Power, leadership and morality: A reading of Ken Arok's images in Indonesian literature and popular culture

Abstract

The image of the Singasari king Ken Arok persists in the Indonesian imagination through novels, plays, comic books and television serials as well as in authoritative discourses such as history textbooks and political journalism. A king, rebel and hero rolled into one, Ken Arok is a symbol of particular pasts reflecting problems of power, leadership, morality and other political questions in todaya??s Indonesia. The oscillation of opposing values in Ken Aroka??s dual status corresponds to the ordinary peoplea??s predicament in the search for model leadership given the countrya??s history of repeatedly failed political transformations. This thesis will show that the ambiguous location of Ken Aroka??s representations can be better grasped by contextualising the specific reasons and passions behind the different images within particular historical junctures in Indonesian society, economy and politics. The selected texts under discussusion form a sketch of Indonesiaa??s history of political leadership from the various eras since the rise of nationalism in the 1920s through to Suhartoa??s New Order and the current Reformation. In examining the varied cultural representations of this thirteenth century king this thesis hopes to contribute to the debate on statehood and leadership in contemporary Indonesia.