Sitor: A politician inside a poet<\/p>\n
Tantri Yuliandini, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
There are many facets to Sitor Situmorang's character. Sitor the
\npoet, known for his musings of home in the landscape of faraway
\nFrance. Sitor the journalist, cultural observer and politician,
\nwhose views would cause him to spend time in jail. And Sitor the
\nman, whose mystical upbringing in the traditional Batak culture
\nwould haunt his adult life.<\/p>\n
Without writing a book, it would be impossible to tell the
\nfull tale of Sitor's remarkable life. Indeed, Sitor is very like
\nan animated history book himself -- full of memories of times
\ngone past, but with none of the tedium. On reading such a book
\none would have no choice but to be swept away by the passion of
\nits narrative.<\/p>\n
Sitor's own life has been so closely intermingled with the
\nbuilding of this nation that it would be impossible to relate one
\nwithout mentioning the other.<\/p>\n
Sitor was born to a long line of Batak leaders, well-known for
\ntheir resistance to Dutch invaders. In fact, national hero
\nSisingamangaraja XII was Sitor's own uncle. He was born on Oct.
\n2, 1924, in Harianboho, a small village in a valley west of Danau
\nToba, North Sumatra.<\/p>\n
Sisingamangaraja and Sitor's father, Ompu Babiat of the
\nSitumorang clan, claimed to have been directly descended from
\nSumba and Lontung, the ancestors of all Batak people.<\/p>\n
\"So I was descended from the Adam and Eve of the Batak people,
\nand besides that, I was also born in the valley of Mount Pusuk
\nBuhit, which, according to Batak mythology, is the center of the
\nuniverse,\" the father of seven children and eight grandchildren
\nsaid in an interview recently.<\/p>\n
Little Sitor was in awe of his father, the authority figure of
\nHarianboho as well as a cultural leader, but Sitor claimed never
\nto have never been afraid of him.<\/p>\n
\"I wasn't close (to my father). It wasn't possible in his
\nposition. A cultural leader is expected to be the 'father' to
\neverybody, not only his immediate family,\" he said, adding that
\nOmpu Babiat had always been shrouded in a veil of mystery and
\nmystique, particularly because of the rituals of his ancient
\nbeliefs.<\/p>\n
But no matter how traditional he was, Ompu Babiat never forced
\nhis family to be the same. Instead, his nine children --
\nparticularly his six boys -- received the best education the
\nDutch had to offer at the time.<\/p>\n
\"We were privileged, the family of a ruler. We always had
\nenough; good nutrition and every kind of education available at
\nthe time was open to us. We didn't need to fight to get in; our
\nstatus ensured that we would,\" Sitor said.<\/p>\n
Sitor left home for his education from the time he was seven
\nyears old. First to Balige, south of Danau Toba, to attend a
\nDutch elementary school, then to Sibolga in 1936 to finish two
\nyears of elementary school and attend the colonial junior high
\nschool, Mulo. Japanese occupation in 1942 forced him to drop out
\nof the Dutch AMS senior high school in Batavia (Jakarta), and
\nreturn to Sibolga.<\/p>\n
Sitor admitted always to have had a penchant for politics,
\nsaying that his family may have had something to do with this
\ninterest: \"After all, eight generations of my family have always
\nbeen active leaders in society. So I grew up hearing every story,
\ntales of good and bad, linked with what they now call politics\".<\/p>\n
Living in Sibolga, a busy port town, also helped cultivate
\nthis interest -- his Malayan language improving through contacts
\nwith the multicultural society -- Sitor wolfed down every
\nnationalist newspaper available, including the Dutch-language
\nmagazine Nationale Commentaren.<\/p>\n
\"My interest in politics was high. I thought that the closest
\nto being a politician was to be a journalist,\" Sitor said. In
\n1945, just after the proclamation of independence, Sitor became
\neditor for Suara Nasional, a small newspaper in Sibolga.<\/p>\n
But Sibolga could not contain Sitor's craving for being in the
\nmiddle of the nationalist movement. In 1947 he moved to a larger
\npublication, Waspada, in Medan, with the simmering desire to go
\nwhere it all happened, Batavia. He would later work for Berita
\nNasional and Warta Dunia dailies in Jakarta.<\/p>\n
Upon reflection, Sitor said that his news writing had already
\nbeen infused with the \"breath\" of literature.<\/p>\n
\"People now say that my articles were like literary stories,
\nwhen I had no intention of writing literature,\" he said, laughing
\nheartily.<\/p>\n
As for poetry, Sitor could not explain why he chose that
\nparticular form of expression: \"It's a gift!\" he simply
\nsaid. Sitor's first try at literature was his private translation
\ninto Batak of the love story between Saijah and Adinda in
\nMultatuli's novel Max Havelaar in 1943.<\/p>\n
Being a journalist at the time of the nationalist movement,
\none could not but help become deeply involved in the movement
\nitself, and that was what Sitor did. He found his voice for the
\npolitical passion that ran in his blood in the articles, essays,
\nand editorials he wrote.<\/p>\n
\"Every word or sentence felt as though it had a direct link to
\nthe struggle in society, the passion and exhilaration of
\ncreation, fulfilling one's basic need, satisfying the people's
\nthirst for news, conceptions leading to aspirations of
\nindependence, as a mental weapon directed towards the enemy, the
\nDutch invaders,\" Sitor wrote in his autobiography Sitor
\nSitumorang seorang sastrawan 45 penyair Danau Toba (Sitor
\nSitumorang a (Generation of 19)45 literary poet from Danau Toba)
\npublished in 1981 by Penerbit Sinar Harapan.<\/p>\n
As part of his work, Sitor got to cover important events of
\nthe time -- such as the 1947 Federale Conferentie in Bandung --
\nwhere he exposed himself to the idealistic ideas of prominent
\nfigures of the time, and befriended intellectuals and artists.<\/p>\n
In the words of Henk M.J. Maier, in his introduction to
\nSitor's collection of poetry,To Love, To Wander, translated and
\npublished by The Lontar Foundation, Jakarta: \"Feeling close to
\nthose vociferous intellectuals and artists who had stormed the
\nstage, he managed to become acquainted with some of them -- and
\nbefore long was accepted into their circle\".<\/p>\n
Sitor also had very definite views about his political
\nleaning, and with absolute confidence he defined himself as a
\nnationalist.<\/p>\n
\"Of course there are many kind of nationalist: What kind of a
\nnationalist am I? Well I can make my own definition. My
\nnationalism doesn't depend on whether or not PNI exists,\" said
\nSitor, a prominent member of the Sukarnoist Indonesian
\nNationalist Party in the 1960s.<\/p>\n
His perspective on Indonesia's national culture was in
\nagreement with the views of Taman Siswa and its founder Ki Hajar
\nDewantara.<\/p>\n
\"Sometimes people are confused with what is Indonesian
\nculture: They think (the various cultures that exist) have to be
\ndrained together, molded into one. That's all nonsense. Just
\nbecause you're a nationalist you shouldn't be forced to leave all
\nyour Javanese traditions behind,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Sitor's answer to globalization was to strengthen
\nunderstanding of one's own culture and address the new
\n\"globalized\" culture through the sieve of one's own existing
\nculture.<\/p>\n
\"That's how you can be creative. We cannot build a nation's
\nculture simply by being a copycat of whatever influence comes
\nalong,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Sitor was fiercely Sukarnoist, and for this he believed he was
\njailed for nine years of his life, between 1966 and 1975 in
\nSalemba, after which he was placed under house arrest between
\n1975 and 1976, and under city arrest until 1977.<\/p>\n
\"They never served my detention papers on me; I never knew why
\nI was jailed. And they only interrogated me once.\"<\/p>\n
The only clue about his sentence was the questions asked
\nduring interrogation, which had been about his Sukarnoist views.<\/p>\n
After completing his sentence, Sitor left for Paris where he
\nlived until the Soeharto regime was toppled.<\/p>\n
Life has taken Sitor through thick and thin, but he is said
\nnever to have harbored any feelings of vengeance, even over his
\nunexplained jail sentence.<\/p>\n
Instead, Sitor firmly believed that his belief in the truth
\nwas what helped him through these years.<\/p>\n
\"I am a person who has faith in what is the truth, and I am
\nready to face the challenges to this faith.\"<\/p>",
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