Goenawan M. alive and kicking

Goenawan M. alive and kicking

JAKARTA (JP): Imagine being thought dead!

"If this (rumor) continues, I'd start to believe I'm dead,"
former Tempo editor Goenawan Mohamad said yesterday following
widespread rumors that he had died on Tuesday.

Even movie director Eros Djarot phoned Goenawan's wife,
Widarti Gunawan -- chief editor of Femina magazine -- and
informed her that Goenawan had died of a heart attack at
Singapore's Mount Elizabeth Hospital.

Widarti said her daughter, Mita, also later called with the
news.

"She sounded so nervous when she told me. She also said her
friends at UI (the University of Indonesia), who broke the news
to her, had observed a moment of silence (to pay homage to
Goenawan)," said Widarti at a press luncheon held in conjunction
with the planned launching of the Lontar Foundation's book
Illuminations: Writing Traditions of Indonesia on June 12.

"There were so many calls, including some from newspapers and
people who had not been in touch with us for years, asking for
confirmation," Widarti said, adding that Antara news agency was
the last to call.

No representatives from the foreign press contacted her,
however.

"I told Mita that maybe I was dead and that she was looking at
my ghost," said Goenawan, an adviser of the Lontar Foundation,
when he finally reached home Tuesday night. (lem)