Javanese Supremacy and the Politics of Culture in Indonesia: From Wayang to Pancasila
Indonesia’s political culture is deeply shaped by Javanese values—sacred, mythical, and mystical. From Sukarno’s role as the dalang in a wayang performance to Suharto’s self-image as a ksatria and later pandito, Javanese cosmology has dominated the Republic’s political imagination. Yet this dominance has marginalized other traditions, including Aceh’s rich Islamic political culture. Through quotations from Kuntowijoyo, Bernard Dahm, and others, this essay examines how Pancasila became a contested ideology, why center–periphery tensions endure, and how Indonesia’s political stage remains largely a Javanese play.