Intellectuals want end to Magsaysay award row

Intellectuals want end to Magsaysay award row

JAKARTA (JP): Intellectuals want research done to determine
the truth about the People's Cultural Institute (Lekra) to
end the controversy surrounding the granting of the Ramon
Magsaysay Award to writer Pramoedya Ananta Toer.

Hilmar Farid, a researcher at the Jakarta-based SPES, said
yesterday during a six-hour discussion called "Cultural
Reflection" at the Jakarta Arts Institute (IKJ) that Pramoedya's
actual role in Lekra, an organ of the now banned Indonesian
Communist Party (PKI) in the 1960s, remains unclear.

He said that when 26 Indonesian writers and literary figures
issued a joint statement last month criticizing the Manila-based
Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation for presenting the prestigious
literary award to Pramoedya, their protest was supported only by
individual memories of historical events.

"It is difficult to use memory as a strong foundation. Memory
develops in line with the development of a person; sometimes
memory is used to make peace with one's social milieu and
contemporary politics, or to justify one's action in the past,"
Farid argued.

He added that careful, scientific observation of all aspects
of the period surrounding the abortive communist coup of 1965
must be observed and emotional innuendo avoided. Discipline is
also necessary in placing all of the problems in their proper
place, he said.

Farid said a lot of messages and judgments were contained in
the memory-based history revealed in the writings of some of the
26 signatories.

The 26 signatories are Mochtar Lubis, H.B. Jassin, Ali Hasjmy,
Rosihan Anwar, Asrul Sani, Wiratmo Soekito, Rendra, Yunan Helmy
Nasution, Bokor Hutasuhut, D.S. Moeljanto, Misbach Yusa Biran,
S.M. Ardan, Lukman Ali, Taufiq Ismail, Sori Siregar, Leon Agusta,
Syu'bah Asa, Rachmat Djoko Pradopo, Danarto, Abdul Rahman Saleh,
Amak Baljun, Chairul Umam, Ikranagara, Budiman S. Hartoyo, Slamet
Sukirnanto and Mochtar Pabottingi.

Daniel Dhakidae, political observer and a researcher at Kompas
daily's research center, supported Farid's suggestion that an
investigation into the past be made. He added that what happened
during the 1960s and what Lekra actually did has never been made
clear.

"This is partly due to the burning of all documents and
materials related to Lekra in the 1960s after the government
banned the PKI," Dhakidae said.

"It has never been clear what Lekra actually did, therefore a
recheck is paramount," Dhakidae said.

He was commenting on the speeches of four speakers, including
Hilmar Farid, sociologist Ariel Heryanto, theater director Ratna
Sarumpaet and head of researchers of the Indonesian Institute of
Sciences (LIPI) Mochtar Pabottingi, in the discussion organized
jointly by IKJ, the Cultural Work Network and the literary
monthly Kalam.

According to the statement by the 26 signatories, Pramoedya
led the oppression on creativity of non-communist writers,
playwrights, movie makers, painters and musicians, turning a deaf
ear to freedom of expression, endorsing the banning of books and
music recordings and hailing the burning of books in Jakarta and
Surabaya.

"He also set in motion the systematic smear campaign and
character assassination against non-Lekra artists, mental terror
and intimidation in line with their principle 'the end justifies
the means', developing the foulest language ever in the
Indonesian press, launching the annihilation campaign against
independent publishers, who had the courage, among other things,
to keep printing the Indonesian translation of Dr. Zhivago, Boris
Pasternak's novel, the 1958 Nobel Prize winner," the statement
read.

The writers noted that "so far Pramoedya has never publicly
regretted what he previously did, has never admitted that all his
actions at that time were systematic annihilation of freedom of
creativity."

Pramoedya was arrested and interned after the abortive coup in
1965.

He was released in the late 1970s, but virtually all of the
books he has written since then have been banned in Indonesia
because of what the government sees as their tolerance of
communism and Marxism.

Quoting research carried by an Australian National University
undergraduate student, Stephen Miller, in 1993, Farid shed some
light on a possible basis for the charges being leveled at
Pramoedya. Farid said that Miller, who did research on 155
articles written by Pramoedya and published in Lentera column in
now defunct Bintang Timur daily, found that only nine articles
spoke of contemporary issues, while 12 articles could be
categorized as "attacks" on intellectuals, literary figures and
cultural institutions of that time.

The remaining 81 articles spoke of various matters, such as
history, the Indonesian language as Indonesia's revolutionary
language, Multatuli and Indonesian literature, and the origin of
the kebaya (Javanese women's garment).

"With articles like this, is it right to say that Pramoedya
spent his time chasing his political opponents?" argued Farid,
adding that more comprehensive research is required.

Mochtar Pabottingi, who is one of the 26 signatories, said
yesterday that the 26 literary figures signed the statement
because they are suspicious of Pramoedya's unwillingness to admit
the persecution of his political opponents in the 1960s.

Pabottingi also pointed out that those who refused to sign the
statement think that the signatories lacked adequate humanitarian
feelings.

There is a feeling of distrust between the two sides which
actually proves the existence of disagreement on the matter among
society, he said at the discussion attended by 100 people.

Pramoedya was not available for comment yesterday. He attended
the half of the discussion, but left after lunch. (als)