Playwright Ikranagara recounts Lekra's terrors<\/p>\n
By Ikranagara<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The communist coup of 1965, or G-30-S, was
\npreceded by the establishment of an organization of artists
\ngrouped in the Lembaga Kebudayaan Rakyat (Peoples' Culture
\nInstitute), which was better known by the abbreviation Lekra.<\/p>\n
This statement was made by a prominent Indonesian communist --
\na journalist -- in 1965.<\/p>\n
The reign of terror launched by Lekra at the time not only
\naffected people in major cities where the centers of national
\nculture were established, as in Jakarta, for instance, or Bogor,
\nBandung, Yogyakarta, Solo, Semarang, Surabaya, Malang, Denpasar,
\nUjungpandang, Banjarmasin, Medan, Padang and Palembang, but also
\nin small towns such as Banyuwangi and Negara, as witnessed and
\nexperienced by this writer.<\/p>\n
Not only did Lekra target established artists, it also
\nattacked new and young talent on the verge of progress.<\/p>\n
When the Cultural Manifesto (Manikebu) was banned in the days
\nof Guided Democracy, I was still a teenager just graduated from
\nsenior high school in Banyuwangi, East Java. In that town,
\nlocated on East Java's eastern tip, I joined an organization
\nsupporting the Cultural Manifesto. In my opinion, the manifesto
\nwas a testimonial of artists struggling for creative freedom and
\nuniversal humanity.<\/p>\n
The Cultural Manifesto was banned because of the systematic
\nand unceasing assault by artists of Marxist leaning, especially
\nthose who were members of Lekra, an affiliate of the Indonesian
\nCommunist Party (PKI). They intended to force the acceptance of
\ntheir Stalinist ideas, known as \"socialist realism\", as a guide
\nfor Indonesian artists in their work.<\/p>\n
One of the Lekra members at the forefront of this campaign was
\nPramoedya Ananta Toer, who drove supporters of the Cultural
\nManifesto into a corner, accusing them of being puppets of banned
\nparties such as the Indonesian Socialist Party (PSI) and the
\nMoslem-based Masyumi, not to mention the charges that they were
\nworking for the U.S. intelligence agency, the CIA.<\/p>\n
Because of that slander, supporters of the manifesto were
\ncategorized as \"counter revolutionaries\". Incidentally, when an
\nIndonesian literary figure won the Magsaysay award at that time,
\nPramoedya denounced the Magsaysay Award Foundation as an
\ninstrument of the CIA because it was funded by the United States.<\/p>\n
Pramoedya has not changed. When interviewed by Gatra magazine,
\nhe repeated the slander even though he was about to attend a
\ndinner at the residence of the American ambassador in Jakarta to
\ncelebrate the 1995 Magsaysay Award presentation.<\/p>\n
Fatal<\/p>\n
In the period of Guided Democracy such accusations could be
\nfatal. The accused could face imprisonment, or be bludgeoned to
\ndeath by members of some powerful organization such as the
\nPeople's Youths (Pemuda Rakyat), which was yet another
\norganization affiliated to the Indonesian Communist Party.<\/p>\n
Through their own media, Marxist writers, journalists and
\npoliticians provided education and political guidance colored
\nwith leftist ideas to followers grouped in various organizations.
\nThey also committed \"revolutionary\" acts such as agitation and
\nthe destruction of opponents in all spheres of life.<\/p>\n
Destruction involved more than just setting books on fire. It
\nalso included large-scale dismissals of people in all fields of
\nemployment. The perpetrators held to the principle that the end
\njustifies the means. This resulted in bloodshed and terror, such
\nas happened in the village of Kanigoro before the coup was
\nlaunched. Not only creative freedom was destroyed but also noble
\nvalues, which were trampled upon through a series of violations
\nof human rights.<\/p>\n
These action were undertaken by the Marxist literary vanguard
\nand journalists in line with Lenin's concept elaborated in his
\nwork Where To Begin (1901), which reads in part: \"The role of the
\nmass media is not restricted to the dissemination of ideas,
\npolitical education, or attempts by dint and by stint to assemble
\nthese forces in politics. The media is not just a promotional
\ntool or agitator to unite all revolutionary forces. The media
\nshould be able to become an organizer of all revolutionary
\nforces ...\"<\/p>\n
Lenin then wrote in What Is To Be Done (1902) \"... and the
\nmedia will become a ferocious storm converging from all
\ndirections, igniting fire in the chaff of the struggle ... to
\nbecome a flaming revolutionary movement\".<\/p>\n
It was in this revolutionary spirit that the communist media
\nformed an organized force to pursue and strike at anyone they
\nchose to classify as \"counter revolutionary\". The same concept
\nwas practiced by Lekra and by journalists with Marxist ideas
\nduring the era of Guided Democracy in Indonesia.<\/p>\n
One of the channels for this slander was the cultural column
\nLentera in the daily newspaper Bintang Timur, under the
\nsupervision of Pramoedya. It was, therefore, not surprising when
\nNaibaho, the chief editor of the communist daily Harian Rakyat,
\nin a 1965 circular supporting the G-30-S terror, praised Lekra. I
\nquote the words, which I used in the opening paragraph of this
\narticle: \"The terror of G-30-S was preceded by the actions of
\nartists grouped in the Peoples' Culture Institute (Lekra).\"<\/p>\n
Even though it is a long way from Banyuwangi, East Java, and
\nNegara, Bali, to Jakarta, this did not deter Pramoedya, whose arm
\nseemed to reach out from Jakarta into the most distant regions.
\nMy support for the Cultural Manifesto was known to the Lekra
\nmembers in Banyuwangi and Negara. Apparently, they also knew that
\nthe group that produced it was banned and its supporters all
\nsuspect, so Pramoedya and his associates decided to destroy the
\n\"counter revolutionary\" group.<\/p>\n
And what were the Lekra artists doing in distant Negara and
\nBanyuwangi? What I myself experienced in Negara was that Lekra
\nmembers, together with members of the Pemuda Rakyat terrorized me
\nby ransacking my room in my parents' house. They took books from
\nthe racks and a collection of music records as well.<\/p>\n
The books which were taken away included Doctor Zhivago, by
\nBoris Pasternak, Demokrasi Kita (Our Democracy) and Filsafat
\nYunani (Greek Philosophy) by Mohammad Hatta, Road Without End by
\nMochtar Lubis, The Flowered Screen by Sutan Takdir Alisjahbana,
\nDi Bawah Lindungan Ka'bah (Under the Protection of the Ka'bah),
\nTenggelamnya Kapal Van der Wijk (The Sinking of the Van der Wijk)
\nand Ayahku (My Father) by Hamka. The books and records were
\nheaped in front of my parents' house, then burned to the
\naccompaniment of revolutionary yells.<\/p>\n
They could do that because the pro-communist police were on
\ntheir side. In those days the left had access to authority. So,
\nwhen I later wanted to stage the drama Domba-domba Revolusi
\n(Sheep of the Revolution) by B. Soelarto -- also a supporter of
\nthe Cultural Manifesto -- in Banyuwangi, permission was denied by
\nthe police. The Marxist groups, including Lekra, had access to
\nall organs of power in those days, this did not end with the
\npolice alone.<\/p>\n
Physical acts<\/p>\n
It was very clear that creative freedom for independent
\nartists outside of the Lekra membership was suppressed by that
\norganization in cooperation with the authorities of that time.
\nTheir terrorist tactics extended to physical acts, which caused
\nmy family and myself to fear for our lives..<\/p>\n
Without ever having read Lenin's entire writings, passages of
\nwhich I have cited above, the gripping experience of terror and
\nwhat little I knew of Stalin's terror tactics in the Soviet Union
\nwere enough to instill anger in my heart. I blame not only the
\nlocal Lekra members for terrorizing me. I also blame their
\nleaders and activists in Denpasar and in Jakarta, including
\nPramoedya, for resorting to the terrorist tactics personified in
\nStalin's ideology.<\/p>\n
I never met Pramoedya in person when I was a teenager, and as
\nfar as I know, he never visited Negara or Banyuwangi. But with
\nall the fear and coercion that I experienced during my teenage
\nyears, in my mind, Pramoedya personified \"the invisible hand of
\nterror\". The same is true for my family, or perhaps any other
\nperson who was ever singled out as a \"counter revolutionary\", or
\naccused of being an enemy of the Marxist ideology.<\/p>\n
After having now read some of Lenin's words, my conclusion
\nabout Pramoedya, arrived at during my teenage days, seems best
\nleft unchanged. All the more so after I read his statement in
\nMedia Indonesia (Aug. 6, 1995), in which he implicitly admitted
\nthe wrongs he committed and stressed that he had no regrets about
\nthem.<\/p>\n
In the end, Pramoedya's wrongdoings, together with those of
\nthe other members of Lekra, remind me of the actions of Madame
\nMao Zedong and the \"Gang Of Four\", who pioneered the Cultural
\nRevolution in China. As recorded by movie director Chen Kaige in
\nhis work Farewell My Concubine, that episode in Chinese history
\nwas truly appalling.<\/p>\n
When will our novelists and screenwriters write about the
\nwrongdoings of Pramoedya and Lekra? Arifin C. Noer's semi-
\ndocumentary film Pengkhianatan G-30-S (The G-30-S Betrayal)
\nadmittedly included early acts of terror by the communists before
\nthe coup event, but the film did not feature any terrorist
\nactivities by Lekra artists. It is clear that in all of Asia, to
\nmy knowledge, such terrorist activities have taken place only in
\nChina during the period of the Cultural Revolution, and in
\nIndonesia in the days of Guided Democracy.<\/p>\n
The writer is a highly respected playwright and actor.<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/playwright-ikranagara-recounts-lekras-terrors-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }