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)