More about Pramoedya Ananta Toer

More about Pramoedya Ananta Toer

Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Pramoedya Ananta Toer had just finished tidying up his garden when he
greeted me on Thursday, April 7, 2005. As soon as I introduced
myself, he invited me to take a seat on the veranda of his three-
story house in Bojonggede, Bogor, West Java.

His white-painted house is in a kampong, rather than being in
a modern housing complex, at the end of a small lane, crossed by
a railway track.

Overlooking a valley to the east, the house has a view of the
sunrise every morning -- unless the sky is cloudy, of course.

A set of chairs are placed in the yard under some shady trees.
A couple of pictures of Pramoedya hang on the wall of the
veranda, as if to greet guests.

Pramoedya is now enjoying his freedom to the full after spells
of imprisonment under the Dutch East Indies administration, and
both the Sukarno and Soeharto regimes.

The Dutch sent him to jail from 1947-1949 for his anti-
colonial beliefs, while Sukarno put him in prison for his book
Hoakiau di Indonesia, which focuses on the persecution of the
Indonesian Chinese. Meanwhile, Soeharto sent thousands of people
he considered to have connections with the Indonesian Communist
Party (PKI) -- including Pramoedya -- to prison without trial.

He was released from jail in 1979, but Soeharto continued to
ban Pramoedya from writing. He was also deprived of his civil
rights.

Despite his precious freedom, what he is able to do these days
is constrained by the inevitable process of aging. This stands in
stark contrast to his productive years while in jail or under
house arrest.

Wearing a white T-shirt and purple sarong on the morning of
our meeting, Pramoedya looked fragile. His declining health,
however, does not prevent him from smoking. He also offered me
one.

"Do you smoke? Please, have a cigarette. Usually, I smoke two
packs of cigarettes a day," said the 80-year-old pillar of
Indonesian literature, who was born in the Central Java town of
Blora on Feb.6, 1925.

His wife, Maemunah Thamrin, showed up on the veranda with some
drinks.

Pramoedya built the house in 2000 after he returned from a
tour of the United States and Europe in 1999. The money he spent
on the house was earned during the tour, when he received between
US$2000 and $5000 for each speaking engagement.

"I returned home with dollars in my pocket. Then, I built this
house," he said chuckling.

It was during the 1999 tour that he attended the launch of his
book Nyanyi Sunyi Seorang Bisu (The Mute's Soliloquy) in the U.S.
This is a collection of his personal reflections and letters to
his children from the time he spent in jail.

One of Indonesia's greatest living authors, Pramoedya exudes
warmth and friendship. But, on issues of principle, he defends
his turf steadfastly.

During our talk that day, he often cracked jokes. However, he
also showed his resolve when it came to the imprisonment,
torture and murder of thousands of people considered to have
links with the outlawed PKI in the aftermath of the party's
alleged coup attempt.

The PKI has been blamed in Indonesia for the murder of a
number of Army generals and an abortive putsch on the night of
Sept. 30, 1965.

On a number of occasions, he stated that all organizations and
individuals involved in the mass murders that followed the events
of that night had to be held accountable before the law.

He revealed that Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid had once made
excuses for the involvement of Nahdlatul Ulama members in the
mass slaughter.

"Excuses or apologies are not enough," Pramoedya insisted.

His firm stance on 1965-related issues rekindled in my memory
the controversy over Pramoedya's role in the political aspects of
Indonesian literature in the 1960s.

As editor-in-chief of the Bintang Timur daily, Pramoedya was
instrumental in publishing articles attacking writers who failed
to tow the PKI line.

Pramoedya and his group, the Lembaga Kebudayaan Rakyat
(People's Cultural Institute/Lekra) were pro-PKI.

Lekra claimed that writers who were outside the group did not
support the Indonesian revolution, and furiously attacked such
writers through articles carried in Bintang Timur.

Provoked by these attacks, several prominent writers declared
the Manifesto Kebudayaan. They stated that culture is part of the
effort to improve the state of the nation and that politics
should not be placed on a pedestal above the aesthetic aspects of
culture.

Pramoedya is healthy today for a man of 80. Not surprisingly,
though, he is somewhat hard of hearing, and frequently had to cup
his hand to his ear.

He recalled that soldiers had beaten him around the ears while
he was in prison on Buru Island, off the coast of Maluku.

Pramoedya -- like many PKI-linked political prisoners under
the oppressive Suharto regime -- spent 14 years in prison without
trial.

The sufferings he experienced during this period inspired his
acclaimed Buru Quartet, which consists of Earth of Mankind, Child
of All Nations, Footsteps, and House of Glass.

With little energy left, Pramoedya today spends his time
pottering around the garden.

His main intellectual activity nowadays revolves around
collecting newspaper clippings. He says he is collecting these
with a view to realizing his dream: producing an encyclopedia of
Indonesian geography.

"I have been collecting the clippings for a while now. They
already reach five meters in height," he said laughing.

However, he admitted that he did not have enough money to
finance the project, which he believes would require the services
of at least five editors.

Pram, as he is familiarly known, criticized the lack of
interest on the part of the government in providing sufficient
information on the geography of the country. After more than five
decades of independence, there is still no comprehensive
information about the country's rivers.

His dream of producing the encyclopedia clearly demonstrates
his very strong sense of responsibility. He is obsessed with
enlightening the younger generation.

He often says at seminars or on other occasions that the
history of modern Indonesia should be the history of the younger
generation.

He believes that the younger generation should be wary of the
older generation, which has often plunged the country into chaos.

Pramoedya points out that since the 1910s, the younger
generation had played a very important role until its culmination
in the 1928 Youth Pledge, which led to the awakening of
nationalism in Indonesia.

"It is weird that today there is no literature on the Youth
Pledge. It is this that was the origin of this country," he said.

He added that he had repeatedly called on the younger
generation to organize a national congress from which young
leaders could emerge, but to no avail.

With regard to writing, he said that anyone can start writing
without prior study. "If you want to write, just write. All human
beings are rich in inspiration. They have inherited thousands of
experiences from their ancestors. They need only to remember.
That's all," he said.

After talking about writing, he turned to the issue of health.
He said that people should eat onions as a remedy for diabetes.

"Onions strengthen my stamina and dry up cuts," he added.

He said that he did not eat red meat, but only white meat:
chicken or fish. He also says that onions are good for getting
rid of cholesterol.

His relatively good health enables him to attend art
exhibitions, discussions and seminars now and again. Asked if any
of his eight children had inherited his writing skills, he
quickly shook his head.

"None. Don't forget that I was jailed for 14 years. I had no
interaction with my children," he said.

Once in a while, Pramoedya also welcomes former political
prisoners to his home to discuss the possible legal steps that
could be taken to secure redress.

In his position as cofounder of the Yayasan Penelitian Korban
Pembunuhan (YPKP) -- a foundation that conducts research into the
victims of the 1965 pogroms, Pramoedya is also often asked to
share his thoughts on what should be done to ensure that justice
prevails.

He has repeatedly condemned the government for lacking good
faith as regards fully investigating the bloody events of 1965.
This reluctance, he said, was a clear sign of the government's
unwillingness to uphold justice and the law.

The YPKP has 126 chapters. The foundation has been collecting
data and information on the number of people murdered during the
bloodlust that engulfed the nation in 1965.

The group is trying to get support from international agencies
to reveal the true story behind the killings.

Pramoedya is also concerned about the future of the nation,
citing poor law enforcement, rampant corruption and the lack of
national leaders.

Regarding corruption, Pramoedya says that it is caused by
consumerism. Indonesians habitually consume more than they earn.

"As long as the expenditure is bigger than the income, there
will be corruption," he said.

Despite all his traumatic experiences and the failure to
reveal the truth behind the events of 1965, Pramoedya has strong
reasons to feel content.

"I have written what I wanted to write, I have possessed what I
wanted to possess. My works have been translated into 40 different
languages. What else? That is all the work of one person," he
said.

Of course, this is not the end of Pramoedya, not by a long
chalk. His dream of producing an encyclopedia of Indonesian
geography is something that gives him a new source of energy.

His apparently inexhaustable energy was also apparent that
evening when he opened an exhibition of paintings at the Lontar
Gallery in Utan Kayu, East Jakarta.

The exhibition features 20 paintings representing a visual
interpretation of Pramoedya's historic novel, Arok Dedes.

Pramoedya's appearance that evening was in marked contrast to
how he looked in the morning. Wearing a beige hat, black gloves,
and carrying a walking stick, he made a short speech before the
exhibition was opened by art observer, Muhammad Yusuf.

His dramatic change of style from morning to evening clearly
show that Pramoedya is a man still determined to do what he can
in life.

He says this is because of his principle of never asking for
God's help. In his view, praying to God only displays our frailty
as human beings.

"I have been oppressed and tortured my entire life. It is this
that makes me strong," he said.