Joesoef, political educator

T. Sima Gunawan, Contributor/Jakarta

Joesoef Isak spent 24 years fighting for freedom of expression, which artists and writers had been advised against, and even persecuted for, during the Soeharto regime.

Though the ex-Army general's administration has come to an end, Joesoef refuses to retire and is determined to continue providing political education for Indonesian youngsters through books.

"The duty to challenge a repressive government is over, but we should keep on with political education, to enlighten (the people)," he said.

He added that Indonesians had opted for freedom of expression because of their own understanding of its benefits and not because Soeharto's successors had encouraged them.

Joesoef, 76, founded the Hasta Mitra (Hands of Friends) publishing company in 1980, along with great writer Pramoedya Ananta Toer and the late Hasyim Rachman. He was also an editor at the company, which published the works of former political prisoners, including Pramoedya's.

The company stated early on that it would publish literary works that were rejected by other companies for fear of the repercussions. Its office was originally located at the back of Joesoef's residence in what had been a bathroom.

Hasta Mitra was the first publisher to print Pramoedya's famous Buru Quartet -- Bumi Manusia (This Earth of Mankind), Anak Segala Bangsa (Child of All Nations), Jejak Langkah (Footsteps) and Rumah Kaca (House of Glass) -- which were banned by the Soeharto government as they were deemed subversive. In fact, the quartet is internationally acclaimed.

Joesoef was imprisoned without trial in 1968, following allegations that he was involved in the abortive coup of 1965, which was blamed on the Communist Party.

The allegation was groundless, yet Joesoef spent the next 10 years in Salemba Penitentiary in Central Jakarta.

"Actually, I already had a deep fear of confined spaces. But, I could control the feeling and did not let it show," said Joesoef, who was recently honored with the 2004 Jeri Laber Freedom to Publish Award from the American PEN Center in New York.

The award was given in recognition of his contribution to literature, through continuing to publish blacklisted writers' work during the Soeharto regime.

Soeharto has been widely blamed for allowing corruption, collusion and nepotism to flourish here, which in turn caused the prolonged economic crisis. Joesoef, however, is of the opinion that a bigger problem faces the nation.

"An end to the monetary crisis is just a matter of time. The money will be back on the table. But then, other problems will certainly surface, as we are also suffering a 'crisis of the intellect'," he said.

According to Joesoef, the crisis was the consequence of three decades of the "stupefaction of the nation".

"During that time, the authorities only tolerated uniform thought. If you thought differently, you would face oppression," said Joesoef.

He added that treatment such as that had misled people, who could no longer perceive what was real and what was not. Manipulation was the only absolute, he said.

The English translation of This Earth of Mankind is now in its 13th edition, and it has been translated into 20 other languages. Hasta Mitra is still committed to publishing books, albeit not many.

It is now preparing the Indonesian translation of Karl Marx's Das Kapital.

Last year, Hasta Mitra published a document on the 1965 coup, which had formerly been classified but was released by the U.S. State Department. The document is called CIA Documents: The Efforts to Overthrow Sukarno.

"We have the right to know (about what really happened) and to tell the people," he said.

Born in Jakarta in 1928, Joesoef is married and has three children -- one of whom was expelled from the University of Indonesia because he invited Pramoedya to speak on campus.

During the Japanese occupation from 1942 to 1945, he spent time reading foreign books and listened to records of classical music that had been seized from the Dutch. The records were courtesy of his cousin, who worked at the office for the management of confiscated assets.

"I read the works of Shakespeare, Tolstoy, Stendhal and many other classics, even Freud -- and Marx, though as an adolescent I understood less than 50 percent of that," said Joesoef, who can speak Dutch well as he went to a Dutch elementary school.

In 1945, when he was just 17, Joesoef started his career at Berita Indonesia newspaper as a translator and later worked with the nationalist daily Merdeka.

One night, when he was 21, he attended a classical music concert. So moved was he by the music that he could not resist writing down his thoughts. The article that resulted was well- received by Merdeka's readers, as well as the editor.

Joesoef became chief editor in 1959.

Four years later he resigned after political differences with Merdeka's founder BM Diah, and in 1963 became secretary-general of the Asia African Journalists Association, a position he maintained until his arrest in 1968.

He was released, but faced other arrests that culminated in his imprisonment at Salemba.

"It was the cruelest prison in the world. In the first few years, we were only permitted family visits once a year for 10 minutes," he said. Later, visits were extended to half-an-hour, once a month.

A meal was provided twice a day, at 11 a.m. and 5 p.m.

"It was rotten rice with rotten spinach. In order not to throw up, I smoked, even though I had not smoked before," said Joesoef, who now smokes two packs a day.

While he knows that smoking is bad for his health, especially as he suffers from heart disease and has a sedentary lifestyle, Joesoef believes that longevity is a battle of the will.

Live with optimism, he says, unfair situations may seem unbearable but they do not last forever. Indeed, it was optimism that got him through prison.