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Yogyakarta people to confirm Sultan for presidency
People in Yogyakarta plan to stage a pisowanan agung, or great meeting, at Alun-Alun Utara Square on Oct
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People in Yogyakarta plan to stage a pisowanan agung, or great meeting, at Alun-Alun Utara Square on Oct. 28, to inquire whether Sultan Hamengkubuwono X of Yogyakarta Palace, who also serves as Yogyakarta's governor, will run for president in 2009.
Organizers claim tens of thousands of people from Yogyakarta province and the surrounding Central Javanese regions of Magelang, Purworejo, Temanggung, Surakarta and Klaten will attend the meeting to express their support for the sultan's bid.
"The presidential election is nearing. We need Ngarso Dalem's decision on whether he will run for the presidency or not," said organizer Himawan of Merti Yogyakarta, using the sultan's royal nickname.
"If Ngarso Dalem agrees to run for the presidency, the people of Yogyakarta will go forward and support him," Himawan added.
On Tuesday evening, representatives of different community groups called the sultan to inform him about the planned mass gathering and asked him to attend.
Rudjito, who represented fishermen from the Bantul coastal region, said the sultan promised to attend the meeting.
"The sultan will give his confirmation in the pisowanan agung," said Rudjito, adding that he had also promised to act according to the people's will.
The Oct. 28, pisowanan agung will not be the first of its kind. On May 10, 2007, more than 20,000 people held a mass gathering at the same square to express their stance on the province's special status by "inaugurating" Sultan Hamengkubuwono X and Paku Alam IX of the Pakualaman principality as Yogyakarta governor and vice governor, respectively, without an election.
The mass gathering was used as a means to convey disappointment over the central government's slow handling of the proposed bill on Yogyakarta's special status, even though it has been proposed since 2002.
When the governor's and vice governor's terms of office were set to expire Oct. 9, there was still no clear sign regarding the bill.
In response thousands of residents staged what they called "the people's assembly" on Oct. 6, during which they again, "inaugurated" the two royals as Yogyakarta's political leaders.
On Oct. 7, in a bid to prevent a vacuum of power in the province, the government decided to extend the tenure of Sultan Hamengkubuwono X and Paku Alam IX for a maximum of three years, hoping it would give enough time to pass the bill.
