Could Yogyakarta Finally be The Sultanate Republic?

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - A heated discourse on determining the status of Yogyakarta has been filling the air with a big question: will there ever be a Sultanate Republic of Yogyakarta?      "No, there’s no way for any referendum to determine the status of Yogyakarta. That’s would be unconstitutional as there will be no legal basis for holding a referendum in this regard," said Constitutional Court chief Mahfud M.D. who spoke to the media here Tuesday afternoon.      Yogyakarta is a province within the unitary state of the Republic of Indonesia. Yet, Yogyakarta is steeped in royal culture inherited from the long history of the Javanese sultanate which resulted in the  sultan becoming automatically  the  governor of the province since the birth of the republic in the mid 1940s.      Mahfud, who built his teaching career at the Yogyakarta-based Universitas Islam Indonesia (UII) before moving into politics a decade ago in Jakarta, tried his best to stand in between the seemingly open conflict between President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Yogyakarta province governor Sultan Hamengkubuwono X.      President Yudhoyono has voiced  opposition to the discourse on letting the Sultan of Yogyakarta  hold the automatic governorship of the province. He apparently wants Yogyakarta governorship filled by someone elected through a direct election, just like in all the republic’s 32 other provinces.      In his response, Sultan Hamengkubuwono X has said that he will tender his resignation as governor of the province if the central government regards him as an obstacle in the restructuring of the province’s administrative arrangement. Citing relevant articles of the Indonesian 1945 Constitution, Mahfud said both President Yudhoyono and Governor Hamengkubuwono were constitutionally correct in their stances vis a vis the discourse.

Article 18 point 4 of the Constitution, Mahfud said, stipulates that governors, district heads and mayors are respectively the heads of  provincial, district and city governments. They are all democratically elected leaders who get their term in office through direct elections.      Whereas, just underneath that very article of the Constitution, Article 18B stipulates that a special status is granted to Yogyakarta. This article clearly points out that the state acknowledges and respects the certain units of regional governments which enjoy special status, or of special characters, though remain being governed by the laws.      "I just want to say that both (leaders) have their constitutional views which must be respected," said Mahfud in a clear tone of balancing his position in the debate, in contrast to the positions taken by some political and public figures who indicate their pro- or contra ideas.      Mahfud added that there are five regions in Indonesia that hold special status. Aceh province was made a special region due to its Islamic law system implemented in the province; Jakarta became special because it was the capital of the country and Yogyakarta has special status because of its historical heritage.      Mahfud, however, let both camps, those in support of the specialty of Yogyakarta and therefore back the Sultan as an automatic governor, and those with a contrary  opinion and deem that a democratic political process a necessity, to debate their arguments openly in the parliament.

Monarchy System

The national discourse has been developing fast since earlier this week after President Yudhoyono made a comment related to the issue. "There should not be a monarchy system which contradicts our Constitution or democratic values," the president said, adding that the nation "need to find a system that represents all considerations, including the special status of Yogyakarta and the implementation of democratic values."

This statement was then followed by a comment by Sultan  Hamengkubuwono in which he said ready to resign from the Yogyakarta governorship. He hinted that his being on the governorship seat of the province might have been seen as an obstacle to include the province in the direct election systems applied nationally.      However,  a Presidential aide, Velix Wanggai, said to the media  that  President Yudhoyono has always "respected" Yogyakarta’s special status as a province and a sultanate. And that he would consider the long history of the Yogyakarta sultanate as the central government works to implement democracy in all regions.      "The President still takes into account the special status of Yogyakarta, the existing system there and the history of the kingdom’s merger into the unitary state of the Republic of Indonesia," Velix said on Sunday.      Airlangga University sociologist Hotman Siahaan said that it was wrong to consider Yogyakarta a monarchy. Yogyakarta was a "symbolic" monarchy for the Javanese - and not a true political monarchy.      "The government of Yogyakarta has applied all the principles of democracy and the administration functions just like other provinces. It would be wrong if the President did not immediately affirm Yogyakarta’s special status," he said on Monday.

New Law

The government has been asked with preparing a new law on the status of Yogyakarta after the old one prepared by the previous House of Representatives was suspended following a deadlock over the main issue of whether the province’s governor was to be elected or appointed.

All nine House factions have proposed the automatic appointment of the Yogyakarta king or sultan to governor, but the government represented by former home minister Mardiyanto wanted the governor to be elected through a public direct election.

Indonesia owed its Independence to Yogyakarta Sultanate when the highly respected Sultan Hamengkubuwono IX stood decisively in defense of the fledgling republic after declared that the sultanate merged into the republic. President Sukarno then awarded a province status, a special one, including the sultan’s privilege to be governor.      A survey conducted by Kompas daily in April 2007 showed that 74.9 percent of residents in the province agreed that their governor should be someone from the sultanate. Another survey conducted in the same year showed a similar result.