintaining areas as an authority. It was a momentum. Just after Soekarno did, the Colonial Government asked where was the area of Indonesia. Thus, Soekarno visit the Sultan and discuss this matter with him. We know that in order to be recognized as a country we need to fulfill 4 requirements. They are: region, people, government, and sovereignity or recognize by other country. Therefore, the Sultan invited Paku Alam and they both finally agreed to be the first to join Republic Indonesia. In other words, we may say that Yogyakarta did a huge favor in order to maintain the independence of RI. President Soekarno wrote a Charter called Piagam Penetapan, meanwhile HB IX and Paku Alam wrote the Amanat 5 September.

That's why Kanjeng Prabu emphasized how big his father contrubuted for this country. He also mentioned that democracy is not always good like what people expected and Monarchy is not always bad as people thought. Well, I'd say that each system indeed has their own good and bad sides, just like a coin. We cannot set the best system to apply cause we need also to consider the condition of the people and country itself. One doesn't fit all.

Ideally, democracy should be the favorable one compared to other systems. Even so, in practical level, we may find out many abuse of power and majority rules taking over the democracy. Well, I guess it will really depend on the actor at the end.

Yogyakarta, June 10th, 2012