Alatas not approached by RP on Pramoedya

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN (JP): Foreign Minister Ali Alatas said yesterday that he had not been approached by the Philippine government about Indonesian writer Pramoedya Ananta Toer's possible visit to Manila to receive the Magsaysay Award.

"No, we have not been contacted by the Philippine government," Alatas confirmed, adding that he could not understand why the Magsaysay Institute would present the award to a man who adopted communist ideology and suppressed his fellow writers when Lekra was in its heyday.

Lekra was an affiliation of the banned Indonesian Communist Party. Pramoedya was its leading activist.

The government has banned Pramoedya's books, including his latest work entitled Nyanyi Sunyi Seorang Bisu (A Silent Song of a Dumb.

Alatas, who is in Brunei's capital attending a series of ASEAN ministerial meetings, said that Pramoedya is still barred from traveling abroad. (ego)