Foreign authors want banning of books stopped

Foreign authors want banning of books stopped

JAKARTA (JP): A delegation of PEN, an international
association of writers concerned about literary freedom, urged
the government yesterday to stop banning books.

"Censorship is an inefficient way for fulfilling any method of
controlling," said Bharati Mukherjee, an Indian-born United
States novelist in the delegation told a press conference.

"My plea is to urge a kind of general amnesty for writers,"
she said.

The delegation, which included PEN's Freedom-to-Write
Committee Program Director Siobhan Dowd and U.S. author Clark
Blaise, ended their week-long visit here and in Yogyakarta today.

During their visit they met with Minister of Education and
Culture Wardiman Djojonegoro, the National Human Rights
Commission, local writers, journalists and publishers.

One of the purposes of the visit was to investigate violations
of the right to exercise freedom of expression here.

Among the well-known writers interviewed by the delegation
members are Arswendo Atmowiloto, Ikranegara, Eka Budianta and
Pramoedya Ananta Toer.

The delegation criticized the Indonesian government's record
of censorship in which some 2,000 books have been banned since
1965. They claimed that most of the interviewees commented on the
constraints they felt in the field of their work, suggesting that
the number of forbidden areas had continually forced them into
self-censorship.

Mukherjee said that based on the interviews with the writers,
it was found that harmony, which the Indonesian government claims
to be its goal, had sometimes become synonyms for duplicity and
silence.

"The kind of censorship that frightens me most is when
journalists said about self-censorship," said Mukherjee.

She added that the journalists said that they sometimes had
self-censorship themselves, meaning that they had to forget
thinking about controversial thoughts.

"Let us hope that the past can be forgiven and a fresh start
can be made. The time for making a fresh start is never tomorrow,
but right now today," she said.

Necessary

Dowd said that during the meeting with government officials,
the delegation was told that banning books was necessary in
Indonesia because the people were not yet educated enough to be
rational in reacting towards sensitive issues.

The delegation's goal, however, was to argue against such
point of view, she said. "It is only by allowing free debate and
open discussion on sensitive issues that people can become better
educated," she said.

The government says that it bans books which contains ideas
such as Communism and Marxism because these ideologies can spark
religious and ethnic conflicts.

The PEN delegation said that Minister Wardiman had agreed to
press the case for re-examining the banning orders on books at a
meeting with the attorney general.

Wardiman also gave his support for an active and independent
Indonesian PEN center and promised to be willing to discuss
freedom of expression issues with such a PEN center in the
future, the delegation announced.

The delegation criticized the government's decision to jail
three students in 1989 for distributing works by Pramoedya, the
recipient of the PEN American Center's Freedom-to-Write award in
1988.

The delegation has met with Pramoedya, who is one of
Indonesia's most renowned writer overseas. Many of his books have
been translated into foreign languages.

Most of his books have been barred in his native country
because the authorities believe they carry the message of
Communism and Marxism.

During the meeting with members of the National Commission for
Human Rights, the delegation was told that the commission was
willing to investigate cases of authors whose livelihood and
right to write had been withdrawn by banning orders.

Members of the commission also confirmed that restrictions
placed on the career plans of former political prisoners's
children were unjust.

"From the interviews, it was revealed that punishment is
passed on to next generations," said Mukherjee. "It seems to me
that there is no room in a society which idolizes harmony for
such prolonged vengeance, vindictiveness."

Blaise believes that it is only a matter of time before the
Indonesian government lifts the ban. He said he hoped the
government would speed up its schedule for that.

The slow path so far will hopefully be accelerated in view of
the 50th anniversary of the country and as it is close to the
30th anniversary of the New Order government, he said.

PEN members include writers, poets, playwrights, essayists and
novelists. The organization has some 116 centers in Africa, the
Americas, Asia, Australia and Europe. (par)