PRESIDENT SUKARNO AS MYTH MAKER1

JAMES PEACOCK

This paper is intended in the light-hearted and tentative spirit of Lévi- Strauss' famous Oedipus myth analysis, as a

"demonstration" ... conceived, not in terms of what the scientist means by this term, but at best in terms of what is meant by the street peddler, whose aim is not to achieve a concrete result, but to explain, as succinctly as possible, the functioning of the mechanical toy which he is trying to sell to the onlookers (1963:213).

Unlike Lévi-Strauss I am not trying to sell a method, but like him, I would like to emphasize at the outset the tentative nature of the results I present. The materials which I will analyze are English translations of speeches by President Sukarno of Indonesia. I have not had an opportunity to check the Indonesian originals. Therefore, the equations I formulate may tell more about the speeches' translators than about the ideas of Sukarno or his listeners. Yet, to follow Lévi-Strauss again, even if this is so, the results will not be without interest; if Freud's version of the Oedipus myth should be analyzed along with that of Sophocles and earlier folk versions as an expression of some core myth (1963:217), why not define Sukarno's myth as consisting of its translators' as well as its creator's versions? More of Lévi-Strauss than his roguish methodology has inspired this paper. I have found suggestive his tack of organizing symbols into oppo- sitions, seeing mythic "structure" as independent of narrative sequence (1963:214), and viewing such structure as a logical model that gives cognitive meaning to social life. Perhaps this paper will suggest ways that Lévi-Straussian approaches to mythology can be applied to modern ideology and symbolism.

1 I wish to acknowledge the helpful comments of Martin G. Silverman and Florence Peacock. 1410 JAMES PEACOCK 1. FATHERLAND AND MOTHERLAND

In his Independence Day Speech of August 17, 1959, Sukarno traces the evolution of the concept "national unity": This "Idea" has already gone through several phases of immaturity. The first phase was that of regionalism. Each regional group considered itself as an absolute entity and each was concerned with its own well-being. The second phase was that of the islands. Each island considered itself as an absolute entity and each was concerned with its own well-being. The third phase was that of cooperation amongst the regional groups and amongst the islands; however that cooperation was only on the basis of federalism, because no regional group and no island was willing to subordinate itself to the whole nation or the whole Indonesian fatherland. In 1928 a New Idea emerged, an idea which permeated the whole spirit of the Youth, and later of the whole Indonesian people. On October 28th, 1928, the Youth took their famous Oath: We are of one fatherland, Indonesia, We are of one nation, the Indonesian nation. We have one language, the Indonesian language. After that rising, complete and united, of the sun of Indonesian Nationalism, those immature ideas, the ideas of provincialism, insularism, and federalism, lost their historic rights. ... of course, we maintain the right to love and to improve our own regional group or region, but we must cherish them within the framework of the unity of the nation and the unity of our fatherland Indonesia, that fatherland which is one and indivisible (1959:4). In this example, one notes the association of the symbol "Fatherland" with the concept "National Unity". The following phrases occur: "whole Indonesian Fatherland", "one fatherland, Indonesia", "The unity of our fatherland, Indonesia", and "that fatherland which is one and indivi- sible". Other examples of the association between "Fatherland" and "Unity" may be given: ... yes, maybe 50 or 60 million Indonesian people of one nation, and one fatherland, having the same flag and the same country... (1958b: 14). ... our only fatherland Indonesia, our one nation, the Indonesian nation and our one language, the Indonesian language... (1960a:57). ...that our fatherland stretches from Sabang to Merauke... (1960a:5).

A number of other examples can be cited (e.g. 1960a:15:28:32). Let us conclude with one. On the occasion of a State Visit of the President of India, Sukarno expounded the five principles of the Pantjasila, the philosophical Grundlage of the Indonesian State. When he came to the PRESIDENT SUKARNO AS A MYTH MAKER 1411 second principle, that of "nationalism", or the belief in one nation, he merely substituted the phrase "We love our Fatherland ...". Substitution of symbol for value suggests the association of the two. The symbol "Motherland" in Sukarno's speeches is associated with an idea different from that of national unity. Sukarno wants to "move heaven and earth until... there is not one single imperialistic louse left in the fold of our Motherland (1955:20). Similarly he says,

The Indonesian people will not feel themselves 100% free so long as some portion of their motherland is not free... (1952:18). And

So long as colonial rule exists in some parts of the motherland, the Indonesian people will not feel themselves secure... (1952:20).

And he speaks of those dark pages which picture the period of colonization of our motherland, years full of the sufferings of our people... (1959:10). These examples point to no difference between the objective social area denoted by "Fatherland" and "Motherland"; both refer to the territory comprising Indonesia. But a conceptual difference may be seen, at a cer- tain level of abstraction: "Fatherland" is associated with the idea of extending boundaries to include more elements so that a larger social unit is formed than one existing before. "Motherland" is associated with the idea of limiting boundaries so that elements are excluded, and a smaller unit is formed than one which is conceived as a possibility, if the "foreign" elements were included.2 In the several dozen speeches that I examined, I found only one excep- tion to this rule that "Fatherland" is associated with the notion of building a more inclusive social unit than that formed by any single region or island and "Motherland" is associated with the idea of excluding foreign elements from Indonesian territory. "Fatherland" connotes nationalism, breadth, and inclusion; "Motherland" anti-imperialism, narrowing, and exclusion. It is striking that these equations should hold so faithfully throughout Sukarno's speeches, especially since, to judge 2 The images with which Sukarno links Motherland are perhaps also charged with more intimate remembrances: of the Freudian primal scene and of Indonesian feminine purity being polluted by foreign blood — the gross (Kasar) Dutch Colonialists marry refined (alus) Indonesian maidens. 1412 JAMES PEACOCK from remarks of Indonesians with whom I spoke, there is no conscious Indonesian tradition of "Fatherland" or "Motherland" symbolizing what they symbolize in these speeches. The extraordinary consistency of these equations appears to be purely a product of Sukarno's (or his translators') thoughts or intuititions.

2. YOUTH

Sukarno's speeches portray a metaphorical youth who identifies with the "Fatherland" and thus with the ideal "more inclusive social unit". This Youth is the Indonesian people themselves, who Sukarno pictures as an "adolescent" population (1952:16) going through a "transition period" like that of "puberty" in "human life" (1950:12). In Sukarno's speeches this metaphorical Youth trips through a series of adventures. The "Youth" has "showed the whole world that ... we are a nation of men with the spirit of a bull..." (1961b :113). He is tempted to "boast of our masculi- nity" (1961b:l 13). But sometimes he longs just "to be understood and to be left alone. Let us search for our own personality ourselves ... but what have we experienced? We are constantly being hindered..." (1958b: 29). And then he wonders if "maybe the child has been forced along the road to adulthood too rapidly" (1957:4). But, this is just an initiation period when we are "going through the process of purification in all matters, so that when we have been purified, after we have been cleansed, we can enter the happiness..." (1961c:62). Always he searches for "new norms" so as not to be "a copy of others", believing that Indo- nesians should "search for and attain our own identity". Sukarno roots "identity" with "new norms" in the "famous oath" of the "Youth". He asks that the "entire Indonesian population" identify with "Indonesian Youth" (1960a:5) in re-making the choice: We are of one fatherland, Indonesia, We are of one nation, the Indonesia nation. We have one language, the Indonesian language. Chiefs and ministers are designated "elders" in what Sukarno calls the "Indonesian national family" and are called "pak" (father) and "oom" (uncle) whereas Sukarno is sometimes called by the sibling term "bung" (brother); this makes Sukarno a youth in relation to the elders. He has a Youth-like ideology: "Build tomorrow and reject yesterday!" (1960:93). He screams (a high-school-like cheer), "rawe-rawe-rantas-malang-malang putung! Total ordering and reordering!" He confesses: PRESIDENT SUKARNO AS A MYTH MAKER 1413 Well, frankly I tell you: I belong to the group of people who are bound in spiritual longing by the Romanticism of Revolution. I am inspired by it, I am fascinated by it, I am completely absorbed by it, I am crazed, I am obsessed by the Romanticism of Revolution (1960:83). Sukarno himself, then, takes on imagery of a "rebellious youth". Like the metaphorical Youth, he rebels against old norms, resolving his identity in the decision to "dedicate myself to the fatherland" (1961b: 14). After the manner of Erikson's view of Hitler (1950:289-315), one might entertain an image of Sukarno as an adolescent gang leader, guiding the youth in rejecting old norms, boasting of their masculinity, wearing the faddish fez, speaking their own language, persecuting the non-conformist Chinese, and finding their "own identity" by becoming part of the Fatherland. (But it should be made clear that the Indonesian "youth" to whom Sukarno refers are not purely male. The "Oath of the Youth" pronounced at the Second Congress of Young Indonesia at Djakarta in 1928 goes, "We sons and daughters of Indonesia affirm..." [Kami putera dan puteri Indonesia...])

3. A FAMILY OF SYMBOLS

We have isolated three symbols — fatherland, motherland, youth — which are scattered about Sukarno's speeches and we have reported the associations which tend to cluster around each. Our task now is to put together a pattern into which all three symbols fit. We might start by noting parallels between these symbols and daily Indonesian social life. A cursory survey of the literature indicates that in most Indonesian groups, as in most societies of the world, the father is more involved in the wider society outside the household, the mother in affairs internal to the household. As Koentjaraningrat says of the Javanese (Javanese consti- tute about sixty percent of Indonesia's population, dominate its politics and culture, and Sukarno, born of Javanese father and Balinese mother, was raised in Java): the wife's main sphere of interest concerns the household; the husband's duty is to take care of relations with the outside (1957:89). The Javanese mother, though quite active in petty trade outside the household, focuses her activities mainly around the household of which she is the pillar, it being of a "matrifocal" variety (Geertz 1961:44-46; 131), whereas the father is extremely distant and aloof from household affairs (Geertz 1961:107), finding his place in the public political and 1414 JAMES PEACOCK religious realm outside the household. This divergence of orientations of father and mother is strikingly symbolized in the spatial organization of the traditional, upper-class Javanese house. The front part of the house, the open pendapa, is oriented toward the outer world. It is the place where guests are received, public performances watched, conferences held. This is the father's realm, categorized as "male". The back part of the house is the private, inner-oriented sphere of domestic duties. This is the mother's place, and is in traditional Javanese cosmology the "female" part of the house (Rassers, 1959:247). Thus, one might see a parallel between the broad, inclusive, outward- looking focus of "Fatherland" in Sukarno's speeches and the Indonesian father's association with the wider, more inclusive realms of society. Similarly, the exclusive, narrow, inward-looking imagery of "Mother- land" — expressing a feeling that one's territory should be kept private, intimate, closed to outsiders — could be paralleled to the Indonesian mother's internal, household-focused role. Like Fatherland and Motherland, Sukarno's youth symbolism finds its counterparts in daily social life. As in many emerging countries, youth has played a strong role in the development of Indonesian nationalism and independence. It was an Indonesian Youth Congress in 1927 which first made the pledge "We are of one fatherland, Indonesia...." It was a gang of youths who kidnapped Sukarno in 1945 and forced him to declare Indonesian Independence at their bayonet points. One of these youths, Chairil Saleh, then became Sukarno's constant companion and was until recently in charge of the "spontaneous mass demonstrations" which generate slogans and "Youth Days" to keep youths interested in the fatherland. The apocryphal Youth element in government is illustrat- ed by a story circulating in 1947 to the effect that the government had issued an order requiring all government officials less than fourteen years of age to resign their jobs and go back to school. That "Motherland", "Fatherland", and "Youth" symbolism in Sukar- no's speeches find strong, if obvious, resonances in the daily social experiences of Indonesians should cause these symbols to assume extra meaning to those Indonesians who perceive them. But what about the relations among the three symbols? What meaning might these have to Indonesians? Sukarno is not just a politician. He is a prophet, trying to commun- icate "values" (1952:7), to institute "spiritual standards" (1961c:47). He says he must fill Indonesia's need for "a myth, a super-belief" (Van den Kroef, 1956:289), and he claims to pattern his speeches after the PRESIDENT SUKARNO AS A MYTH MAKER 1415 style of the dalang, who narrates Hindu-Javanese myths as part of the shadow play, wajang kulit (Hanna, 1956:4). From Sukarno's speeches Indonesian leaders have at various times abstracted paradigms which they set up as official ideologies or myths of the Indonesian people; for example, Pantjasila, the five principles of the Indonesian nation, was taken from a speech of 1945, and Manipol-Usdek, the official definition of Indonesian Utopia, was abstracted from a speech made fifteen years later. Doubtless, in less conscious ways Indonesians vaguely abstract all sorts of symbolic paradigms or mythical structures from Sukarno's utterances, much as, if there is truth to Levi-Strauss's interpretation, the ancient Greeks might have unconsciously abstracted a mythical structure from the Oedipus story — a structure that "proves a kind of logical tool" which solves contradictions within Greek social life and cosmology (1963:216). I suggest that one of the many mythical structures which Indonesians (Sukarno himself, Sukarno's translators, Sukarno's audien- ces) might unconsciously abstract from Sukarno's speeches is the family of symbols already described — fatherland/motherland/youth (father/ mother/child) — which gives oedipally charged meaning and resonance to a cluster of rather abstract themes dominant in Indonesian ideology: nationalism, anti-imperialism, revolution. Abstract themes which bear logical relations to each other are codified by a system of symbols repre- senting members of a family who in daily life relate socially to one another. By identifying themselves as "youths" or "children" of the Fatherland and Motherland, thus becoming members of a symbolic family, Indonesians become devotees of those values associated with their symbolic parents: nationalism and anti-imperialism. But if by identifying themselves as youths Indonesians become revolutionaries, are they not tempted to rebel against their parents? Whatever the interpreta- tion, it is surely true that Sukarno's extraordinary spiritual hold over his people (even during his political decline) is partially due to myriad symbolic or mythic structures like these which lie buried in his sayings.

UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA

REFERENCES

Erikson, Erik H., 1950 Childhood and Society (New York, W. W. Norton). Geertz, Hildred, 1961 The Javanese Family (Glencoe, Illinois, Free Press). 1416 JAMES PEACOCK

Hanna, Willard A., 1956 "Bung Karno I", American Universities Field Staff Reports: WAH-7-56. Koentjaraningrat, 1957 A Preliminary Description of the Javanese Kinship System (New Haven, Yale University). Lévi-Strauss, Claude, 1963 "The Structural Study of Myth", Structural Anthropology (New York, Basic Books). Rassers, W. H., 1959 Panji, the Culture Hero: a structural study of religion in Java (The Hague, M. Nijhoff). Sukarno, 1950 "From Sabang to Merauke: Independence Day Speech" (Djakarta, Perteje- takan Negara). 1952 "Hope and Facts: Independence Day Speech" (Djakarta, Pertejetakan Negara). 1955 "Diponegoro, Fighter for Freedom", Indonesia: I: 29-29. 1956 "Indonesia in the Present World Crisis : Speech for the American Association, Djakarta" (Djakarta, Ministry of Information, Republic of Indonesia). 1957 "New Year's Address : at a reception in Merdeka Palace", Report on Indonesia : 8,3,4-7. 1958a "State Visit to Indonesia of the President of India, Dr. Rajendra Prasad" (Djakarta, Ministry of Information, Republic of Indonesia). 1958b "A Year of Challenge: Independence Day Speech" (Djakarta, Ministry of Information, Republic of Indonesia). 1959 "Res Publica! Once More Res Publica!" (Djakarta, Ministry of Information, Republic of Indonesia). 1960a Moluccas Speeches (Djakarta, Ministry of Information, Republic of Indo- nesia). 1960b "Youth Pledge", PIA News Bulletin (Djakarta, December 14). 1960c "Mother's Day", PIA News Bulletin (Djakarta: December 13). 1961a "The Birth of Pantja Sila", in Toward Freedom and the Dignity of Man (Djakarta, Department of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Indonesia), 1-23. 1961b "Like an Angel that Strikes from the Skies", in Toward Freedom and the Dignity of Man (Department of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Indonesia), 77-119. 1961c "The Rediscovery of Our Revolution: Independence Day Speech", in Toward Freedom and the Dignity of Man (Djakarta, Department of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Indonesia), 37-77. Van den Kroef, J. M., 1956 "The Realist Convergence in Indonesian Political Life", Journal of East Asiatic Studies, V: 279-297.