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)