Noto of Java Iii: The End of Day

By Jono Hardjowirogo

One day, the regent of a district in Central Java noticed that some of the religious schools in his area have become less tolerant of other more moderate Muslim populace, which are more common in Indonesia. Upon closer examination, the regent discovered that the Uztads (teachers) are Wahabis from Saudi Arabia who have somehow gained control of those schools. It seems that the ultraconservative Wahabis are planning to change the way the people practice their religion by force if necessary. The regent, together with Noto, who is the crown prince of the kingdom as well as the military commander of the region, decided to quietly act to rid these harmful foreign influences. To make sure that they have thoroughly dealt with the problem, the regent decided afterward to send one of his disciples to Saudi Arabia to rid those who sent the Uztads to Java.

Reality and spiritual existence for some people in Java often coexist. As the future king of Mataram, it seems that Notos life and progress have been closely monitored by Nyai Roro Kidul (the goddess of the Southern Ocean). Interestingly, Notos attempt to have a son has attracted the karmas of five of his elder advisorsnone of them has a sonas well as the Nyai. When his son was born, a lightning bolt shattered the window of the hospital room. Miraculously, the five elder advisors happened to be there to protect the mother and the baby from harm. Noto felt certain that the Nyai had sensed the birth of his son and caused the lightning to strike as a warning. Again, when Noto was celebrating his troops victory during an annual war game, the Nyai unleashed a tsunami that flooded the area, thus killing several soldiers as well as countless numbers of large and smaller animals. Furious with what the Nyai had done, Noto decided to call her out and confront her. After a long conversation with the Nyai, Noto was able to convince the Nyai that she is not as almighty as she thinks.

As an honest leader, Notos anticorruption stands created a crisis that threatens the stability of the government. With his brother, Dharmawan, and with the help of a computer hacker, they decided to manipulate evidences to convict those they believed are guilty. One of the corrupt members of the parliament who was eventually implicated turned out to have been influenced by a foreign power, a serious crime that made him a target of a military tribunal. The tribunal convicted him to death. However, when he tried to make a deal with the police by revealing who was responsible for the hotel bombing that killed many people several years earlier, he was killed in his jail cell. All his colleagues point the Muslim Fundamentalist group as being responsible for his killing because he was about to implicate them for the bombing. By then, the public has had enough of the antics of the Muslim Fundamentalist group and decided to barricade them inside their own headquarters and then set the place ablaze.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Apr 25, 2018
• ISBN: 9781984521460

Jono Hardjowirogo

A graduate of Long Island University and the University of California at Los Angeles, Jono Hardjowirogo had worked for Hayden Books, Bantam Books, Simon & Schuster, Henry Holt, and Berlitz International. He then spent twelve years with the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) as its publisher of professional peer-reviewed journals. He was actively involved in the Association of American Publishers, for which he chaired its prestigious Journals Boot Camp for new editors in Montreal in 2001 and in Philadelphia in 2002. In 2010, Jono was honored by Cambridge Who’s Who, which named him Professional of the Year of the Publishing Industry. In the same year, he also received a Certificate of Recognition for inclusion into the Elite American Executive.

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Copyright © 2018 by Jono Hardjowirogo.

Library of Congress Control Number:      2018904369

ISBN:                  Hardcover                        978-1-9845-2144-6

                            Softcover                           978-1-9845-2145-3

                            eBook                                978-1-9845-2146-0

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 04/19/2018

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DEDICATION

To The Memory of My Loving Sister

SRI LESTARI

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1 – Raising A New Division

2 – Love At First Sight

3 – Going Undercover

4 – Love In Bloom

5 – Low-Cost R&D

6 – The Five Karmas

7 – Among Friends

8 – Death Far From Home

9 – Conspiracy

10 – Checkmate

11 – The Finale

12 –Mana From Heaven

13 – The War Game

14 – Meeting The Goddess

15 – Genesis

16 –The Circle Of Friends

17 – Playing Politics

18 – The Bounty

19 – The Descend To Chaos

20 – Conflict Resolution

21 – Trial And Errors

22 – The Changes

23 – Political Solution

24 – Future Imperfect

Glossaries

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Writing is such a lonely profession. The author often spent hours spinning the storyline in his head before committing the storyline to any blank screen page. Even after committing them to print more than once the author had been forced to erase them when a new storyline promises a better resolution of a hang-up faced in the earlier version.

The author likes to thank those who have directly or indirectly affect the process of creation of this book.

Rina Aswati, my better half, encouraged me to continue writing more as a way to keep my mental acuity from deteriorating in time of retirement.

Ariane and Damon, my children, continued to put up with my crazy schedules.

Two persons who are closed to me and have influenced me considerably in my life passed away during the writing of this book. My oldest sister Sri Lestari and Tante Moeke Mashoed left us and in the process leaving definite void that can never be replaced.

INTRODUCTION

This book is actually the third in my NOTO of JAVA series. In my earlier books: NOTO of JAVA – A Tale of Love, Struggle, and Ascension in a Land of Ambiguity and NOTO of JAVA II – The Rebirth, there were too many plots which needed to be resolved. The encouragements I received from many people who read the first two books made me realized that the story line which I had developed allowed me to develop the story further. Starting with those excess materials from the first two books I quickly moved into an uncharted territory. Some scenarios in this book may mimic actual current political situation in Indonesia, though they are not based on any actual scenario.

For those not familiar with the history of Java, the original Muslim kingdom of Mataram which peaked with Sultan Agung during the early part of the 17th Century eventually degenerated because of sibling rivalries and petty jealousies; brothers pitted against brothers, uncles against nephews, to gain control of a kingdom which was rapidly weakening and quickly fell under the control of the colonial Dutch rule. It eventually split into two, then three, then four. Today the remnants of those four kingdoms are still in evidence: the Kasunanan Solo, Kasultanan Jogya, Pura Mangkunegaran, and Pura Paku Alam. Each descendant house to the day still claims legitimacy as the rightful heir to that long-ago kingdom, though no one pay too much attention to them, except for those who are involved.

No book on Java will be complete without touching upon the influence of the venerable Goddess of the Southern Ocean (Nyai Roro Kidul). In this book she plays an important and pivotal role. The venerable Goddess of the Southern Ocean to date still plays an important role among most Javanese who are living in the southern coast of Java. A visit to any popular resort along the southern coast of Java will confirm this. There are always memorials which dotted the ledges and offerings flowers and foods strewn along the desolate beaches.

The author believes that this is the first time that the venerable Goddess of the Southern Ocean is forced to make a new deal for the betterment of humanity. In the past all of the deals were made with kings and princes simply for his own personal gain.

Another aspect of the Javanese culture is a Javanese acceptance of all religions and beliefs that came before. Thus a Javanese Muslim to these days still enjoys a wayang performance even though the storyline is steeped in Hinduism. This broadmindedness is often misunderstood by others as failing. To Muslims from other tribes in Indonesia, the Javanese belief in Islam is often questioned.

1 – RAISING A NEW DIVISION

As commander of the new Senopati Division, Major General Notoadijoyo is a busy man. His new command is still not yet at full strength, and won’t be for another year. However, if you ask anyone who saw his troops marching with the other divisions during the last Indonesian Armed Forces Day parade on October 5th on the parade ground in Senayan, Jakarta, you wouldn’t know that it is still not at full strength. His troops were as polished as the others.

When he was asked where his special combat ready unit is, Noto simply told the reporter, All of my units are combat ready!

Since Noto has a reputation for accomplishing difficult or near impossible tasks, his comment wasn’t taken lightly by everyone. They like imagining an entire division of combat ready force, rather than simply a battalion of it per division.

Actually Noto’s concept of an entire division of combat ready force comes from his desire of not having a frontline soldiers and rear echelon soldiers. There is no support group, everyone supports each other and everyone is thus combat ready. He likes to see his soldiers to retire and leave the army by the time they are at most thirty years old. The army, he feels, is a place for the young and the fit. To achieve this he constantly reminds his troops that they should think about what else to do after they leave the army.

As the youngest general in the Indonesian army at the age of thirty-one, he is physically fit. In the morning he would jog around the military base and often leave the base to jog through the open fields and rice paddies which surround the base. After several days of jogging alone, he began to attract followers; some of his soldiers began to follow him on his daily routine of doing five kilometers run every morning. Before long the train of soldiers with Noto as the locomotive would go through the quiet village without anyone uttering any words but moving at a fast clip. After awhile, the children of the village come to expect them to go through their rural road every morning. They cheer them on as they pass by. It is a sight to behold.

Here comes the train; here comes the train! the children of the village would shout when they see the train of runners approaching.

Most of his soldiers are children of poor farmers. They joined the army because it is not possible for them to remain at home as the plot of land their fathers are farming cannot support additional mouth to feed. Their only option is to leave home once they finished junior high school, or high school, at most, for some fortunate few. Most farmers can’t afford to send their children for further education. Some do manage to go to high school in larger town with the help of relatives who had escaped farming and are now city dwelers, but often they ended up dropping out for lack of funds and other pressures. Taking on menial jobs become their only option and some decided to join the army as jobs, menial or not, are hard to come by.

Most good jobs are always advertised for those with at least high school diplomas, which most of these farm boys don’t have. As the result, their lives are often condemned to the lowest rung of economy in the society; something that Noto is well aware of and wants desperately to change.

Even though he is now a royalty; a crown prince, even; his life had not always been like that. After losing both his parents when when his house was set ablaze during the Indonesia’s turmoil year of 1965; Noto was sent to live with a distant relative as gardener. Eventually, many years later, during one of his leaves from the army, he discovered who his parents really were.

Miraculously, his uncle, the current Sultan of Jogya, had been told of his return by the Court Scribe who had a premonition some ten months before Noto himself was even aware of whom he was. Since his uncle, His Majesty the Sultan of Jogya, doesn’t have a male heir, he decided to make Noto the Crown Prince who will succeed him upon his death. Since Noto’s father would have been the Sultan, his brother, the current Sultan simply looked at it as restoring the line of succession; a decision which proved to be very popular with the people of Jogyakarta.

As their commander, his sympathy for those farm boys wants to improve their lot even after they are in the army. The first thing he did as Commander of the Senopati Division was to provide a way for those farm boys to get their high school diplomas. He provided tutoring all year round for them to prepare to take the dreaded national high school exam. He knows that once they have these diplomas in their possessions, they will be better-equipped to do other types of works besides being in the army. Most of all, he wants them to feel worthy. He wants them to leave the army while still young enough to start another career.

***

Transmigration is one of those programs that the government of Indonesia believes will solve its population distribution’s problem. In this program, the people from heavily populated island like Java are moved to other islands. Many farmers from Java ended up in Sumatra, Borneo, and even the far off Irian Jaya to start anew at those locations. Noto believes that he will help promote this program by preparing his soldiers for that possibility; the possibility of settling down at those faraway places. He believes that the government often sent people to those other islands totally unprepared. They don’t know what to expect and they often ended up returning to their villages totally dispirited, broken men. The euphoria of settling in a new place quickly replaced by despair upon discovering how much harder living in the new settlement truly is.

They failed because they are basically ill prepared to deal with the reality of living at those destinations. He believes that by preparing them for transmigration, they will be better transmigrants.

Noto provides them with courses in botany, agriculture, as well as some basic courses in sales and marketing. This last points, sales and marketing, are important, as he had heard horror stories of farmers successfully producing rice and corn on those other islands only to find that there was no way to sell them or even bring them to market; as there are no marketplace to speak of!

He sought help to finance this project from some of the major businesses in Jogya and Solo; and because of his position as Crown Prince of both kingdoms, he was able to get enough to start his project. When he told General Suprapto, the Army Chief-of-Staff, the logic behind his desire to help his soldiers, the general thought that it was an excellent idea and he told Noto that he will try to do something to help move this project along, which he also thinks is good for the morale of the soldiers.

The help from General Suprapto turned out to be a referral to Dr. Rivai Ali, the Minister of Man Power and Transmigration, himself. One day, Dr. Rivai Ali showed up at the Senopati HQ asking to see Noto while he happened to be in Jogya in business.

Dr. Ali, very nice to meet you," said Noto greeting his honored guest.

General Suprapto said you are doing something that I should be doing. I am here to learn more about this!

Noto started telling the Minister for Man Power and Transmigration everything he has been doing in his new division to prepare his soldiers for transmigration once they are finished with their tenure in the army.

Most soldiers in the Indonesian Army are what we call lifers! They tend to stay in the army for the rest of their lives! said the Minister for Man Power and Transmigration.

I know, and I am trying to change that. I think that once they are over thirty years old, they are already over the hill as far as their combat readiness is concerned! explained Noto.

I am in total agreement with you there. We are sending many old farmers in our transmigrations program and they are too old to adapt to their new environment. What you are proposing is actually what we should be doing. I guess General Suprapto is correct on this. You are doing what we should have been doing all along; preparing those people for transmigration while they are still young enough to adapt to their new environment. Frankly, our success rate is barely fifty percent. Maybe by incorporating your program we may be able to increase that substantially! said Dr. Rivai Ali.

So, in that case, Dr. Ali, would your department be willing to fund this project? asked Noto directly.

I think it’s an excellent program, so why not? In addition, since all of those people are ex-army, they may be able to deal with any troubles we often experienced in some of those other islands! answered Dr. Rivai Ali sincerely.

To make his soldiers even better farmers in the future, Noto even arranged for some of the land that are parts of the Madukismo sugar plantation which was owned wholly by the His Majesty the Sultan of Jogya for some of his soldiers to practice on. They planted corn, soybeans, and many different types of vegetables. His military division arranged to buy everything his soldiers produced, thus making it a worthwhile enterprise. Before long this farming initiative becomes very popular with his soldiers as away for making additional money they can send home to their families.

Dr. Rivai Ali brought this experiment to the attention of all the other military divisions commanders, however, only one other division was willing to engage in the same experiment that Noto and his new Senopati Division is doing.

Too much trouble! was the response that Dr. Rivai Ali got from most of the other Divisional Commanders. Most of them could care less about the aspirations of their soldiers, they don’t seem to be at all symphatetic to their plights.

These extra-curricular activities, however, don’t take away from the main function of being in the army; everyone in Noto’s Senopati Division is in top shape. Physically they are in top shape, but more importantly, mentally they are also in excellent shape because they are happy. Noto always feels that a happy group is a well-functioning group. While in most army divisions, physical aspects are always emphasized above all else, in the new Senopati Division, thirty percent of the time are spent in classroom, where tactics and new ways of doing things are introduced.

His soldiers especially enjoy these classroom sessions where they can talk about how to handle different scenarios. Since Jogya and Solo are their hubs, everyone are required to know both cities well. They have to know every landmark in both cities. They have to know traffic patterns. They have to know the fastest way to go from one landmark to another. For example, if Solo was occupied by an enemy force, how do you drive them out so as not to cause too much damage to the city? Which direction should you drive them out? All of these scenarios that they discussed in their classes become constant topic of discussion outside the classroom. His soldiers are fast becoming thinking soldiers, soldiers who are resourceful and dependable. He strongly feels that a well-informed group is the best group. So he makes sure that all of his commanders are well informed of everything that’s going on within the Division.

***

The structure of his Division is still evolving. He is supposed to have three military resort commands (KOREMs) under him; each with a colonel heading it. A KOREM is usually situated around a large metropolitan area, which in this case means Solo, Jogya, and Magelang. So far, only one KOREM commander is identified, that is Colonel Hartanto who is heading KOREM Solo. Colonel Hartanto is already in his fifties. He told Noto that this will probably be his last command before his retirement. General Suprapto told Noto that Colonel Hartanto used to be the Golden Boy of KOPASSUS, the Indonesian Army special force group. During a battle in East Timor, he was severely wounded; he spent almost two years in recuperation and rehabilitation; after that things haven’t been the same. He became less aggressive and no longer as bold as he once was. His upward movement was also stalled from that point on. He finally was promoted to the rank of colonel when he was given the post of command of KOREM Solo; the post which he believes is his last posting before retirement.

When Noto was elevated to head up the new Senopati Division, the Army HQ appointed Colonel Abdul Hamzah to take over his old KOREM Jogya. This new commander is someone who is in his thirties; an Acehnese by birth, he is someone who is hard to get along. All the people who used to report to Noto and had been buoyed Noto’s easy going style all of a sudden are faced with someone who is Noto’s complete opposite. Luckily many of them were able to move with Noto to the Senopati Division Headquarter.

The third KOREM is not really a KOREM, per say. For this Noto had in mind of evolving his dream of creating an Army R&D Center where many advanced weapon systems will be created. Some of those new weapons are what he called smart weapons, something that soldiers of the future will be required to have.

For this position, he has in mind his Chief-of-Staff, Lieutenant Colonel Simbolon. He is someone who is not only dedicated, smart, and also very well organized. He put in his request for Lieutenant Colonel Simbolon’s promotion as well as his appointment to head up the Army R&D Center to General Suprapto, who, along with President Sujatmoko, immediately approved them.

So, the next day, when Lieutenant Colonel Simbolon came in to give him his appointment for the day, he told him of his promotion as well as appointment to head up the new Army R&D Center in Magelang, at the old combat ready barrack of the Diponegoro Division which had been moved to Pekalongan. Colonel Simbolon was shocked, as he had no clue that he was going to be promoted again so soon as well as be given a new position of command. He had feared that he was going to be posted to some other remote location. His wife, who is Javanese, was especially thankful that his posting allowed her to continue caring for her elderly parents who live just outside of Jogya.

Thank you, general, sir, I hope I will not be an embarrassment to you in the future! he said as Noto hugged him to congratulate.

As an R&D Center, even though it has the status of a KOREM, Colonel Simbolon doesn’t command any ground outside his R&D Complex in Magelang. Though Magelang is probably large enough to deserve a KOREM of its own, it is also where the Military Academy is located. It is thus a special military territory headed by a superintendent who holds the rank of either a brigadier general or major general, thus a KOREM headed by a mere colonel is not going to be able to function properly in this city. Colonel Simbolon’s posting as Director of the Senopati Division’s R&D Unit did draw some attention from the Superintendent of the Military Academy who asked for a briefing, as it is something quite different from all the other KOREMs in the Indonesian Army. Noto and Colonel Simbolon came to the office of the Military Academy’s Superintendent to brief him what they hoped to achieve with its Senopati Division’s R&D Unit.

Under KOREM Jogya and Solo, there are seventeen Military District Commands (KODIMs) each headed by someone with a rank of major. This group usually is situated around a smaller town. Under each KODIM there are even smaller units called KORAMIL from around a hamlet, and even under that one, there are units called BABINSA.

Once a week, Noto would meet with his KOREM commanders Colonel Hartanto and Colonel Hamzah to discuss normal procedural matters. During this short meeting Colonel Hamzah usually is all business and he seldom says anything at all. However, during the first monthly general meeting involving the KOREM commanders as well as the KODIM commanders, he started raising questions which surprised everyone. Truthfully, Noto had been encouraging all his commanders to say anything in their mind as a way of sharing information. After all, he believes that information is the new commodity, so the more you share the better it is.

Colonel Hamzah asked Noto, General, can you tell us what really happened in Aceh? I mean the way they say you captured the famous Teuku Musa Puteh and his entire troop without losing anyone under your command; I personally didn’t find the entire story believable?

Yes, yes, we would like to hear that too, general, shouted many of the KODIM commanders supporting Colonel Hamzah’s desire for an explanation. Some of them had never heard of their commander’s military exploits; though most had heard that Noto graduated first in his class at the military academy.

Noto at first was hesitant to recount his story, but he knows that this time he couldn’t just ignore the challenge that Colonel Hamzah had just issued. So he agreed to recount what happened when he personally captured Teuku Musa Puteh, the notorious Acehnese rebel leader.

It was my first day in Aceh. I was joining my unit, the Army Third Transport and Logistic Unit! After searching for it all day, I finally found it camped at the outskirt of Lhokseumawe!

Excuse, me, general; did you say the Army Third Transport and Logistic unit? Isn’t that a simple transport unit? asked one of the KODIM commanders. We heard that you graduated first in your class, but why did you join that group? We all thought that you were in the KOPASSUS, the Special Forces!

No, there were already too many hot heads in the Special Forces already! They certainly didn’t need another one! answered Noto to the chuckles of some of the attendees who must have been able to relate to what he was saying.

He proceeded to tell them how he first captured the Teuku by shooting three of his bodyguards in the heads and how he then set a trap to capture the Teuku’s entire force which was trying to rescue him that very same night.

How did you know that your trap was going to work? asked one of the fascinated KODIM commanders.

"Well, frankly I didn’t know for certain; it was a desperation move on my part since I discovered that only fifty of my men were even rated to use weapons while the other three-hundred or so were simply drivers and mechanics attached to the army. I decided to line up all the trucks as a funnel with a wide mouth and becoming smaller as you enter. At the end of the funnel we created thee concentric circles with an empty area in the center big enough to accommodate two hundred people. Since it was a dark, moonless night, I was hoping that they wouldn’t be able to see clearly. So when night came, we turned out all the lights and moved the four prisoners we already had to one of the trucks. My order to the guards was, if my trap failed, "Shoot the prisoners! Because I don’t intend to let him lose even if we failed!" So we waited for several hours.

Finally after nine o’clock or so we started hearing them coming. Even from afar we can hear their shouts, Allah u Akbar over and over. I knew that the shout was designed to scare their enemies. I told my men to plug their ears if they had too to overcome their fears. Luckily the entire rebel force rushed into the mouth of the funnel that I had created and eventually found them in the stomach part of my Lobster Claw trap. We fired several volley shots over their heads and then I told them that if they don’t drop their weapons, we will slaughter every single one of them. Luckily they all complied and immediately dropped their weapons. Had they fought back, this story may have a different ending!"

Everyone was mesmerized by what Noto had just told them, except for Colonel Hamzah, who immediately said, "I find it hard to believe that that truly happened. I heard from several Acehnese colleagues of mine that the General Staff created this story simply to create you as a hero. Following that didn’t they promoted you three ranks up to a major? Imagine becoming a major without first becoming a first lieutenant and captain, such a travesty to the esprit de corps!"

Everyone in the room was shocked by this allegation and accusation. One of the KODIM commanders stood up and said, I was in Aceh when this happened. When we heard that someone with the Army Third Supply and Transport Group had captured Teuku Musa Puteh we were skeptical at first; but one of the new Second Lieutenant in my group told us that if it was Second Lieutenant Notoadijoyo then it must be true, since according to him you never lost in any maneuver while at the academy. Still, general, we would like to hear your explanation about your unusual three-ranks up promotion!

Noto looked around the room and he thought he recognized several of the commanders as his fellow classmates from his days at the academy. He smiled at them and then said, Well, the Chief-of-Staff of the Army flew in several days after this entire episode happened to give me a medal for what I did and told me that he wanted me to continue to command the Army Third Supply and Transport Group. However, since it was a battalion, my rank was raised to major since that’s the lowest rank which may command a battalion in the army. He told me that he had looked long and hard to find someone to take over that command but was not able to find anyone willing to head a ragtag battalion of drivers and mechanics. They all told him that you must be crazy to want to head up a battalion like that! explained Noto calmly even after Colonel Hamzah’s brutal accusation

That makes a lot of sense, said a KODIM commander.

Very convenient story, general; then, what happened with your recent promotion from colonel to major general, less than six months after you first became a colonel when they decided to form the new Senopati Division? Once again you skipped the rank of brigadier general, while there are tens of brigadier generals out there waiting for their chances to command a division! once again asked Colonel Hamzah belligerently as if asking for a fight.

I am afraid you’ll have to ask the general staff for that explanation, colonel. I don’t think I can answer your question. In fact I asked the same question to General Suprapto when they appointed me commander of the Senopati Division. The only thing I can think of is because this new division was created as the division for the new Province of New Mataram.

I think this is silly for us to question our commander in this manner, finally Colonel Hartanto stood up to address the group. "Let me tell you what I had found out about our commander, here. Forget about what