Sultan Statement Sparks Controversies in Yogyakarta Royalty

TEMPO.CO, Yogyakarta - G.K.R. (princess) Pembayun, the eldest daughter of Yogyakarta Governor Sultan Hamengku Buwono X, said there had been conflicts of interests in the royal family on the sultanate-province’s crown succession.

“Gaps are inevitable, because we come from different mothers,” she told Tempo in Ndalem Wironegaran, her private residence, on Wednesday, March 25, 2015.

Earlier, GBPH (prince) Prabukusumo, a stepbrother of the sultan, voiced rejection against the sultan’s sabdatama (royal statement) that there should be no more talks on the throne’s successors among royalties, and that his successor could be either female or male.

Prabukusumo claimed the statement was against the paugeran (traditional rules) of the Yogyakarta Kingdom, which stipulated that the sultan must be a male, as opposed to a female. “If we are told to keep silent, that’s impossible. [The sultan] should be reminded of the paugeran,” he said on March 9, 2015.

Princess Pembayun, meanwhile, said Keraton (kingdom) Yogyakarta was not a kingdom that was against changes. She took for example that before his father’s ascension to the crown, women were not allowed many activities in the palace—including dancing, which was deemed as taboo before her father was made sultan. “[The Keraton] is adaptable to changes,” she said.

The princess went on that his father had also abandoned the royal tradition of polygamy, which the sultan viewed as prompting excessive hullabaloos  among royalties—be it between those from the same or different mothers.

“Even between those from the same mother, there are pros and cons,” said Pembayun, whose grandfather, the late Sultan Hamengku Buwono IX, had multiple wives. 

ANANG ZAKARIA