The Javanese culture as a source of Suharto's leadership: A socio-political analysis

Great General Suharto who had managed to rule the country for more than 32 years, used and manipulated Javanese cultural values and philosophy as the 'guidance', for his personal and in official duties. According to Suharto, a number of traditional Javanese thoughts in the form of guidance or pituduh' and prohibition or 'wewaler', when practiced, would make the Indonesian people have noble and generous mind or 'ber budi bowo leksono', that is one who is really good as the essence of goodness or 'becik sajatining becik'. Suharto's strong commitment and spirit to the practice of these Javanese traditional teachings were based on his belief that it would not be difficult for Indonesian people to improve their consciousness as the nation of Indonesia in their state, government and social life on the basis of Pancasila should they understood the Javanese cultural values and philosophy. This study is meant to critically analyze how these noble Javanese traditional teachings, particularly in politics, were practiced by Suharto in his personal capacity and official duties. This analysis is based on theoretical framework that culture occupies important role in determining human behavior and social change and that it is culture that should be taken into account in the last instance to explain human behavior and social change. In his personal life, the practice of Javanese traditional teachings was meant to make him a good Javanese having capacity to receive 'wahyu' or 'guidance' from God Almighty particularly for ruling the country. And in his official duties it was meant to convince the people that all decisions and policies he had taken were always socially just and philosophically correct because they were based on very highly respected values and philosophy so that they could be accepted or legitimate; and secondly to create a just and prosperous society based on Pancasila and the 1945 Constitution as mandated by the Proclamation of the 17 August 1945 through a well-organized development movement. In order to achieve these goals, Suharto always attempted to concentrate power as most Javanese kings usually did by implementing the doctrine of 'dwifungsi ABRI', creating GOLKAR as a vehicle for his political goals, merging the numerous political parties into two major parties, imposing policy on mono-loyalty to all civil servants, and practicing anti-criticism and anti-opposition policy in order to weaken or even neutralize his political opponents. To give constitutional basis for the Javanese cultural values and philosophy to be implemented by all Indonesian people as guidance for their state, government, and social life Suharto formulated the P-4 or "Pedoman Penghayatan dan Pengamalan Pancasila" (Guidance for the Comprehension and Practice of Pancasila) and inserted a number of Javanese traditional teachings into it. These traditional teachings were also inserted into the "Doktrin Kepemimpinan ABRI" or the Indonesian Armed Forces Leadership Doctrine adopted by the ABRI.