Umar Kayam on literature, life and communism<\/p>\n
By Chris Brummitt<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Umar Kayam is one of the country's most
\nrespected fiction writers, if one of its least prolific. In over
\n25 years of writing he has published approximately 20 short
\nstories, three slightly longer ones and one novel. This long
\nincubation period is evident in his work, which is consistently
\nwell-crafted.<\/p>\n
He was born in 1932 in a small East Javanese town. His parents
\nwere both teachers and \"were into the arts\". There were books
\naround the house -- Dutch novels, English novels translated into
\nDutch -- and by senior high school Umar had written his first
\nshort story. He studied literature at Gadjah Mada University
\n(UGM) and then went on to study in America. On his return to
\nIndonesia he spent three years as director general of Radio,
\nTelevision and Film in the early days of president Soeharto's New
\nOrder. Umar returned to UGM in Yogyakarta in 1970 to teach
\nliterature.<\/p>\n
In 1997 he opted for early retirement -- \"I was tired\" -- and
\nsince then has been traveling back and forth between Jakarta and
\nYogyakarta, with a six-month break in Kyoto, Japan, to finish off
\na soon to be published sequel to his novel, Para Priyayi (The
\nJavanese Upper-Classes).<\/p>\n
The Jakarta Post dropped by at his home in Cipinang Indah,
\nEast Jakarta, on Friday morning, cut short his breakfast and
\nasked him about his life and writing.<\/p>\n
Umar is currently recovering from a mild stroke and finds it
\nhard to type as fast as he would like; \"robbed\" is how he feels.
\nHe is remarkably positive, however, and is waiting for the doctor
\nto allow him to travel again to examine PhD students in
\nYogyakarta and Surabaya.<\/p>\n
Asked which he preferred, teaching or research -- he headed
\nhis own cultural research unit at UGM -- he leans forward and
\nsets the agenda. \"The one thing I most like is writing. Writing
\nshort stories and novels.\"<\/p>\n
Does he follow a strict routine when writing?<\/p>\n
\"I write every day, but I don't have any routine; it's
\nwhenever I choose. I'm not that kind of writer. That is the way
\nof a government worker or a bureaucrat. Writers write whenever
\nthey please.\"<\/p>\n
He holds up Hemingway -- \"a damn sure writer\" -- as an example
\nof someone who lived the ideal writer's life. His writing too has
\na \"sureness\" about it, rarely straying from realistic prose
\ndescribing real situations in clearly defined settings. He hasn't
\nmuch time for Kundera or other writers who write in \"what they
\ncall a postmodern style\", adding that \"maybe that is just because
\nI'm getting old or I'm too lazy\".<\/p>\n
One of his earliest and most memorable stories, Seribu Kunang-
\nKunang di Manhattan (A Thousand Fireflies in Manhattan), has
\nrecently been translated into 14 regional Indonesian languages,
\nall of which have been collected in one volume -- a
\ngroundbreaking literary venture. Umar is pleased his story was
\nchosen, though he admits to have been baffled when the editor
\ntold him it was because it was \"full of semiotic traps\".<\/p>\n
Similarly, he is unimpressed by much of today's literary
\ncriticism. He doesn't often read it -- \"much of it is ngawur
\n(thoughtless, baseless). I don't know whether they (critics)
\nreally like it (the literature they write about) or whether they
\njust pretend to\".<\/p>\n
Seribu Kunang-Kunangan, in common with all the stories in the
\ncollection of the same name, draws on his experiences in America.
\nIt is dedicated to his wife and child, his \"hunting companions in
\nthe jungles of Manhattan\", and, apart from some humorous moments,
\nurban America appears to be a cruel and confusing place. However,
\nin retrospect at least, he is upbeat about his time there. \"I was
\nlooking forward to going to America with its modern lifestyle.
\nWhen I got there I was impressed, amazed.\" Returning home was
\nalso not a problem. \"I still felt myself to be Indonesian,
\nJavanese.\"<\/p>\n
What about the differences between American campuses and
\nIndonesian ones? \"American campuses are more free. The students
\ncan speak directly with the teachers. The libraries are very
\ngood. The students are also more open; they have not had a
\nlifetime of state indoctrination like here. At the most all they
\nhave been is indoctrinated by their lifestyle.\"<\/p>\n
What do you mean by their lifestyle? \"Nowadays it is the so-
\ncalled globalization virus. Here we don't know anything about it.
\nSuddenly everyone is wearing jeans. The more ugly they are, the
\nmore expensive.\"<\/p>\n
Umar published Bawuk and Sri Sumarah (the names of the two
\nfemale heroines) in 1975, two long short stories which revolve
\naround the 1965 attempted communist coup, its terrifying
\naftermath and the lives of those families affected by it. \"That
\ntime was a big shock for me, even though I was director general
\nof Radio, Television and Film. I was questioning what was going
\non myself. I didn't completely understand it. Because of that, I
\nwasn't DG for very long. I proposed to the government that our
\nelectronic media follow the BBC's model and become independent. I
\nwas fired.\"<\/p>\n
Communism was a theme he would return to in Musim Gugur
\nKembali ke Connecticut (Autumn Returns to Connecticut), first
\npublished in Horison, the country's leading literary magazine. At
\nthe center of the story is the friendship between two men,
\npolitical opponents but friends, and the tide of events which
\nleads one of them to his death in a rubber plantation. \"That
\nstory I took a little from my own experience. When I was at UGM,
\nI had a lot of friends who belonged to Lekra (a communist
\ncultural organization) and HSI (a communist student
\norganization). Even though we were friends on a personal level,
\nwe opposed each other politically -- always debating. Many of
\nthem died. Killed.\"<\/p>\n
For a writer it was a difficult time. Literature was seen by
\nthe communists as a tool in their revolutionary struggle to free
\nthe oppressed; anyone disagreeing was on the side of the
\noppressors. \"The PKI (Indonesian Communist Party) was, I think,
\nvery orthodox in its approach and tried to control everything.
\nThey were very active in drama, literature and ketoprak (popular
\nJavanese opera). That was what I never agreed with. I said let
\nthe writers write what they want. I was always being accused of
\nbeing a liberal ... whereas I was always independent. I never
\njoined a political party.\"<\/p>\n
We agree on how much the world has changed. Pointing to
\ntoday's newspaper, he says, \"Look what Gus Dur said today in
\nBeijing. 'Don't fret too much about communism. Communism has
\nalready changed.' It takes a new president to say that. Look at
\nthe ambassador in Beijing. He himself is a general who once was
\nindoctrinated on the dangers of communism.\"<\/p>\n
Where were you when president Soeharto resigned? \"I was in
\nKyoto. One of my children telephoned me and said, 'Soeharto has
\nfallen.' I didn't believe her. I said, 'Fallen from where? His
\nbed?' And then I realized she meant he had really fallen. I came
\nhome and Habibie was already in power.\"<\/p>\n
On contemporary politics Umar is noncommittal. Gus Dur \"means
\nwell\" though he has a difficult task ahead of him, while the
\nAcehnese \"have the right to independence\", but he wonders \"if
\nthey fully realize the consequences\".<\/p>\n
By this time the midday call to prayer was getting louder.
\nThere was time only for one more question; a last chance to find
\nout where his political sympathies lie. When you watched the Gus
\nDur\/Megawati presidential showdown, who were you rooting for? An
\nimpartial observer to the end, after a pause and the trace of a
\nsmile, he replies: \"I didn't think anything when I saw it. I just
\nsaw it as a game.\"<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/umar-kayam-on-literature-life-and-communism-1447893297",
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