NEWS FROM THE ARCHIPELAGO

Yogyakarta may soon see its first sultana with a recent court ruling allowing Sultan Hamengkubuwono X to name his daughter successor to the throne.

Traditionally, the line of succession is always male but a recent Constitutional Court ruled in favour of a judicial review petition fighting a 2012 Law on Yogyakarta’s special status, which had introduced gender equality to the succession of the Yogyakarta sultanate.

“The state shall treat men and women equally. It is in the Constitution,” the sultan said in Yogyakarta on Thursday, as quoted by The Jakarta Post.

The sultan called on the community, as well as his family members, to support the ruling and accept the outcome.

“Like it or not, the court’s ruling must be accepted. The law is about [ Yogyakarta’s] governor anyway, and does not directly correspond to kraton paugeran [palace regulations],” he said.

The petition had been filed to the Constitutional Court in September 2016 after a family fall- out over the sultan’s decision.

Hamengkubuwono has five daughters and no sons, and issued a royal proclamation in 2015 appointing daughter GKR Mangkubumi crown princess.

The announcement proved unpopular in the Central Java city, with Yogykartans saying only a man should be a sultan as is traditional in the Javanese Palace. Critics say Hamengkubuwono’s brother should be the next in line to the throne.