ABSTRACT
This chapter argues the millennial promise of the Just King is closely tied to local expectations of democracy. It highlights the parallels and overlaps between the millennial prophecies of the Just King that ripple through both North Malukan and Indonesian history, on the one hand, and the millenarianism of democracy itself, on the other. The prophet, Hajjah Nur, claimed to have been given divine inspiration from the spirits on the island of Halmahera to identify the real Sultan of Jailolo. In addition, so rumour had it, the sultanate of Ternate would receive a fixed percentage of the Regional Budget (APBD) from the district of West Halmahera, if the arrangement with the PD was successful. The legitimacy of Abdullah Sjah as the ruling Sultan of Jailolo and of Mudaffar Sjah as Sultan of Ternate rested on similar claims. Democracy in North Maluku is not a new and Western imposition, but an indigenous and long-lost system of governance.
