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Throwing shade, Javanese style: Man mocks Amien Rais with long walk and leather puppet
Lilik started walking from Yogyakarta’s landmark Tugu Pal Putih on July 22 and arrived in Jakarta on Aug. 7
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Lilik, who started walking from Yogyakarta’s landmark Tugu Pal Putih on July 22, arrived in Jakarta on Aug. 7 and is now staying at a fellow activist’s house in Cibubur, East Jakarta. (JP/Tarko Sudiarno)
J
avanese symbolism was once again used on the political stage. This time, a 28-year-old sculpture artist from Blora, Central Java, Lilik Yuliantoro, walked more than 500 kilometers from Yogyakarta to Jakarta to hand over a leather puppet of Javanese folklore character Sengkuni to President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo.
Lilik, who started walking from Yogyakarta’s landmark Tugu Pal Putih on July 22, arrived in Jakarta on Aug. 7 and is now staying at a fellow activist’s house in Cibubur, East Jakarta.
A Jokowi supporter, he said the walk aimed to mock senior politician Amien Rais, a vocal critic of the President who reportedly made a nazar (sacred vow) that he would walk from Yogyakarta to Jakarta if Jokowi won the 2019 presidential election. When Jokowi won, Amien never made the walk.
“As a fellow Javanese person, I feel humiliated by Amien’s attitude, which is becoming more and more like Sengkuni’s,” Lilik told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.
Sengkuni is an antagonist in the Mahabharata epic.
“In the epic, Sengkuni is a senior politician and he is defeated by Bima, a younger candidate,” Lilik said proudly.
Heddy Shri Ahimsa Putra, an anthropologist at Gadjah Mada University, said Lilik displayed a typical Javanese method of a mocking political opponent.
