Old polemics die hard in Indonesian literary circles

Polemik Hadiah Magsaysay (Polemics on the Magsaysay Award)

Editor: A.S. Laksana

Foreword: Nirwan Dewanto

Institute of the Study on Information Flow (ISAI) and the Cultural Work Network (JKB), Jakarta, May 1997

xiv and 241 pages

Rp 17,500.

JAKARTA (JP): The selection of Pramoedya Ananta Toer for the 1995 Ramon Magsaysay Award in journalism, literature and creative communications arts opened up old wounds. Intense debate raged over whether Toer was an appropriate choice as some believed he had, in the words of former Magsaysay winner Mochtar Lubis, been involved in "(suppression of) freedom of expression" prior to the abortive Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) coup in 1965. An irate Lubis subsequently returned his award.

This collection of news reports, opinions, interviews and statements on the controversy is interesting as it reveals tendencies still extant in Indonesian literary circles. Authors continue to be lumped into two differing camps which are throwbacks to the 1960s: those branded followers of the now outlawed Lekra, the literary group of the PKI, who leaned towards the principle of "politics as commander", and those defending the Manikebu (cultural manifesto) and opposing the dominant role of politics in literature.

The foreword is written by Nirwan Dewanto, who is now gaining prominence as a cultural thinker. Sources are domestic and foreign mass media, which explains why some pieces are in English. The interviews and statements include those made by Toer himself and by the Ramon Magsaysay Foundation.

Dewanto makes an interesting point when he states the Magsaysay Award controversy assumed a bigger dimension because of political, and not literary arguments. This shows also the great role played by nonliterary arguments in confronting literary problems, and at the same time makes us realize that it is time that literature was assessed as literature.

The works also point out that some of us, writers or otherwise, are still fond of stigmatizing people because of their past deeds. Rejection of Toer's honor mostly stemmed from individuals' traumatic experiences suffered during the heyday of Lekra, and were not based on the literary merit of the author's work. These people felt justified in disputing the conferral of the award because of their lingering pain; Toer is supposed to carry the stigma as a badge of dishonor for the rest of his life.

It is heartening, however, to read that several young Indonesian intellectuals and writers, such as poets Acep Zamzam Noor and Sitok Srengenge, social anthropologist Ariel Haryanto and cultural observer Tommy F. Awuy, stress the need to "liberate cultural life from political prejudices" and demand that "the spirit of reconciliation must have in it more of the substance of dialog in an awareness of pluralism". It seems that to the younger generation, the Magsaysay controversy is an unhealthy development in social and literary discourses in Indonesia.

Polemics, by their very nature of hostility, have no resolution. Probably to the dismay of his detractors, the brouhaha over the Magsaysay merely cemented the international reputation of Toer, nominated many times for the Nobel Prize in Literature and recognized at home and abroad as one of the world's master storytellers.

-- Lie Hua

The reviewer is a lecturer at School of Letters, Universitas Nasional, Jakarta.