Old polemics die hard in Indonesian literary circles

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.