Guess What? Asrul Sani

Guess What? Asrul Sani

Prominent scholar and film director Asrul Sani, who was invited to talk at the launching of Prahara Budaya (Cultural Calamity) in Jakarta last week, objected to the term "lecture" used by the organizing committee.

"I won't lecture. I will just ngobrol (talk casually)," he said.

Asrul was supposed to deliver a speech on the Conference of All-Indonesian Writers (KKPI), which took place in Jakarta between March 1 and 7, 1964. The conference was attended by 356 nationalist writers from throughout the country who objected to the use of arts and literature as political tool, as suggested by the left-wing People's Cultural Institution (Lekra).

Asrul said that in the early 1960s, nationalists writers lived under heavy pressure as they were terrorized mentally by the communists.

"Cultural debates among writers and painters were not unusual. But what happened early in 1960s was a mental terror," Asrul said.

Prahara Budaya is a collection of documents, articles and some literature depicting the ideology war between nationalists and pro-communist writers between 1959 and 1965.

Edited by Taufiq Ismail and D.S. Moeljanto, the book was published by Mizan publishing house and Republika daily. (sim)