The Indonesian Marhaen People's Union , generally known by its acronym Permai (meaning 'beautiful'), was a social movement in Indonesia

Indonesia

Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

, functioning both as a political party

Political party

A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...

 and an Abangan

Abangan

Abangan refers to the population of Javanese Muslims who practice a more syncretic version of Islam than the more orthodox santri. The term, apparently derived from the Javanese word for red, was first developed by Clifford Geertz but the meaning has since shifted. Abangan are more inclined to...

 mystical association. The organization was founded on December 17, 1945. Permai was led by Mei Kartawinata.

Permai called its doctrine Marhaenism. It beliefs were said to have been revealed to the Permai founder during meditation. The movement claimed to practice 'pure native science', i.e. pre-Hindu

Hinduism

Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...

 and pre-Islamic 'original' Javanese beliefs. This set of ideas was combined with support for Indonesian Pancasila

Pancasila

The Five Precepts constitute the basic Buddhist code of ethics, undertaken by lay followers of the Buddha Gautama in the Theravada as well as in Mahayana traditions. The precepts in both traditions are essentially identical and are commitments to abstain from harming living beings, stealing,...

 nationalism

Nationalism

Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...

. Permai was strongly opposed to Islam

Islam

Islam . The most common are and .   : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

, arguing that it was a foreign religion, in contradiction to Javanese culture and traditions. On the other hand, whilst officially rejecting Hinduism, the movement had incorporated many Hindu practices into its doctrine.

In February 1948 the Tan Malaka

Tan Malaka

Tan Malaka was an Indonesian nationalist activist and communist leader. A staunch critic of both the colonial Dutch East Indies government and the republican Sukarno administration that governed the country after the Indonesian National Revolution, he was also frequently in conflict with the...

-led Revolutionary People's Movement was founded, with Permai as one of its constituents.

The outspoken anti-Islamic profile of Permai brought it into collision with Islamist political forces. In 1954 mass protests were launched against statements made by the Permai leader Mei Kartawinata. According to some accounts, these protests mustered half a million participants. Also, the holding of Permai weddings and funerals provoked clashes with Muslim organizations (Permai was not a recognized religion, and thus these ceremonies had no official stature).

Permai obtained 149,287 votes in the 1955 legislative election

Indonesian legislative election, 1955

Indonesia's first parliamentary general election was held on 29 September 1955. The candidates were seeking to be elected to the 257-seat People's Representative Council, which would replace the existing provisional legislature...

 (0.4% of the national vote), and won a seat in the parliament. After the election, the Permai MP joined the National Progressive Fraction

National Progressive Fraction

The National Progressive Fraction was a parliamentary group in the Indonesian People's Representative Council, formed after the 1955 parliamentary election. The group consisted of ten Members of Parliament, all elected from Java.Members;*Murba Party...

, a body of ten MPs from Java. In the 1955 Constituent Assembly election

Indonesian Constituent Assembly election, 1955

Constitutional Assembly elections were held in Indonesia on 15 December 1955. The Indonesian Provisional Constitution of 1950 had provided for the establishment of a democratically elected Constitutional Assembly to draw up a permanent constitution. In April 1953 the legislature passed the election...

, the party obtained 164,386 votes (0.43%) and two seats in the assembly.