Spirit of lion invoked for Sukarno

RICHARD LLOYD PARRY visits the grave of the country's founder and reflects on his heritage.

BLITAR - In the courtyard in front of the grave of the great Sukarno, founding President of the Republic of Indonesia, pilgrims can buy copies of a mysterious photograph at 3500 rupiah (75c) a print.

It was taken a few years ago, and shows a group of Indonesians sitting reverently in front of the great black stone that is Sukarno's gravestone. The stone is polished to a dull shine, and the flash of the camera has illuminated it in a startling way. In the shadows and reflections a ghostly image is visible - the broad, stern face of a mighty lion.

The young souvenir vendor, whose name is Siti, points out the creature's two eyes, its nose and the curls of its great mane. The people in the photograph are oblivious, for the image of the beast is visible only on film. "The lion is the spirit of Brother Sukarno among us," says Siti.

"He is angry about what has happened to Indonesia."

A sceptic would claim that the mysterious supernatural lion was just a fluke of light falling on the grave stone's lumpy surface, but there is no doubt that the spirit of Sukarno lives on and that he is more widely and fervently revered today than at any time since his death 31 years ago.

Wednesday would have been Sukarno's 100th birthday, and for the past week Indonesians on his home island of Java have been working themselves into a frenzy of reverent nostalgia for the man remembered by everyone as Bung Karno - "Big Brother" Sukarno. Newspapers have carried daily articles about his tumultuous political career, about his eight wives and many mistresses, and about his lonely death under house arrest in 1971.

Thousands of people crowded into the newly renamed Bung Karno stadium in Jakarta on Wednesday to hear President Abdurrahman Wahid pay tribute to his predecessor. And 1000km to the east in Blitar, a stream of visitors arrived all day at the grave and the Sukarno family's modest house, now converted into a museum.

Under the dictatorship of President Suharto, who forced Sukarno from power in the late 1960s, Blitar was little visited but during the centenary commemorations this month, they have been coming in their thousands.

The exhibits in the museum demonstrate the biggest reason for Sukarno's appeal: during a period of painful uncertainty, violence and poverty for many Indonesians, he had qualities which they found nowhere else: mystery, style and charisma.

Even as an old man, Sukarno exuded the charm of a matinee idol, and photographs and paintings in the museum record the key moments of his, and Indonesia's, life: proclaiming Indonesia's independence after the defeat of the occupying Japanese; leading the resistance as the Dutch tried to reoccupy their colony; and finally, Sukarno the President, with his black Muslim cap, his cream double-breasted suit, his dark glasses and his swagger stick.

For all his cosmopolitan sophistication, he prided himself on being a man of the people. When he descended from the sky in his white helicopter, it is said that old people took him to be a reincarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu.

"Bung Karno was a genius," said Usman Suwarno, an accountant who visited the museum, yesterday, dressed in a commemorative Bung Karno 100th anniversary shirt in the red of Indonesian nationalism. "When I was a little boy I saw him speak and he was inspired." Wahid is likely to be succeeded by the second reason for Sukarno's posthumous rehabilitation - his daughter, Megawati Sukarnoputri.

She is the country's most popular politician, for which she owes more to her father than to her own charisma.

"Compared to Bung Karno, Mega doesn't even come close, but she is the best there is," says Suwarno.

Megawati is no Sukarno, but then Sukarno was no Sukarno either - at least not the heroic figure who lives for present day Indonesians.

- INDEPENDENT

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CIA World Factbook: Indonesia (with map)

Dept. of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia

Antara news agency

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