Der Jago als strategische Figur

Abstract

“The Jago: A Strategic Figure” is an attempt to interpret recent incidents of politically motivated violence. Two waves of violence were selected: The explosion in a navy depot in Jakarta allegedly caused by Islamic fundamentalists and the “mysterious shootings” of “criminals”. The ambivalent behaviour of high-ranking officials is analyzed with the help of political concepts with a specifically Javanese cultural background. These are concepts connected with wahyu and jago: wahyu is a very fluid “power”, and the inability to keep law and order is seen as a sign that a government is losing wahyu and hence also its qualification to rule. There is also a concept of mediation of power from the wahyu of the ruler to the mundane level of the “little pcople” connected with a strategic figure as a linkage: the jago (“fighting cock”). The ambivalence of the Indonesian, Javanese-dominated government vis a vis these acts of violence apparently committed by oppositional groups is interpreted as an attcmpt to counteract the obvious decline of this government’s wahyu. The “mysterious shootings” are interpreted as an action of or inspired by members of the state apparatus to wipe out or weaken the jagos: These are seen as an incipient threat to official administrative bodies by forming potentially competitive groups as a kind of “informal political infrastructure”. In the event of a realization of such a competitive “informal infrastructure” the government’s wahyu would obviously again be in danger.