Word: wayang
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Indonesians sometimes view their political power struggles as a kind of wayang, the traditional all-night puppet show in which the villains die at dawn. For four main players in President Suharto's government, dawn finally came last week. All were generals, and two of them-Ali Murtopo and Sudjono Humardani-were members of the hated Aspri, the influential kitchen cabinet. One non-Aspri was General Sutomo Yuwono, head of the internal intelligence agency. The other was General Sumitro, boss of the security force Kopkamtib. Suharto stripped him of the Kopkamtib command and took personal charge of the secret...
...Dutch East Indies sullenly transferred his administrative powers to Army General Suharto, 49, the anti-Communist leader of the "New Order" force of generals that has brought Indonesia back into the real world. Yet Sukarno, like most Indonesians, is a master of the intricate, interminable puppet play called wayang, which can go on for hours without reaching a climax. Last week it was wayang...
...Indonesians love peace as well. In the soft scented night each village resounds with the rhythmic, curiously tuneful gamelan music of bowl-shaped gongs, bamboo flutes, metal keys, two-stringed violins. Fluid-fingered dancers will hold an audience enchanted all the night long; wayang puppet shows, telling the heroic legends of the past, run from sunset to dawn. Yet together with the industriousness and mannered behavior of the Indonesian is the wild agony of the amok, when a man for no clear reason will throw off all restraint and race through his village wielding his razor-sharp parang against everything...