Surakarta wants its special status reinstated

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta, Thursday, June 27 2013



The Constitutional Court building was packed on Wednesday with dozens of people wearing traditional Javanese beskap and kebaya along with traditional hats blangkon and kris daggers.

They came all the way from the Central Java town of Surakarta to support legal attempts by the family of the city’s Sultan Pakubuwono XII, to reinstate the Javanese town’s special status.

The royal family also wants to separate Surakarta from Central Java province.

One of Pakubuwono XII’s daughters Koes Isbandiyah and his son-in-law Eddy S. Wirabhumi sat at the plaintiffs’ box on Wednesday, arguing that the current status of Surakarta violated their constitutional rights.

The two members of the royal family demanded to be given authority to manage and preserve Javanese culture, and to control Surakarta Palace’s assets.

The plaintiffs also want the 1950 Law No. 10 on the Formation of the Central Java province to be annulled.

The two requested the court to annul the word “Surakarta” from Article 1 of the 1950 Law. The article puts the Sultanate of Surakarta under Central Java’s provincial administration.

Zairin Harahap of Yogyakarta’s Indonesian Islamic University, one of the lawyers representing the plaintiffs, told the bench that Surakarta’s royal family “has now lost its right to manage its own lands as it has no clear legal status”.

“And it was never involved in local government administration as it has no clear legal status,” he said.

The plaintiffs argued that Surakarta’s special status was legally acknowledged in the past, including in a 1946 governmental charter and 1949 vice presidential letter affirming Surakarta’s special status.

Zairin said no provision in the 1950 Law specifically annulled Surakarta’s special status.

“We are not demanding a new special region for Surakarta; we just want the court to give back our rights,” he said.

Presiding Justice Arief Hidayat told the plaintiffs to elaborate on their arguments, saying they must be able to show their constitutional losses, instead of factual losses.

Arief later adjourned the hearing.

Eddy said after the hearing the court needed to consider Surakarta’s role in the birth of the Republic of Indonesia.

“Surakarta played an important role in setting up Indonesia. Don’t shove us aside,” Eddy said.

“And, it’s been a year since the local administration provided the allocated budget to pay royal servants,” he said.

If the court granted their petition, Zairin added, six other regencies currently part of Central Java, Sragen, Klaten, Boyolali, Karanganyar, Sukoharjo and Wonogiri, would be under the Surakarta special administration.

In December 2010, more than a hundred members of the Community for Surakarta’s Special Region (KMP DIS) staged a rally and demanded the reinstatement of Surakarta’s special status.



*