TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Royal family rift will not rock palace, official says
The rift between Yogyakarta Sultan Hamengkubuwono X and his younger half brothers will not affect the palace as an institution, a senior official within the palace says
Change Size
T
he rift between Yogyakarta Sultan Hamengkubuwono X and his younger half brothers will not affect the palace as an institution, a senior official within the palace says.
The head of the palace's Dwarapura office, Kanjeng Raden Tumenggung H Jatiningrat SH, said on Monday that as an institution the palace would not be influenced by the tension among members of the royal family.
'Abdi dalem [royal servants] and the guardians of culture will never be influenced and will remain focused on their respective tasks,' said Jatiningrat, or Romo Tirun as he is affectionately called.
He said abdi dalem were not the servants of the sultan, but were the civil servants of the palace and were dedicated to the institution, not the individual.
He also reminded Hamengkubuwono X of his promises to the late sultan Hamengkubuwono IX, his father, before the former became the palace sultan.
The sultan, according to Tirun, had promised his late father that he would not break the state's rules, would speak out to what was right and wrong, and had promised to have no other ambition than providing wealth to the people.
The sultan recently issued a sabda raja (royal statement), which among other things changed his royal name.
He later issued a dhawuh raja (royal order), giving his eldest daughter Gusti Kanjeng Ratu Pembayun the new title of Gusti Kanjeng Ratu Mangkubumi, a move many saw as making her his heir.
This official stance, according to the sultan's younger brother GBPH Yudhaningrat, was important because the issuance of a sabda raja and dhawuh raja violated the palace's regulations.
They considered it to have eradicated the Hamengkubuwono name from the palace.
'The Hamengkubuwono name has come to an end and has been replaced by Mas Nieko,' Yudhaningrat said on Monday.
He was referring to the name of Gusti Kanjeng Ratu Mangkubumi's husband before he was given the title of Kanjeng Pangeran Haryo Wironegoro.
He said that none of the sultan's younger brothers had met the sultan's invitation to join the sabda raja and dhawuh raja processions.
