Play on Marsinah staged in Padang

PADANG, West Sumatra: A play on slain labor leader Marsinah that had been banned twice in the past two weeks, was staged without a glitch Wednesday at the closing of a national meeting of literary figures, Antara reported.

Playwright and actress Ratna Sarumpaet presented her one-hour monologue Marsinah Menggugat (Marsinah Accuses) before an audience of 1,000 people.

Police banned the play just hours before it was about to be staged on Nov. 26 in Surabaya, East Java, and Dec. 7, in Bandung, West Java, citing the lack of permits.

The play depicts Marsinah, who was killed in East Java in 1993 after leading a strike, fighting for better workers' welfare, in the face of intimidation by companies and security authorities.

Ratna expressed her satisfaction over the staging of the play. "The banning ... was an experience," she said.

Congress organizer A.A. Navis also expressed satisfaction, citing the effort on his part to lobby local authorities to grant permission for the play to go ahead.

Participants ended their parlay with a statement vowing to continue to write and work with wisdom, maturity and persistence in the face of adversity.

Poet Taufik Ismail said the statement was the result of participants' reflection.

The congress, attended by literary figures from neighboring countries such as Brunei and Malaysia, also recommended the government allocate a greater budget for education, increase teachers' wages, improve facilities, and allocate more time for lessons on literature.

The participants reminded the government that many Indonesian students are now illiterate.

The next congress will be held in 1999 in Johor, Malaysia. (swe)