Promoting freedom in reform era<\/p>\n
M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
French writer Albert Camus once said from a podium in Belgium in
\n1957, \"Freedom is a long-distance race\", urging those who
\nchampioned of freedom to strive unceasingly for the cause.<\/p>\n
The owner of Hasta Mitra publishing house, Joesoef Isak, not
\nonly firmly believes in Camus' statement, he is also living proof
\nthat such a struggle is hard won.<\/p>\n
Ignoring the ban from the authoritarian regime of president
\nSoeharto against disseminating leftist materials, Joesoef
\npublished the works of dissident writer Pramoedya Ananta Toer,
\nthe most famous being Bumi Manusia (This Earth of Mankind) in the
\nearly 1980s, a period considered to be the apex of the regime's
\nrepressive rule.<\/p>\n
\"Hasta Mitra was founded while Soeharto was at the height of
\nhis power and we published the books in a very repressive
\nsituation,\" Joesoef told The Jakarta Post recently
\nfrom his Hasta Mitra office, once a bathroom at the back of his
\nmodest house in South Jakarta.<\/p>\n
\"Yet we refused to cower because we were consciously engaged
\nin an effort to promote democracy; freedom of speech is an
\nintegral part of that.\"<\/p>\n
His courage to look the authoritarian regime straight in the
\neye won him run-ins with the law and financially ruined his
\nfragile publishing house.<\/p>\n
In the first five years of operations, every publication was
\nbanned by the government.<\/p>\n
\"How could we properly manage the company if our products was
\nmet with ban after ban? Hasta Mitra may have an international
\nreputation, but as a company it remained small in the early
\ndays,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Unlike large publishing houses, which manage to publish 10
\nbooks a month, Hasta Mitra did well if it released 10 books a
\nyear, he said.<\/p>\n
Following the ban, Joesoef was also repeatedly summoned by
\nstate prosecutors who demanded confessions that the books he
\npublished conveyed Marxist-Leninist teachings. All such teachings
\nwere banned following an aborted national coup in 1965 attributed
\nto the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI).<\/p>\n
Although the ban and the subsequent legal proceedings failed
\nto land him in jail, to Joesoef they were a bitter reminder of
\nwhat he had experienced earlier.<\/p>\n
Considered to be a staunch supporter of the communist
\nmovement, Joesoef was put in jail by the New Order regime without
\ntrial from 1965 to 1977.<\/p>\n
According to the New Order's classification of detainees that
\nwere implicated with the coup, Joesoef was category `A', meaning
\nthat he was an important figure in the movement and hard evidence
\nwas available to corroborate his involvement. While a trial had
\nbeen scheduled for him, no hearing ever took place.<\/p>\n
Joesoef said to survive an authoritarian regime like
\nSoeharto's, one should never show fear, grow tired nor give up.<\/p>\n
He said that as a human being he was cowed by the regime's
\nharsh measures. \"However, we opted not to show (our fear) to the
\ngovernment,\" he said.<\/p>\n
However, the increased democracy in the country since the fall
\nof Soeharto, has not led to any complacency on his part.<\/p>\n
The new freedoms were never granted, they were fought for, and
\nmuch work needed to be done before the people gained real power,
\nhe said.<\/p>\n
\"The fall of the New Order regime was not followed by a
\nsubstantial change; the ban on Marxism-Leninism is still intact
\nand never lifted. The current regime could reinstate it at any
\ntime,\" he said.<\/p>\n
He said that the only reason present-day governments allowed
\nthe unbridled publication of leftist books was because the
\ngovernment was fully aware of people power. \"The current regime
\nhas no option but to accept the new conditions,\" he said.<\/p>\n
With little fanfare, Hasta Mitra recently published the
\nIndonesian translation of Karl Marx's Das Kapital, a book
\nconsidered to be the Bible of the communist movement, ignoring
\nthe ban that was never officially lifted by the government.<\/p>\n
Joesoef's unrelenting struggle for freedom through literary
\nworks has won him international recognition. Early last year, he
\nwon an award from the International Freedom to Publish Committee
\n(IFTPC), which was conferred in the United States during the
\nannual gala of the World Association of Writers (PEN).<\/p>\n
On March 31, he received the Australian PEN-Keneally Award.<\/p>\n
Born in Jakarta 77 years ago, Joesoef was educated in the
\nDutch school system and did not even speak Indonesian during the
\ncountry's formative years.<\/p>\n
He joined a couple of Indonesian language newspapers before
\nworking at the Merdeka daily, where he later became editor-in-
\nchief.<\/p>\n
\"The owner of Merdeka, B.M. Diah, once told me that then
\npresident Sukarno wanted someone who was progressive and
\nrevolutionary enough to lead the paper and I was considered the
\nright man,\" he said.<\/p>\n
During his stint at the daily, Joesoef was elected secretary-
\ngeneral of the Asia-Africa Journalists Association (AAJA), a job
\nthat enabled him to travel to most parts of the nonaligned world.<\/p>\n
Joesoef lost his job in Merdeka in 1963 due to political
\ndifferences with Diah. He was accused of taking the daily too far
\nto the left.<\/p>\n
He held his position at the AAJA until the coup attempt, a
\nturn of events that brought his journalistic career to a bitter
\nend.<\/p>\n
Upon his release from jail, the government barred him from
\nengaging in any journalism, a blow that prompted him to set up
\nHasta Mitra as a vehicle that could serve as a mouthpiece for his
\nrestless mind.<\/p>\n
\"Although I had no media outlet of my own, deep in my heart I
\nwas still a journalist. I still wanted to express my views about
\ncurrent affairs. Old journalists never die,\" he said while
\nstubbing out a cigarette.<\/p>",
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