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Hamengkubuwono X welcomes ruling allowing daughter to be successor
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Yogyakarta governor and sultan Hamengkubuwono X speaks before hundreds of traders during an event at the Beringharjo Market in Yogyakarta, recently. (The Jakarta Post/Bambang Muryanto)
T
he Yogyakarta kraton (customary sultanate) may see its first sultana take the throne in the future as a recent court ruling has paved the way for Sultan Hamengkubuwono X to name his daughter his successor.
The Constitutional Court (MK) has ruled in favor of a judicial review petition challenging the 2012 law on Yogyakarta’s special status, which scraps the patriarchal domination in the Yogyakarta sultanate.
Hamengkubuwono has welcomed the ruling.
“The state shall treat men and women equally. It is in the Constitution,” the sultan said in Yogyakarta on Thursday.
Hamengkubuwono has called on family members who rejected the idea of having a female sultan to accept the ruling.
“Like it or not, the court’s ruling must be accepted. The law is about [Yogyakarta’s] governor anyway, and does not directly correspond to kraton paugeran [palace regulations],” he said.
Read also: Yogyakarta becoming more intolerant: Study
Under its special status, the sultan is the ex-officio governor of Yogyakarta, while the duke of Pakualam principality is the exofficio deputy governor.
The petition was filed on Sept. 5, 2016, amid internal conflicts within the Yogyakarta royal family.
Hamengkubuwono X, who became sultan in 1989, has five daughters and no sons.
In 2015, he issued a royal proclamation (sabdaraja), naming his eldest daughter, GKR Mangkubumi, as the crown princess. Yogyakartans criticized the move, arguing that only a man could be sultan, in line with traditions of the Javanese Palace. Therefore, Hamengkubuwono’s younger brother should be his successor.
GKR Mangkubumi appreciated the ruling, saying “there should be no more gender discrimination.” (bbs)
