Communist may use literature for revenge
Communist may use literature for revenge
By Wahyudi M. Pratopo
JAKARTA (JP): A senior Golkar party official warns that frustrated supporters of communism could use literature as a means of taking their revenge.
Din Syamsuddin, chief of Golkar's research and development division, said in a seminar last week that communist supporters are jealous of the political triumphs of their rivals.
"This political jealousy could intensify to the point that they take revenge at any time for their bitter historical defeat," he said in a seminar discussing a new controversial book Prahara Budaya, or Cultural Calamity.
Critics say the book is unnecessarily opening old wounds as a 50-year-old Indonesia tries to reconcile political differences by combining forces to develop the nation.
Din, a political analyst, said that communist sympathizers might use the cultural realm to exact revenge due to its "strategic value".
He pointed out that provoking social conflict would not be difficult in Indonesia's multi-ethnic, cultural and religious society.
"In a bid to build their base in the 1960s, communists used political channels and literature," he said.
Prahara Budaya, co-written by D.S. Moeljanto and Taufiq Ismail, discusses the political rivalries between Indonesia's pro and anti-communist intellectuals during the 1959-1965 period of guided democracy under President Soekarno.
In 1965, the Indonesian Communist Party's (PKI) coup attempt was crushed and many of its leaders and (alleged) activists, including writers, were put in jail.
The book compiles documents on the political differences between the pro-communist literati grouped in LEKRA (People's Cultural Institute) and the anti-communist element associated with the concept of Manikebu (Cultural Manifesto). Both Taufiq and Moeljanto belonged to the Manikebu camp.
Prominent LEKRA members included, among others, Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Sitor Situmorang, Utuy Tatang Sontani and Bakri Siregar.
Manikebu adherents (also known as manifestants) included Wiratmo Sukito, H.B. Jassin, Goenawan Mohamad, Usmar Ismail, Trisno Sumardjo, Iwan Simatupang, Mohamad Diponegoro, Hartojo Andangdjaja, Ras Siregar, Gajus Siagian, D. Djajakusuma, Binsar Sitompul, Hazil Tanzil, Suwarjono, Nashar, and D.A. Perasi.
The two camps had their own cultural concepts. The left-wing LEKRA believed in so-called "humanism-realism", or realism- socialism, while the right wing manifestants backed "humanism- universalism".
Taufik, who also addressed the seminar, said that LEKRA activists tried to gain political support by winning the sympathy of President Soekarno, the dominant political actor of the early 1960's.
While the manifestants and anti-communist journalists worked to wrest Soekarno from communist influence, according to Taufiq, backed LEKRA and ended up putting a number of manikebu followers in jail.
Taufiq said that he and Moeljanto wrote the book out of concern with the latest political developments in Indonesia.
"Firstly, we found former LEKRA activists trying to come clean by saying that LEKRA did not support socialism. Secondly, we fear that Marxism-socialism could take root again. I often meet young people who talk about Marxism-socialism."
Taufik said there are only two books in the Indonesian language discussing communism in Indonesian literature, namely Pertumbuhan, Perkembangan, dan Kejatuhan LEKRA di Indonesia (or Rise, Development, and Fall of LEKRA in Indonesia) written by Malaysian poet Yahaya Ismail (1972) and Peristiwa "Manikebu," Kesusastraan Indonesia dan Politik di Tahun 60-an(or Manikebu Incident, Indonesian Literature and Politics in the 1960s), written by Goenawan Mohamad in 1988.
Taufiq said he hoped the 1960s cultural calamity would never occur again.