How a Javanese Sultan Became a Hero of Democracy
By JOHN COLMEY Yogyakarta
He is the 10th sultan in the tradition of the rulers of Mataram, the once-proud kingdom of Java. He has a law degree, looks great in a suit and loves dancing to pop music. In times of need, Hamengku Buwono X, Sultan of Yogyakarta, turns for counsel to his nine forefathers, whom he contacts through meditation in a small room forbidden to the 2,000 servants who inhabit the 5-sq-km perimeter of his palace in the center of the city-province. The Javanese believe he embodies the "unseen forces" at work in the world, and if other Indonesians can be convinced that he is a just ruler, the sultan has an outside chance of becoming his country's third president.
That this self-proclaimed "godfather of feudalism" should become a hero of Indonesia's fledgling democracy is ironic. But the 51-year-old sultan joined anti-government protesters in the final days of the Suharto regime, believing he could use his status as a traditional monarch to empower the people further. On May 16, when Jakarta was still burning, the sultan drove into a sea of 500,000 people who had begun looting the normally serene college town. Standing before the crowd, with a booming voice, he persuaded the rioters to drop their stones and fight for reform without violence. Five days later, he invited hundreds of thousands of people to stage a peaceful protest in his palace in the center of Yogyakarta, calling on the military to side with the people against Suharto.
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February 22, 1999
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The country prepares to embark on its first free election campaign -- and its grandest test of democracy -- in years
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