Until today, Kasultanan Yogyakarta was the kingdom (Kasultanan) that was popular with its existence to keeping culture, mores, and traditions although they already joined with the government of Indonesia. However, with the internal conflict emerged within the family of Kasultanan Yogyakarta, it encouraged people to be involved in the conflict because people’s concern on questioning the existence of Kasultanan Yogyakarta. Therefore, it was a given that Kasultanan Yogyakarta should keep its existence whether it was in the internal party of the kingdom or in front of people of Yogyakarta. 

That was the red thread on the limited discussion that was held by the Public Relation and Protocol Bureau of UMY regarding the pro and contra of the King’s Word (Sabda Raja) of Keraton Yogyakarta. Tunjung Sulaksono, S.IP, M.Si as the main keynote speaker in the discussion on Friday (05/08) in IP Program Study of UMY stated that since a long time ago, every Kasultanan always had the internal conflicts regarding the succession or change of power. The difference was that the past conflicts in Kasultanan always related to bloodshed and bloody quarrel, then for today’s conflict it did not work like that anymore. “Because there are other ways they could go through that are more humane and civilized. In this case, Kasultanan Yogyakarta should be able to solve the conflict in a more humane and civilized way. The thing that happened in the past should be prevented from happening in today’s world merely due to the unsolved succession problem,” he explained.

In the aspect of governance structure, continued the expert of public administration of UMY, the conflict emerged was related to the succession within Keraton Yogyakarta indirectly also impacted on the people of Yogyakarta. This was caused by the fact that Keraton Yogyakarta was already integrated with the Local Government (Pemerintah Daerah), therefore, whatever things related to Keraton Yogyakarta would also be related with the public interest of Yogyakarta. “Kasultanan Yogyakarta is already integrated with the local government. The existence of UUK (Undang-Undang Keistimewaan) also affirmed that Sultan Yogyakarta also played a role as the Governor of Yogyakarta. And recently, Sultan issued King’s Word (Sabda Raja) that is related to the succession (power change). Because it is related to the succession, it will also affect the people, and it also involves the people, both psychologically or other interests, whether they want it or not. Because this is also related to who will rule Yogyakarta after Sultan,” he explained further.

Tunjung also saw that the existence of King’s Word also played as a smooth path for succession by giving Mangkubumi title to his eldest daughter. He thought this also proved that the current Sultan wanted to make GKR Pembayun as the crown princess. Another problem emerged that if GKR Pembayun was also elected as the Governor of Yogyakarta. The fact in the Peraturan Daerah Istimewa (Perdais) of Yogyakarta, it was stated that the Governor of Yogyakarta should be male. “On the other hand, there are Sultan’s brothers who believe that they have the rights for the throne. It is a different case of Sultan does not have brothers; therefore, this is the trigger of conflict within the family of Kasultanan Yogyakarta, which also involved the people of Yogyakarta. Because this is also not a gender-sensitive case or whatnot, this is more to the problem of cultures, traditions, and mores,” he said.

 Therefore, the lecturer of Public Administration of UMY also hoped and suggested that the conflict should be solved hastily by Kraton Yogyakarta party. Moreover, Tunjung also hoped that Peugeran that was still considered as internal matter of Kraton should be delivered openly to the people of Yogyakarta. Because as of today, he believed that the people of Yogyakarta were still confused as to how the real succession system within Kasultanan Yogyakarta was.

“What happened today is of course a pity. Because Kraton Yogyakarta, however they are, is the role model for people. Sultan, as an individual or as the main character of Kasultanan Yogyakarta is still highly respected by the people of Yogyakarta. But with this kind of conflict, I believe this will affect the people’s trust at Sultan and Kraton Yogyakarta. People will respect them less and they will lose their role model if this conflict remains intact. Therefore, we hope that the conflict will have to be soon solved by Kraton,” he concluded. (bhpumy) (mac)