Goenawan, always a free thinker

A'an Suryana, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

With a gloomy rage in his face, Goenawan Mohammad shared his grievances with the students of Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta in 1994 shortly after he had lost his beloved Tempo magazine.

His anger was evident in his voice and choice of words. With a scrambling tone, he explained what was happening with Tempo and how press freedoms were being suppressed by the government.

It was part of a series of talks in his campaign to oppose the government's repressive measures against the media.

That was not the only time that Goenawan, then the chief editor of Tempo, experienced tough times with the repressive, governmental regulations.

His first nightmare happened in 1971 when he was forced to quit Express Magazine.

He and some of his colleagues were dismissed by the publisher for being critical of the government.

This dismissal, however, was a blessing in disguise for Goenawan.

Together with his friend Fikri Jufri, Goenawan established Tempo magazine.

Goenawan, a prolific writer, then assumed the post of chief editor of the magazine, which soon became prominent in the country and was widely read.

In its development, Tempo met continued opposition from the government. It was punished twice in the 1980s by the government.

The most devastating punishment occurred in 1994, however, when the magazine was totally banned from publishing after it ran a very critical story about the government's purchase of warships from Germany.

This time Goenawan was really shocked, and he solicited support from all walks of life including the universities, the House of Representatives (DPR) and artists.

He also filed a law suit at the State Administrative Court, challenging the government's decision. However, the regime stood firm, and all his effort to bring his publication back ended in failure.

The magazine finally hit the newsstands again after Soeharto relinquished his iron grip in 1998. The downfall of Soeharto led to a reform era, which allowed Goenawan and all other journalists to finally enjoy some freedom of expression, which they had been dreaming about for many decades.

Goenawan conceded that the bad experiences with the regime might have brought an awareness to him that politics were a great device to produce change.

"People are always involved with politics. Don't be afraid of politics, since only with politics, could we create a better situation for our people," he said in an interview on Thursday.

His passion for politics led him to the People's Mandate Assembly (MARA), which later became the National Mandate Party (PAN), led by Amien Rais, now speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly.

Despite his continued support for PAN and its pluralist platform, Goenawan stayed away from formal politics until today, arguing that he was incapable of being a politician.

Goenawan would rather be a free thinker, with no ideological attachments.

"Ideology could trap someone into narrow-mindedness. By sticking to one ideology, we could not easily accept other stronger arguments, and this is not enlightening," he said.

Born in Batang, Central Java, on July 29, 1941, Goenawan moved to Jakarta when he was eighteen to study psychology and philosophy at the University of Indonesia and begin writing for Sastra literary magazine.

Since then, he has been deeply involved in writing activities. He writes mostly essays and poems.

His passion for books has helped him become a prolific writer. This passion did not just happen, it goes back to his childhood in Batang, when his father often gave him foreign books.

This well-rounded education early in life has been maintained up to the present. Books fill his shelves at his office on Jl. Utan Kayu in East Jakarta.

His readings are wide ranging, from philosophy to politics. His rich array of reading material is evident when one reads his regular columns at Tempo, which show a diverse knowledge of subjects.

His involvement both in literary and press activities has earned him many awards, including the Professor A. Teeuw Award, the most distinguished literary award in the Netherlands, as well as the Nieman Fellowship for journalists from Harvard University in 1993.

Goenawan, whose wife Widarti Goenawan is an executive at Femina magazine, still writes for his famous Catatan Pinggir (Sidelines) column at Tempo.

After retiring as chief editor of Tempo, he now dedicates his energy more to artistic endeavors, as well as his regular columns.

He plans to rewrite his poem Liberato, which is set to be presented as an opera in Berlin in 2004.

The New Order bad dreams have long since faded, but his poems and columns remain, which keeps him too busy to for real "freedom of thought".

"My dream is simple. I want to be out of this business and focus on writing a book," he said.