The Advice Of A Spiritual Teacher, Rama Dijat, Which Suharto Obeyed And Rejected: Congratulations And A Disaster For The New Order

JAKARTA - Suharto occupied the seat of President of the Republic of Indonesia (RI) for 32 years. He listed his name in many moments of Republican history. Some of them Suharto passed under the direction of his spiritual teachers. There were several names, including Rama Dijat who had asked Suharto to step down in 1982. This advice was rejected by Suharto. Believe it or not, problems arose, dragging Suharto to the brink.

There are names known as Suharto's spiritual teachers. He is Rama Marta, Rama Budi Utama, Rama Mesran, and Rama Dijat. These four Ramas are considered as "ring one" of Suharto's mysticism. They have the ability to dialogue with ancestral spirits by meditating or njarwa.

It is important to communicate with ancestors because they are considered messengers of God who have been born as humans. Ancestors will give messages or dhawuh. When entered into a medium, these ancestral words are present in the medium's tongue so that the ancestor can be invited to have a dialogue.

Each rama has its own specialties. Rama Marta for social and domestic issues. Rama Budi handles matters of a personal nature. Meanwhile, Rama Dijat is a spiritual teacher of state affairs.

Rama Dijat's "task" is very important. His advice was influential in how Suharto carried out his leadership as president. Many of Suharto's political policies, which were previously issued, were communicated with their ancestors. Suharto felt that his policy would be more stable if his ancestors supported him.

"According to Pak Djono (Soedjono Hoemardani), when the GBHN was made and when Indonesia wanted to seize East Timor, Suharto kept asking for the consideration of this dhawuh." said Dr Budyapradipta, an expert on Javanese literature at the University of Indonesia who had been Soedjono Hoemardani's personal secretary in 1983-1986, quoted from articles by Soedjojono and 'Orde Dhawuh' in a special issue of Tempo Magazine.

Suharto's meeting with Rama Dijat began with a discussion with a mid-level army officer, Mesran Hadi Prayitno. Both are equally in the matter of Javanese spirituality.

At that time, Mesran suggested that Suharto meet a teacher named Raden Panji Soedijat Prawirokoesoemo or Rama Dijat if he really wanted to deepen Javanese spirituality. In 1963, Mesran and Suharto met Rama Dijat at the house of Rama Dijat's parents in Gopetan Hamlet, Gumblegan Kalipotes Village, Klaten.

At that time Suharto was surprised, because Rama Dijat turned out to be a mysterious man he had met in 1961 while on a pilgrimage to the ancestral graves of the Majapahit kings at the Trowulan site, Mojokerto, East Java. Still quoting Tempo, there is an interesting incident that shows how strong Rama Dijat's advice is.

At that time Suharto was about to make a visit to the Philippines and Australia, Rama Dijat was then invited by Soedjono to his house. The ancestral spirits that belonged to Rama Dijat said that Suharto's trip to Australia needed to be monitored.

Soedjono conveyed this message to Yoga Soegama, the leader of Bakin at the time. However, Yoga believes more in his intelligence analysis, which considers a visit to the Philippines to be wary of because at that time Marcos had just been overthrown.

But when Suharto went to the Philippines, conditions were safe. While on his way to Australia, Suharto was greeted by demonstrators with tomatoes and rotten eggs that hit his forehead. When he returned to Jakarta, Yoga Soegma was immediately slapped by Soedjono.

"Yoga, mangkane ojo nyepeleake my spiritual intelligence," which in Indonesian means: Yoga, so don't underestimate my spiritual intelligence.

Rama Dijat's son, Budi Kusumo Putro, said that before Suharto intended to serve as president for a third term, in 1982, Rama Dijat had warned Suharto against his intention. However, Suharto urged Rama Dijat to be allowed to become president.

Suharto also asked Rama Dijat to ask for "blessing" to God Almighty. This made Rama Dijat perform a practice or penance by traveling to all corners of the archipelago for approximately one year. In various places he meditated.

"Father got a wisik, Suharto could become president. But only for one more term," said Budi.

This advice must be conveyed to Suharto immediately. The place chosen to state this important issue was at the house of Rama Dijat's father in Gopetan Hamlet, Gumblegan Kalipotes Village, Klaten.

A symbolic choice, it was the first time Suharto was willing to become a student of Rama Dijat. In 1984, Rama Dijat died. Toto Iriyanto, another son of Rama Dijat, said that in mid-1987 during the election, he felt that he had received a message from his late father.

His message was to warn Suharto to step down immediately. Toto was ordered to meet Suharto with the heart of a plantain, grapefruit, and coconut ivory. At first, Toto was hesitant to convey the message. But in the end Toto still came to the Palace.

Toto at that time barely escaped the inspection of the Presidential Security Forces. However, Suharto happened to be out of the main door of the palace about to get into the car. While smoking a cigar, Suharto immediately waved his hand at Toto. Apparently Suharto still recognized the face of his teacher's son.

Toto immediately said that he had the idea to hand over the three symbols to Suharto. Suharto also received a tray containing the heart of a plantain, grapefruit, and coconut ivory.

Toto said, the heart of the plantain is a symbol of power, the grapefruit is a symbol for power to be returned, and the ivory coconut is a symbol of the golden age. After Suharto received the tray, Toto immediately left without entering the Palace.

However, Suharto did not heed the wangsit. Suharto continued to advance in order to remain in the presidency. Believe it or not, in the following years the business of Suharto's sons and daughters came under the spotlight.

Problems also came to Suharto, until finally there was a monetary crisis and in 1998 Suharto disgraced. Everything has happened and cannot be changed. Many thought that if Suharto obeyed his teacher's message, in the last years of his life Suharto would be safer.

Apart from asking his ancestors for advice through his teachers, Suharto is also known to have practiced austerities. This was conveyed by Rusmanto, the caretaker of the Semar Cave. Before arriving at the Semar Cave, said Rusmanto, Suharto had performed a series of austerities.

The hermitages were carried out in the Jambe Lima Cave and Jambe Pitu Cave, then the Holy Rahayu Cave in the Gunung Selok area, Cilacap, Central Java. "It was in Suci Rahayu that Suharto did the initial cleansing," said Rusmanto.

Suharto then continued his spiritual journey to Mount Srandil, Cilacap. The seaside mountain is known as a special place for pilgrimage. That's where the ancestors of the land of Java are buried.

Suharto was born to a farmer father named Kertosudiro and mother named Sukirah. Unexpectedly, Kertosudiro and Sukirah gave birth to a son who will lead Indonesia for 32 years. Suharto began his military career from the Koninklijke Nederlands(ch)-Indische Leger (KNIL), the Dutch East Indies army formed by the colonial government to deal with local resistance.

When the Dutch withdrew and power passed to the Japanese, Suharto joined the Japanese military unit, PETA. Then, Suharto married Siti Hartinah or Tien Soeharto alias Bu Tien on December 26, 1947. As written in the MEMORI article entitled Pahit Manis Cinta Pak Harto and Bu Tien, it was explained that there was a feeling of inferiority due to Suharto's social status at the beginning of their acquaintance.

Bu Tien is the son of a Mangkunegaran employee in Solo. From this marriage, Suharto and Siti Hartinah were blessed with six sons and daughters, namely Siti Hardiyanti Hastuti, Sigit Harjojudanto, Bambang Trihatmodjo, Siti Hediati Herijadi, Hutomo Mandala Putra and Siti Hutami Endang Adiningsih.

Suharto's military career development began to find a significant point after Indonesia's independence, precisely in the midst of the political turmoil in 1965. Controversial histories were recorded during those times. As explained in the MEMORI article entitled A Century of Suharto, The Smiling General, who at that time held the rank of Major General was said to have coordinated the massacre operations in the period 1965-1966.

This was revealed through a number of documents that were included in a book entitled The Army and the Indonesian Genocide: Mechanics of Mass Murder, which was compiled by Jess Melvin, a historian from the Sydney Southeast Asia Centre.

Also in that period, Suharto recorded another great history: the birth of the 1966 March Eleven Order (Supersemar). Suharto's success in overcoming the 30 September 1965 Movement or commonly known as G30S/PKI led to him being assigned the task of being the Commander of the Operational Command to Restore Security and Order (Pangkopkamtib).

As described in the MEMORI article entitled Supersemar Is Released, Soekarno Overthrown, it is explained how Suharto manipulated Supersemar. Through this manipulation, Suharto seized power from Sukarno.

Under Suharto's leadership, Indonesia achieved food self-sufficiency in 1984 and earned Suharto the honor of speaking at the 23rd Conference of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome, Italy. Suharto even gave 100,000 tons of rice to Africa, which was hit by famine.

Under his leadership, the Indonesian economy also managed to rise. In 1967, Indonesia had a foreign debt of 700 million US dollars. With the help of economists, Suharto reversed the situation that culminated in food self-sufficiency in 1984. Another 'wow' success from Suharto was Family Planning (KB).

Even though food production is large, it is useless if the population is not controlled. Embracing the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), Suharto tried to smooth out the family planning program which had been rejected for religious reasons. In addition to reducing infant mortality, the average life expectancy of Indonesians, which was originally only 41 years in 1965, increased to 63 years in 1994.

However, this does not mean that Suharto's leadership is pure without sin. During the New Order, corruption was evident. However, power makes corruption cases just disappear. Cases of corruption, collusion and nepotism (KKN) in the New Order became legal because they had a legal umbrella in the form of a presidential decree (keppres).

"The case during the New Order era was due to the centralization of power. Moreover, usually the owner of authority played in a centralized power," said Director of the Anti-Corruption Study Center (Pukat) Universitas Gadjah Mada Zainal Arifin Mochtar, quoted from Tempo.

"For example, the presidential decrees that gave certain authority to Pak Harto's children at that time," added Zainal.

One of them was when Suharto issued Presidential Instruction No. 2 of 1996. The instruction ordered the Minister of Industry and Trade, the Minister of Finance, and the State Minister for Investment Funds/Chairman of the Investment Coordinating Board to immediately realize a national car industry.

At the same time, PT Timor Putra Nasional (TPN), a company owned by Hutomo Mandala Putra or Tommy Suharto, was appointed as the pioneer of the national car. The Suharto family received various "splashes" from the Suharto government. Time Magazine once discussed how the Cendana Family business with the title Suharto Inc.

At that time, Time worked with George Junus Aditjondro, a professor of the sociology of corruption at Newcastle University. Time magazine and George published a book entitled From Suharto to Habibie: The Two Leading Corruptors of the New Order. Not only KKN, the New Order era was also known to narrow the space of opinion.

Much of the press which is monitored and restricted in movement cannot even criticize the government. There are also many criminal acts, such as mysterious shootings related to crime, military operations in Aceh and Papua, the Talangsari incident, as well as the kidnappings and riots in May 1998.

*Read other information about SOEHARTO or read other interesting articles from Detha Arya Tifada and Putri Ainur Islam.