Communist cultural calamity has gone, but ...<\/p>\n
By T. Sima Gunawan<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Little Taufiq Ismail had a big dream of becoming
\na great writer, but he enrolled in the veterinary and farming
\ndepartment at the University of Indonesia because he realized it
\nwas hard to earn a living as an author.<\/p>\n
\"I was just being realistic. I knew the life of a writer was
\ndifficult. I needed another profession to support my life,\"
\nTaufiq, who launched his new book Prahara Budaya (Cultural
\nCalamity) last weekend, told The Jakarta Post.<\/p>\n
But why veterinarian science instead of medicine or
\nengineering?<\/p>\n
Taufiq, winner of the Southeast Writer's Award 1994, smiled
\nand began his story.<\/p>\n
It started when he won an international scholarship from the
\nAmerican Field Service to study in the United States for a year.<\/p>\n
He went to Whitefish Bay High School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
\nDuring school holidays he worked part-time on a farm beside Lake
\nMichigan. It was a 100-hectare mixed farm with between 50 and 100
\ncows and 10,000 chickens. The owner lived in a three-story house
\nin the middle of the farm.<\/p>\n
\"All the walls of the third floor were glass. I imagined how
\ncool it would be if I was there writing my poems,\" he recalled.<\/p>\n
Taufiq therefore studied to veterinarian at a school now run
\nby the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB), and got his degree
\nin 1963.<\/p>\n
He had written poems since high school and continued after he
\nbecame an assistant professor. In 1964 he was scheduled to
\ncontinue his studies in the United States but never made it.
\nThree days before he was supposed to leave, the rector decided
\nthat Taufiq couldn't go.<\/p>\n
Then, in another blow, Taufiq was fired from IPB.<\/p>\n
It was all because he had signed a document called Manifestasi
\nKebudayaan (Cultural Manifestation), along with 19 other writers,
\nincluding H.B. Jassin, Trisno Sumardjo, Wiratmo Soekito, Bur
\nRasuanto, Goenawan Mohamad and Soe Hok Djien (Arief Budiman).<\/p>\n
Manifestasi Kebudayaan, shortened to manikebu, was signed on
\nAug. 17, 1963 to protest the use of arts and culture as a tool of
\ncommunism.<\/p>\n
According to Taufiq, there were three important elements of
\nmanikebu: the objection to the policy on \"politics as commander\",
\nthe objection to the \"aim-justifies-the-means\" policy and the
\nreconfirmation of Pancasila as the state ideology.<\/p>\n
\"We strongly objected to politics as the leader, which ruled
\nthat works of arts must reflect the politics of the party (the
\nnow-banned Indonesian Communist Party, PKI),\" Taufiq said.<\/p>\n
The manikebu movement confronted the People's Cultural
\nInstitution (Lekra), which was set up by the PKI on Aug. 17,
\n1950. Pro-communist writers believed that the arts should be a
\npolitical tool and condemned the nationalist writers.<\/p>\n
Eight months after its establishment, manikebu was declared
\nillegal by President Sukarno, who was under the strong influence
\nfrom the left wing.<\/p>\n
The conflict between the nationalists and Lekra activists is
\ndepicted in Taufiq's book, Prahara Budaya. It is a collection of
\ndocuments, poems and publications which portray the \"ideology
\nwar\" of Indonesian writers between 1959 and 1965. The book was
\ncompiled along with D.S. Moelijanto, an expert in documenting
\nliterature.<\/p>\n
When communist party wielded power in the 1960s, nationalist
\nwriters lived in a nightmare.<\/p>\n
\"It was very, very scary,\" Taufiq recalled.<\/p>\n
He said that the economy was terrible as well. There was a
\nlack of staples and inflation reached 1,000 percent.<\/p>\n
\"You couldn't find rice or soap. When they arrived, you had to
\nqueue and bought them using coupons to prevent any accumulation
\nof the goods,\" Taufiq said.<\/p>\n
At the same time, a nation-wide plague of wereng (rice mites)
\nand rats attacked thousands of hectares of rice paddys, Taufiq
\nrelated. The people hunted rats once a week for the next two
\nyears.<\/p>\n
\"Cats sold for Rp 3,000 each, which was equivalent to a piece
\nof medium quality Pekalongan batik,\" Taufiq, who sold batik after
\nhe lost his job at the university, said.<\/p>\n
Conditions were so terrible that suggestions that people eat
\nrats floated around, he added.<\/p>\n
\"This really happened, but the young Indonesian's don't know
\nabout the facts because it isn't in books,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Taufiq said he found it hard to find the necessary documents
\nfor Prahara Budaya, because some of them had been destroyed. He
\nsaid books had been burnt on a large scale three times in the
\n1960s. Included in the burnings were books that had been
\nconfiscated from the Unites States Information Service's
\nlibraries.<\/p>\n
\"They also burned the recordings of Koes Bersaudara, who were
\nsaid to be similar to the Beatles,\" Taufiq said without
\nidentifying who destroyed them.<\/p>\n
He had to go to the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in
\nSingapore to get the needed materials for Prahara Budaya.<\/p>\n
\"Never before has a book discussing the conflicts of ideology
\nbetween Lekra and non-Lekra been written here,\" he asserted.<\/p>\n
A book about the growth and downfall of Lekra was published in
\nMalaysia in 1972. An Australian author touched on the issue in a
\nbook published in 1986, and two years later Goenawan Mohamad
\nwrote a long essay on Manifestasi Kebudayaan, but none of them
\nthoroughly discuss the problem, Taufiq said.<\/p>\n
Taufiq said that Prahara Budaya was published to give the
\npublic a clear picture about what really happened to arts and
\nculture, and \"not to take any revenge against Lekra.\"<\/p>\n
Taufiq said he didn't have a grudge against Lekra, adding that
\nhe liked the works of Sitor Situmorang and Pramoedya Ananta Toer,
\ntwo former Lekra activists.<\/p>\n
Lekra was dissolved in 1965, following the aborted PKI's coup
\nd'etate. The New Order government then banned books produced by
\nits writers.<\/p>\n
The government also exonerate those involved in manikebu.
\nTaufiq was invited to return to his almamater, but refused
\nbecause there was a more interesting job on offer.<\/p>\n
Jakarta Governor Ali Sadikin opened the Taman Ismail Marzuki
\nart center in 1968 and Taufiq worked there until 1978.<\/p>\n
\"There was idealism at TIM, but I didn't have any savings. I
\nneeded money to send my child to school,\" he said.<\/p>\n
He moved to PT Unilever and has since worked as a public
\nrelations officer for the company.<\/p>\n
His dream of owning a farm, lots of cattle and house with
\nheaps of windows hasn't come true, but he has become a respected
\nIndonesian writer.<\/p>\n
Books<\/p>\n
Taufiq has loved books since childhood. He started reading
\nnovels at the age of eight at the home library of his parents --
\nTaufiq's father was a journalist and his mother a teacher who
\nalso wrote poems. He adored the books and wanted to be a
\nnovelist.<\/p>\n
\"One day, after school, I lay down and started writing my
\nfirst novel. It was only one line and I have never been able to
\nfinish it,\" Taufiq said with a big laugh.<\/p>\n
He wrote his first poems when he was at high school and sent
\nthem to the media.<\/p>\n
\"They always rejected my poems. Finally, after two years, one
\nof my poems was printed in Mimbar Indonesia magazine,\" he said.<\/p>\n
\"I wanted to be both a novelist and a poet, but my destiny has
\nset me as a poet.\"<\/p>\n
Among his collections of poems are Tirani, Benteng, Puisi-
\npuisi Sepi, Kota Pelabuhan, and Ladang Jagung.<\/p>\n
Rerumputan Dedaunan, an anthology of 160 translated American
\npoems, will be published soon, pending copyright arrangements.
\nTaufiq, who translated them at the University of Iowa in 1992,
\ngot the title of the anthology from Leaves of Grass, the works of
\nhis favorite poet, Walt Whitman.<\/p>\n
Taufiq said that just like other works of literature in
\nIndonesia, his books are not printed on a large scale.<\/p>\n
Before Indonesia gained its independence in 1945, only 3,000
\ncopies of a new novel were printed. Today, with three times the
\npopulation, publishing houses still issue only 3,000 copies at
\nthe first printing of a new title.<\/p>\n
\"For a collection of poems, they print about 1,000 or 2,000
\ncopies,\" Taufiq explained.<\/p>\n
Indonesian's poor appreciation of literature and aversion to
\nreading has of course affected the development of Indonesian
\nliterature.<\/p>\n
There has never been any scientific research on the decline of
\nreading, but Taufiq knows Indonesians don't like reading because
\nhe sees that public libraries are deserted.<\/p>\n
Relating an experience of a couple of years ago, Taufiq said
\nthat on his way to attend an international book fair in Germany,
\nhe sat with four national publishers and noted that none of them
\nread during the flight.<\/p>\n
\"They published books, but they didn't seem to be fond of
\nreading,\" he said.<\/p>\n
\"People, especially children, spend more and more time in
\nfront of the television. This really bothers me,\" Taufiq said.<\/p>\n
The communist cultural calamity has gone, but another
\ncatastrophe might happen if Indonesians don't begin to read.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/communist-cultural-calamity-has-gone-but-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}