Paranormals called into stop eco-disaster in Java

Indonesia is a Muslim country, but the old animist traditions, worshipping mountains, giving offerings to ward of evil spirits, etc. is still practiced. Over the weekend in East Java, paranormals came from all over Indonesia to Sidoarjo, site of the toxic mudflow. Local people have become increasingly angry after mud threatened their housing and livelihoods, blaming the government and the mining company, whose drilling started the mudflow.

Here’s more from the Jakarta Post.

Paranormals called in to end mudflow

Indra Harsaputra, The Jakarta Post, Sidoarjo

After midnight, a site near the center of Sidoarjo’s mudflows remains busy — not with workers trying to stop the constant gray streams, but with mystics attempting to use their supernatural powers to end the disaster for a Rp 100 million (US$10,869) prize.

“Stop filming please, I can’t concentrate on calling the spirit at the source of the mudflow,” Maisaroh, a psychic from the East Java town of Ngawi, said in Javanese to a photographer from a foreign news service and to The Jakarta Post on Saturday.

The photographer looked confused and apologized. Maisaroh started to move away from his camera.

“I could have called the spirit around (Lapindo Brantas Inc.’s) Banjar Panji-1 well, but the spirit left upon learning you would take a picture,” she said. “I’ll try calling it again so I can communicate with it.”

Nearby, another psychic, Hobir, 50, was crouched over busily chanting, then threw sand and stone into ponds built to contain the mudflow.

“The sand and stone were taken … with God’s guidance from the cemetery of Sunan Ampel in Surabaya and of Sunan Giri in Gresik,” he told the Post, referring to two of the nine legendary clerics who spread Islam in Java.

Hobir, who works days on a tobacco farm, said he hoped he had adequate powers to stop the mess from spreading.

“I’ve had a blessing from Gus Dur (former president Abdurrahman Wahid)… If I win, I and my family will live in a house,” he said.

Maisaroh and Hobir are two of 50 psychics taking part in the contest, organized by the Kedung Bendo village head, a wealthy businessman named Hasan.

The competition has attracted psychics from many cities in East Java and from further afield, including Jakarta and Medan. All are trying their luck to stop the hot mud, which has been gushing out of Lapindo’s exploration well since May 29.

The organizer has not collected any registration fees for the contestants nor provided them with accommodation; they only get free water, and are required to bring their own equipment.

“Some of the psychics are scary-looking, but there are also those who are gentle and polite. But none of them have stopped the mud,” said Titus, the contest’s coordinator.

He said the competition had received such a large response that the committee had to limit the number of participants and separate them into several groups. The committee has not set a deadline for contestants to end the flows.

In a screening process, each psychic had to pass a test: turn off a water faucet left on by the organizer with only their supernatural powers.

“With the test, many candidates had to go back home. How can they stop a mudflow if they can’t even shut off a faucet,” Titus said.

The contest is one of the more unusual attempts to end the disaster, which has left more than 9,000 people homeless and more than 1,800 people out of work.

“Many people may not accept that we have supernatural powers,” said Dony Harahap, a psychic from Jakarta.

“But (from my work) it is clear that the mudflow can only be stopped if the government and Lapindo end their sinful acts, which are affecting the people.”