Motinggo Busye dies at 62

Motinggo Busye dies at 62

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia has lost one of its most prolific
writers, Motinggo Busye, who died at the Cipto Mangunkusumo
Hospital here at 3 a.m on Friday.

Survived by his wife Lashmi and six children, Busye died of
liver and heart complications due to diabetes.

Born in Telukbetung, Lampung, as Boestami Bin Djalid Bawazeer,
Busye also dedicated his life to the development of the movie
industry.

He started writing at the age of 11 and wrote his first film
script at 14. Busye was famous for his pop novels which contained
sex and night life as dominant themes. His earliest novels, Cross
Mama, 1966, and Tante Maryati (Aunt Maryati), 1967, were widely
acclaimed as "hot books". Some of his works were made into films.

He shot to stardom at the age of 21, when he penned a play
Malam Jahanam (Damned Night) when he lived as a gypsy in
Yogyakarta in the 1950s. It was picked as the best script by the
Ministry of Education and Culture.

This script was compulsory reading for freshmen at Jakarta
Arts Institute's School of Theater until two years ago.

To his fellow writers he was known as the "master of style",
thanks to the originality of his writing style. (pan)