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."