Must they take revenge on Pramoedya?

The choice of Pramoedya Ananta Toer, the celebrated and controversial Indonesian writer who spent fifteen years in prison on Buru island, for the Magsaysay Award has been protested by some prominent Indonesian intellectuals. Noted sociologist Arief Budiman, himself a victim of the writer's anti-creativity campaign in the past, thinks the protest does not augur well with efforts to nurture a more democratic climate in Indonesia.

SALATIGA, Central Java (JP): Some prominent Indonesian writers are contesting the Magsaysay Award Foundation's decision to bestow its award on Pramoedya Ananta Toer.

Spearheaded by poet Taufiq Ismail, the statement was signed also by Mochtar Lubis, Asrul Sani, H.B Jassin, W.S. Rendra and others. This protest was so serious that Mochtar Lubis, another Magsaysay recipient, has threatened to return his award if the Foundation does not reverse its decision.

In a statement released recently, the protesters claim that Pramoedya led the campaign to oppress the creativity of non- communist writers in the early 1960s. "Extending the prize to him implies that the Magsaysay Award Foundation is paying him also for assaulting and suppressing freedom of creativity from the late 50s up to mid-60s in Indonesia."

Not all Indonesian writers and intellectuals, however, endorse Ismail and his friends' point of view. Other writers, including myself, are quite happy and proud of the award.

Although the two camps differ in perception, it is interesting to see that both camps do agree that Pramoedya's literary works are very high quality. They also agree that Pramoedya did lead the campaign against freedom of creativity in the late 1960s. So why have the two camps reached conflicting conclusions?

I am at a loss to explain my friends' reasons. As for myself, I don't think the protest will be constructive to creating a new democratic culture in Indonesia.

I did suffer in the mid-1960s, when my friends and I co-signed the Cultural Manifesto that was later banned by President Sukarno. The Manifesto basically declared that we had to defend freedom of creativity if we wanted to see good artistic works originate from the hands of Indonesian artists.

We opposed the campaign led by Pramoedya and his friends that artistic creations had to bow to political interests. The Manifesto caused us to be branded anti-Manipol-Usdek, the then widely parroted state ideology. We were called "anti-revolution" and "tools of U.S. imperialism". We were banned from publishing our works in the media and some of us in public office were sacked.

I was of course saddened by all these things. Power was misused, democracy was assassinated and I could not do anything. I was powerless and I became one of the victims. I was very angry, but at the same time I realized that anger would not solve the problem.

So, rather than keeping the fire of anger inside of me, I silently promised that in the future, when I had power, I would not do the very things that had been done to me. I would use my power for democratic purposes. I would not take revenge on my opponents who had done destructive things to me in the past. I would create a new culture based on democratic values.

I always remember the words of my colleague, Wiratmo Sukito, who once told me that "an intellectual is a person who does not think about revenge when he is oppressed, and who will not oppress when he is in power." (Unfortunately and inexplicably, Sukito is one of the signatories to Ismail's protest statement.)

I believe that by not taking revenge, I have made an effort to create a new culture -- the culture of democracy. By refusing to join Ismail's protest, I feel I have made a cultural innovation. Otherwise, if I sign it, I revive the old culture of oppression, I strengthen the very culture that I once fought against.

Based on the above arguments, I strongly feel that it is a mistake to support Ismail's protest. I prefer to welcome the Magsaysay Award to Pramoedya as one of our country's achievements, and I welcome it with pride. With this attitude, I feel that I have made an effort to destroy the culture of oppression that existed in the beginning of the 1960s and to stop this culture from reappearing in the future.

The writer holds a doctoral degree from Harvard University.