The King, The Witch and The Priest

Title: The King, The Witch and The Priest Author: Pramoedya Ananta Toer, 2002. This time Pramoedya wrote a famous folk tale from east Java, Indonesia. This story is widely known in Java, Bali, and Madura. The setting of the story is East Java in the 12th century. It is a story about political conflict in a kingdom named Kediri. The people lived prosperous life under king Erlangga. In the village of Girah there was a widow named Calon Arang. She was a well known and powerful witch so everybody was afraid of her. People believed that she had many victims. She had a beautiful daughter, Ratna Manggali. When Ratna Manggali reached the age of marriage nobody dared to marry her. This fact made Calon Arang angry to the community. So she decided to take revenge by killing as many people as possible. One day she prayed to goddess Batari Durga. She wanted to be granted ability to spread plague to the whole country. Batari Durga agreed on one condition that she might not reach the capital. Before long plague spread all over the country and killed many people. Soon people heard the rumors that the plague was created by the witch. The situation got worse and worse. More and more people died. Finally the news about the plague reached king Erlangga. The king held a meeting with his advisors to discuss the situation and then decided to halt and to punish Calon Arang. Soon a troop was sent to the village of Girah to arrest Calon Arang. Unfortunately the troop was easily defeated, even the commander was killed by her. Meanwhile the plague got more ferocious. One more time the king held a meeting to find a way to defeat the witch. Then King Erlangga assigned a well known priest. His name was Empu Baradah, a kind hearted priest. Empu Baradah was contacted and he agreed to help. Empu Barada suggested Empu Bahula, his student, to marry Ratna Manggali. Empu Bahula then proposed her. Because Calon Arang was a rich witch the wedding ceremony was held extravagantly. Empu Bahula then spied on his mother in law. Ratna Manggali who loved him wholeheartedly did not have any suspicion at all so she revealed to her husband that her mother had a secret book of witchcraft. Empu Bahula asked Ratna to take the book for him and she agreed. One day when Calon Arang slept Ratna took the book. Empu Bahula then gave it to Empu Barada. Empu Barada learned the secret of Calon Arang's witchcraft. Then he went to infected areas and he cured the people with his spell. Eventually Empu Barada met with Calon Arang. They fought with spell and finally Calon Arang died. The people of Kediri were saved from the plague. Literature has power because it can shape public opinion. The Javanese rulers realized it and used it for their advantages. I believe this story is an instrument to shape public opinion. The rebel has been described as evil and the ruler has been described as the good side. Consequently the general public was convinced that the ruling elite has privileged to rule. *

Grass root political conflict in South Banten.

Grass root Political conflict in south banten Once in south Banten Author : Pramoedya Ananta Toer. This story is a description of political conflict in grass root level. The setting is a village in South Banten, Indonesia when there was Darul Islam rebellion in the 1950's and 1960's. The main character is Ranta, a poor worker. He lived a bamboo hut without electricity with his wife Ireng who often complained about poverty and security condition. One day Musa, a wealthy merchant, came. He gave Ranta money and asked him to steal seeds of tea and hevea plants from nearby plantation. Ranta stole it at night but Musa did not pay him. He threatened him instead. Musa's wife was surprised when suddenly Musa came home with anger. Soon they quarrelled. Then Djameng, Musa's subordinate, came to report that the commander was away and that he saw Ranta brought Musa's baton and bag. After that Kasan came with his troop and arms. Musa told him to solve the problem with Ranta. In the quarrel Musa admitted that he was one of DI leaders. His wife got more furious because her parent were victims of DI. Musa was surprised when suddenly the commander got in the house. He had been suspicious of Musa for a long time because Musa was never attacked by DI. Furthermore he just heard Musa's confession to his wife. In addition, he got Musa's bag which contain important documents of DI. Musa denied the accusations. Amidst the quarrel a voice of bird was heard. It was a code from DI. Commander and his troop immediately hid out. Before long a group of people came under chief of village. He addressed Musa as Residen (a district official under Dutch colonial government in Indonesia). He reported that commander went to city with three persons and that there were only ten soldiers left. He thought that it was time to attack the military post with only twenty persons. Realizing he was under threat Musa pretended he did not know anything. After chief of village left the commander came out and continued his interrogation. Musa kept on denying although he was cornered. Suddenly another voice of bird was heard. Once again the commander and his troops found cover. Kasan and his men came. He reported that Ranta was not at home and that he did not find Musa's bag and baton and that he had burned Ranta's house. Again and again Musa denied but Kasan said that Musa ordered him to burn houses and to wage psywar. The commander came out to capture all of them. Later the commander appointed Ranta as interim chief of village. The next day commander met Ranta to discuss security problems that was threatened by Oneng group of rebel. Ranta who was a Heiho (Japanese soldier) would help to organize civilian defence. He recruited local youth to support the military. Then Musa's wife came to inform that she would go home to Sukabumi. Ranta revealed Musa's dirty tricks. Once Musa was also poor. During Japanese occupation he asked those who went to work as romusha (Japanese slaves) to sign a letter. Later it was revealed that the letter gave Musa a right to take over their land. He also told her about his experience when he was forced to steal seeds of hevea and tea. Pramoedya nicely described political conflict and how the village people and the military overcome their problems by unifying all of their forces. Perhaps Pramoedya wanted to express his ideas that political conflict will only make poor people suffer. Whoever the winner poor people will suffer.