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)