Asrul wants to find time to write novels at 70

JAKARTA (JP): Top Indonesian author Asrul Sani said yesterday that he planned to complete his biography this year and find time to write novels.

Asrul launched two books to coincide with his 70th birthday yesterday. One, 70 Tahun Asrul Sani (70 Years of Asrul Sani), is a compilation of works on him by several figures. The other is an 800-page book titled Surat-Surat Kepercayaan Gelanggang (Letters of Trust), a compilation of his essays since 1946.

Asrul was born June 10, 1927 in Rao, West Sumatra.

With two other Indonesian literary giants, Chairul Anwar and Rivai Apin, Asrul published a book of poems, Tiga Menguak Takdir (Three Men Uncover Destiny) in 1950, which made them the poetry pioneers of Indonesia's independence years.

Asrul, also a film director, has written six scripts. Two of them, Si Naga Bonar (Bonar the Dragon) and Kejarlah Daku Kau Kutangkap (You Catch Me I Catch You), have won Citra awards, the local equivalent of Academy Awards.

Of all his unmet goals, Asrul told The Jakarta Post that he had yet to find time to write novels. Above all, he wanted to keep writing books.

He said that he had to consider his age. "A writer's energy and spirit at 40 is different than a writer in his 70s."

In his interview with Kompas daily, Asrul said that in the journey to become a free country, Indonesians could not say that they had shaped their own destinies. Instead, world events had caused Indonesian's struggle for independence.

Struggle

He said the independence struggle did not happen exclusively through its founding fathers, first president Sukarno and vice president Mohammad Hatta.

"We are not an island unto ourselves," he said adding that people's way of thinking was the product of the nation's history.

Asrul said there was a misunderstanding about "culture," which is known more as a noun, making it a mere artifact instead of a verb.

Many people say it is acceptable to "preserve" culture as an artifact, he says, adding that the Buddhist temple, Borobudur, is more foreign than the works of the English bard Shakespeare.

He cited the sold-out advance ticket sales of Julius Caesar with model and television personality Tamara Bleszinski, who plays Caesar's wife, Calpurnia, as an example.

The play was shown from July 11 to July 13 at the Taman Ismail Marzuki cultural center.

"This phenomenon shows our closeness to Shakespeare's works, a fact that we must accept because culture always emerges from a certain motive," he said.

Asrul said there were dangers in the current preoccupation with science and technology which could not exist in a cultural vacuum.

He said there was now a lack of courage to question leadership decisions, and an emphasis on uniformity as opposed to dealing with conflict.

He said that in the 1950s Indonesians asked more questions to understand the direction of where their country was headed despite differences of opinion. The search for identity was very intense at the time, he said.

He said that, when a minister was installed in the 1950s, people would ask about his capability and skill because his position was tied to public life.

"Nowadays we do not know... No one raises questions. Everything has been arranged and taken care of," he said.

He said that conflicts were artificially reduced to the so- called consensus in the interest of maintaining the status quo, national security and order, making people incapable of dealing with recent ethnic and sectarian riots.

The riots in Situbondo, East Java, Rengasdengklok and Tasikmalaya, West Java were dealt with by police and soldiers, he said. (01)