The Jakarta Globe, December 29, 2013.
In front of the rustic house sits a sign saying “Welcome to the Spiritual House of Ki Maja Anom” and upon entering the house guests immediately get a sense that there is something mystical and shamanistic in the air.
Adorning the walls of this home in Bandung are swords, kris, spears and an oversized painting of the mythical spiritual guardian of the southern coast of Java, Nyi Roro Kidul.
Ki Maja Anom, 40, owns the place and is believed to possess supernatural powers of his own.
Born Ridwan, he assumed his popular name after becoming a dukun , or shaman.
Anom claims to be a specialist in pelet , a type of spell that is meant to augment a person’s aura, giving them greater charisma and charm.
Pelet ensures the bearer becomes more attractive to everyone around and helps a person’s romantic life, lures potential customers or, as next year’s elections draw near, draws voters.
Divine intervention
“For the last eight months, I have had people coming and asking me for ways to help them become legislators. There were sitting legislators looking to get re-elected, and some first-time hopefuls too. Some came because they believed their rivals might cast a bad spell on them,” Anom says.
The shaman claims to have a total of 19 current or aspiring legislators as clients. Some hail from Bandung and nearby towns like Subang and Sumedang. There are even clients from Jakarta and Lampung, in Sumatra, he says.
The dukun refuses to divulge their names for privacy reasons, but says “there are so many of them. From big and small parties.”
Anom says that ensuring his clients get the number of votes they need to be elected to the legislature involves inspecting their aura.
He also interviews the politicians to get a better sense of their background as well as their campaign process.
He can then identify what obstacles stand between his clients and a seat at the legislature, be it a top leader in their party refusing to pledge full political and financial support, or a campaign manager more interested in siphoning funds than doing his work.
A spiritual intervention helps these candidates overcome these obstacles. Through divine powers, a top party leader can be more sympathetic, a campaign manager’s ill intention can be suppressed, while voters can become more trusting.
“I can’t reveal what the rituals are but they involve prayers and healing,” the dukun says.
He then gives his clients charms and writes down prayers and prescribe rituals for them to perform on their own. For the right price, Anom can even send four of his men to his clients’ campaign events to ensure better success.
“We will try every way so long it doesn’t hurt others,” Anom says. The dukun explains that he refuses to cast bed spells on his clients’ rivals or block the rivals’ aura.
While Anom’s methods are rooted in traditional, animistic rituals, Sulaeman a Muslim cleric, says he offers a similar service but in more “Islamic” ways.
Sulaeman says he only prescribes Islamic prayers at certain times of the day and fasting to those seeking a seat in the legislature or at government offices. The healer even tells his clients only to campaign for programs based on shariah, or Islamic law, to ensure their prayers are heard.
“Not many people come to me, because the Islamic and religious methods don’t attract many. A lot of people go to those spiritual and ungodly places. I’m here to take people away from those sinful acts,” Sulaeman says.
Worrying trend
Politician Taufik Faturohman says he doesn’t believe in asking for spiritual favors to win elections, but adds that many of his friends have done this.
“But no one will says so in public. They’d be too embarrassed,” he says.
Taufik says he relies on more common methods of campaigning and debates when he ran as a candidate for deputy district of the West Java district of Tasikmalaya last year. He and his partner lost, taking just 8 percent of the vote.
Asep Dedi Ruyadi, a Golkar Party politician, says it is often the shamans and mystics who solicit the candidates and offer their services.
“I’ve had more than 10 people offering me this kind of service,” he tells the Jakarta Globe. “They say I must go to this mountain, that valley, that waterfall. Some say I should bring an egg.”
Asep says he politely declines each offer because he is not interested in the mystical. “If a skeptic like me gets so many offers, imagine what it’s like for those who actually believe in these things,” he says.
Ahmad Nugraha, a politician from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), says he has also had numerous people offering spiritual services to help him win a legislative seat in next April.
“I just politely refuse,” he says, adding that the shamans make all kinds of claims, including dropping the names of other politicians they say they have successfully helped.
Some 6,600 candidates will be vying for 560 seats at the House of Representatives next year, and thousands more for seats at provincial, district and city councils nationwide.
With such fierce competition expected, Asep Warlan Yusuf, a professor of state administrative affairs at Bandung’s Parahyangan University, says it is understandable many candidates are willing to try everything, including mysticism.
“How can we expect these people to perform later as legislators? How can they fulfill the people’s needs and expectations if they buy votes and put their faith in the irrational? Our democracy will be filled with incompetent individuals. This is scary and worrying,” he says.
Strong demand
The phenomenon is being reported everywhere across Indonesia, with an increasing number of people offering spiritual services to political candidates, in a sign that demand is strong.
The Internet is also littered with offers from such shamans.
A Google search reveals a long list of people offering spiritual services to aspiring politicians, down to their address and contact details.
One dukun using the Internet to attract potential clients is Ki Ampuh, who claims to have a clinic in Madiun, East Java. Ki Ampuh says that since November, politicians have been calling and coming to his clinic.
He says he provides them with certain spells and charms depending on the clients’ needs and characters. And his services don’t come cheap.
“The initial fee is Rp 5 million [$405]. If the candidate is successful, then I charge another Rp 50 million to Rp 70 million. The price is different for mayors and district heads,” he says.
Anom claims that 80 percent of his clients in earlier elections went on to win legislative seats or local government posts. He says one such client went even higher and now serves as a government minister.
But he refuses to say how much he charges for his services, saying it depends on the rituals and charms used.
“Some politicians are so arrogant. They say they will pay as much as necessary to be elected. But once they get elected and I come to collect my money, they don’t want to pay,” Anom says with a bitter laugh.
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zo 29 dec 2013 - 5:36
