Mochtar returns Magsaysay award

Mochtar returns Magsaysay award

MANILA (Reuter): Indonesian writer Mochtar Lubis yesterday returned his Ramon Magsaysay Award in protest against award of the prize to a fellow Indonesian novelist whom he accused of helping suppress freedom in his country.

Lubis, 73, handed back the gold medallion given him by the Philippine-based award foundation in 1958 as well $1,000 of the $5,000 cash prize he won, promising to complete the amount later.

Lubis, winner of the journalism and literature prize, was among 26 Indonesian artists and writers who slammed the foundation's decision to name compatriot Pramoedya Ananta Toer for the same award this year.

In Jakarta, meanwhile, more than 150 Indonesian writers, journalists and activists said in a statement they supported the choice of Pramoedya for the literature prize because of his "invaluable contribution" to Indonesia's cultural and intellectual life.

Pramoedya's wife, Maemunah Thamrin, was to receive the award for her husband in a ceremony in Manila today.

The award, Asia's version of the Nobel Prize and given in five categories annually to outstanding Asians and Asian-based organizations, was established in 1958 in memory of Philippine President Ramon Magsaysay, who died in an air crash in 1957.

The foundation said Pramoedya had paid for his identification with the Indonesian communist movement by being jailed for 14 years from 1965 to 1979.

Pramoedya was an official affiliated with the now banned Indonesia Communist Party that was blamed for an abortive coup attempt in Indonesia in 1965. Most of his works are barred in his home country because of what the authorities considered as their Marxism and communism teachings.

Lubis said in handing back his prize: "I protest because he had done very bad things against Indonesian writers and artists when the Communist Party was in power with the late president Sukarno.

"He always agitated against the non-communist writers and artists in Indonesia and even used very brutal words against them like 'total elimination'."

Bienvenido Tan, chairman of the foundation's board of trustees, said the foundation chose Pramoedya, 70, for the prize strictly for his literary achievements.

"The award was done with a lot of study and reflection. The foundation has to stand by its position," Tan told reporters.

"The award to Mr. Pramoedya was given for his work in literature and without any political overtones."

Tan, receiving the medal and cash from Lubis, told him: "The award remains forever yours. We shall hold it in trust for you in the hope that at some time in the future you will wish to reclaim it (in) better times."